Over 1,100 union coal miners in Brookwood, Alabama, have been on an unfair labor practices strike against Warrior Met Coal for over five months. And for five months, the mainstream media has barely made a peep about the strike. Instead, a small collection of independent journalists and local and progressive media outlets have been working overtime to cover this important story, including Jacob Morrison, David Story, and Adam Keller at The Valley Labor Report (Alabama’s only weekly labor radio talk show). There is one person, however, who has done more than anyone to lift the strike at Warrior Met into public consciousness for over five months straight, and that is independent journalist Kim Kelly. In Part II of our special Working People update on the miners’ strike at Warrior Met, Jacob Morrison from The Valley Labor Report guest hosts a wide-ranging conversation with Kelly about her labor and writing background, her experience covering the Amazon union drive and the Warrior Met strike in Alabama, and what it means to truly be invested in the people and struggles we cover in labor media.
Additional links/info below…
- Working People, “Five months into strike, Alabama coal miners aren’t backing down (w/ Jacob Morrison & Adam Keller)”
- UMWA 2021 Strike Fund
- UMWA Auxiliary Strike Pantry
- United Mine Workers of America website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
- Jacob’s Twitter page
- The Valley Labor Report YouTube channel, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Patreon
- Working People, “On Strike at Warrior Met Coal (w/ Jacob Morrison & Lee Bains III)“
- The Valley Labor Report, “Bad News and Good News for Striking Miners & HOW YOU CAN HELP“
- The Valley Labor Report, “Violence from Bosses and Scabs at the UMWA Picket Line in Alabama“
- The Valley Labor Report, “Breaking Down the Alabama Coal Miner Strike“
- Luis Feliz Leon, LaborNotes, “Striking Alabama Coal Miners Want Their $1.1 Billion Back“
- Kim Kelly’s Twitter page and Patreon
- Kim Kelly, The Real News Network, “The True Price of Coal“
- Kim Kelly, The Real News Network, “Don’t Mess with a Coal Miner’s Wife“
- Kim Kelly, The Nation, “Alabama’s Coal Miners Are Striking for Their Lives“
- Pre-order Kim’s book: Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor
- Democracy Now!, “From Black Lung to BlackRock: Striking Alabama Coal Miners Protest Wall St. Financiers of Warrior Met“
- Elwyn Lopez, Ashley Schwartz-Lavares, & Lulit Tadesse, ABC News, “Alabama Coal Miners on Strike Since April Say They’re Fighting for Working Americans Everywhere“
- Jaisal Noor, The Real News Network, “Striking Alabama Coal Miners Hit Streets of NYC to Protest Corporate Greed“
- Hamilton Nolan, In These Times, “At a Massive Union Rally, the Promise of a Better South“
- Your Call Radio, “Worker Uprisings Continue Making Waves Across The Country“
Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)
- Jules Taylor, “Working People Theme Song”