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What kind of wages and benefits have you ever personally negotiated for yourself? If your answer is something other than "never," then I doubt that you have done anything but cast an up or down vote for a contract that somebody else negotiated on your behalf. I believe that you have claimed to be a former UMWA miner, so putting all your eggs in a union basket seems to have failed in your case. Mining companies that employ union labor in eastern Kentucky cannot compete. The profit margins and most of the coal seams are simply too thin.

work for island creek and wolf creek both union but when they are all gone it's going to be tough