Striking Coal Miners Take Their Cause to Wall Street

Steve Zimmerman, stepped off a chartered bus full of West Virginia coal miners in front of the 5th Avenue and 59th Street entrance to Central Park in New York City at about 10 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 4. He wasn’t happy.

“I’m a coal miner—so Democrats aren’t supportive of us,” he said. “I’m a union coal miner—so Republicans aren’t supportive of us either. We’re stuck in a very rough spot here.”

The 36-year-old United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) vice president of Local 1501 took a drag off his cigarette and looked out wordlessly across the growing assemblage of coal miners. Many of them are retired men well into their 70s. They were preparing to march on the offices of BlackRock Inc. in support of roughly 1,100 union members striking since April 1 against Warrior Met Coal in Alabama.

BlackRock is supposedly the largest asset manager in the world with some $9.46 trillion under its managerial control. It’s also the largest shareholder in Warrior Met Coal. Warrior Met Coal just made more money during the last fiscal quarter than it has since the Covid pandemic began — approaching $40 million.

https://www.dcreport.org/2021/11/12/striking-coal-miners-take-their-cause-to-manhattan/