Political Quotes

“I thank Senator Casey for his work on behalf of workers during his whole 13 years in the Senate and his work especially for mine workers and teamsters with the Butch Lewis Act and with pension and healthcare. That is so important. Senator Kaine has been stalwart for these retirees and particularly in southwest Virginia, where he has worked as Governor, and also Senator Manchin who was speaking earlier. We need to remind this body that 86,000 miners are facing a looming threat of massive cuts to the pension they have earned. What people in this body don't often understand is these miners and their widows aren't getting rich from these pensions. These pensions are $500 or $600 a month. Also 1,200 miners and their families can lose their healthcare by the end of the year because of the Westmoreland and Mission Coal bankruptcies. The bankruptcy court can allow these corporations to shed their liabilities. That sounds familiar. So often big companies go to court, and these lawyers and judges don't really understand what collective bargaining is and don't understand the sacrifices these workers made to earn these pensions. Shedding their liabilities is a fancy way of saying walk away from paying miners the healthcare benefits they earned. Two years ago, we worked to save the miners' healthcare. We have to do it again. We can't leave these workers behind just because of the date their company filed for bankruptcy.…”