6/18/20

Hello brothers and sisters,

​I start this update with a somber heart.  If you are not aware, Brother Jim Eardley passed away last Thursday and was laid to rest yesterday.  If any of you had the opportunity to work around Jim, I’m sure you have a story to tell about the experience.  He was a life long member of the union, an amazing friend, co-worker and more importantly Husband, Father, and Grandfather.  He will be greatly missed by us all.  

​The Company has made the decision to extend the furlough until the 20th of July for surface and the 26th of July for the underground employees.  That being said the company will begin contacting the current volunteers tomorrow, to see if they would like to extend in to July.  If you are on furlough please answer your phone in the coming days.  We are also taking names for any new volunteers that would be interested in taking the furlough in July.  I need names of any new volunteers by Tuesday the 23rd by 9:00 A.M.  After that we will meet to see how many volunteers we have and how that will affect the mandated list of employees for the month of July.  The target number and areas are the same as last month.  

We are projected to go back up to 180k tons for the month of August and then fluctuate between 180-190k tons a month for the rest of the year.  We remain hopeful that this scenario plays out and every one is back to work by July 26th. The contractor was able to fix the steam drum on E boiler so that will not be an issue.  For any Underground employees that have not had MSHA refresher training there will be two classes offered as of now on June 30 and July 14.  If you need to get into one of these classes please contact the safety department and they will get you scheduled.

In Solidarity

Mike Hernandez