Joe Manchin-- Best Friend Of King Coal

Conservative Democrat Joe Manchin is very popular in West Virginia and he is widely associated with the state's coal mining industry, not necessarily with the coal miners and their families, but with the coal mine owners and managers. When Cecil Roberts, United Mine Workers president, in the video above, yells, "They tried to bamboozle us, they tried to rob us, they tried to steal from us.," no one could have mistaken him for the state's junior senator. "Peabody's got thousand dollar an hour attorneys; and they got a dollar an hour morals." Last year alone Peabody ponied up $34,100 for Manchin's reelection campaign. The crooked parent company, Patriot Coal, kicked down another $48,400. During the 2012 cycle the mining industry greased Manchin's procession into the Senate with $641,548 in legalistic bribes. Their second favorite Member of Congress was John Boehner and they gave him $379,917. Among their top 15 most bribed Members of Congress, Manchin was the only Democrat.

So it was pretty extraordinary to see Manchin-- and Manchin looking pretty chastened-- on MSNBC with Chris Hayes Thursday evening. Not on Fox News-- on MSNBC. He seemed in shock that King Coal could be so ruthless in its unending war against West Virginia's working families. Where has he been? Oh, yeah... cashing all the checks the industry bankrolled his campaign with. Meanwhile, Patriot Coal thinks they can just steal a BILLION dollars from workers' pensions without any consequences or accountability. The Charleston Gazette called it "a travesty" in an editorial... and that was a quote from King Coal's best friend, Joe Manchin!

Here's a sobering question: If huge coal corporations like Peabody and Arch can elude pension and medical liabilities by transferring them to a spinoff firm that declares bankruptcy, why can't many U.S. companies escape their union contracts in the same manner?

This possibility is raised by Wednesday's bankruptcy court decision letting Patriot Coal shed $150 million yearly obligations owed to retired miners. U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., exploded:

"This ruling is a travesty. It is wrong that Peabody can set up a company such as Patriot, fill that company with its liabilities and then spin that company off for the sole purpose of avoiding its contractual and moral obligations to its workers. I don't think bankruptcy laws were ever designed to shield corporations from their promises and responsibilities."

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., added:

"Once again, we are seeing how the bankruptcy system is stacked against the American worker. I will continue fighting to put workers and employers on a level playing field by closing the legal loopholes that allow companies to pad their profits while abusing the legal system to escape from the promises they made. It's tragic to watch how some industries treat their workers after they've given much of their lives to these companies."

In 2007, Peabody Energy-- the world's largest coal firm-- created Patriot and put its unionized mines into it. The following year, Arch Coal did likewise, putting union mines into a spinoff that merged into Patriot. Then Patriot declared bankruptcy, saying it can't afford $1.6 billion worker and retiree commitments it made.

Wiping out Patriot's pension and health benefits would halt life support for about 10,000 retired West Virginia and Kentucky miners, plus 13,000 dependents. In the bankruptcy plan approved Wednesday, Patriot will cease pension contributions and put medical insurance into a voluntary system funded by $15 million up-front cash and a $300 million profit-sharing pledge. The United Mine Workers would be given 35 percent ownership of Patriot.

More complications: If Patriot leaves an industry-wide miner pension system, it may be forced to pay a $959 million "withdrawal liability," say other coal corporations who would have to make up the lost pension funds.

Further, Patriot says it may sue Peabody on grounds that the coal giant committed a "fraudulent transfer" by giving Patriot its union obligations in 2007. What a mess.

Labor professor Bob Bruno of the University of Illinois summed up:

"If you can in fact spin off ... your legacy obligations ... and then walk away ... it's going to completely undermine what it means to get into contractual obligations in the workplace."

Stacked deck anyone? Inspiration:

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You Might Be A Republican If... You Think First Graders Should Scrub Toilets If They Wants To Eat Lunch

My friend-- and favorite chef-- Michael Voltaggio, got his start cooking at the elegant, world-famous Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Though both Huntington, which sits in the middle of Appalachia, where Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia meet on the other side of the state, and White Sulphur Springs in Greenbrier County are in Nick Rahall's 3rd congressional district, the area is by no means progressive or Democratic, although it certainly used to be. Greenbrier County is now represented in the West Virginia House of Delegates by a reactionary Republican, Ray Canterbury, who astounded even other Republicans this week. And all he did was make a speech completely consistent with the most basic and fundamental Republican/conservative philosophy, namely that the rich earned their money and they shouldn't have to pay for the well-being of poor people and their children.

Like the U.S., India has passed laws to prevent children working in coal mines. But in India tens of thousands of children, in the 12-15 age group, still do, often in atrociously unsafe conditions. Delegate Canterbury wasn't advocating-- at least not in that speech-- to repeal child labor laws... but then again, he was advocating making first graders clean toilets if they don't want to starve. It all started with a bill to combat childhood hunger in West Virginia.

Some Republican lawmakers said the free-meals-in-schools program would send a bad message to kids about personal responsibility, while Democrats argued there's a moral imperative to feed hungry students.

Delegate Canterbury hasn't missed many meals

Delegate Ray Canterbury, R-Greenbrier, predicted the program could set up children for failure, "destroying their work ethic" and "showing them there's an easy way." Canterbury suggested that students "work for their lunches" by mowing lawns and taking out trash at schools.

Delegate Meshea Poore, D-Kanawha, said Republicans were trying to mislead people about the bill.

"I'm offended anybody in this body would dare say a child has to work for their meals," Poore said. "I can't believe someone would say a first-grader, a second-grader... a fifth-grader has to labor before they eat. This isn't an entitlement bill."

...The bill would make free breakfasts and lunches available to every student in public schools, pre-kindergarten through the 12th-grade. West Virginia would become the first state in the nation to enact such a program... The bill would establish nonprofit foundations that would raise money to help pay for the free meals. Now, only low-income children get free and discounted lunches and breakfasts at school.

"Kids can't learn if they're hungry," said House Majority Leader Brent Boggs, D-Braxton.

...Delegate Michael Folk, R-Berkeley, said churches and food pantries already have programs that feed poor people, and schools already provide free meals to students.

"There's already a safety net on the government level: It's called free and reduced lunch," Folk said. "It's not whether we think we should feed children; it's about whether we think the government should be the sole provider of food."

The bill passed 89-9. So only 9 Republicans had the courage of their reactionary, Darwinish/Dickensian convictions. I wonder why Republicans didn't ask that the first graders from poor families work for their textbooks too. Canterbury: "I think it would be a good idea if perhaps we had the kids work for their lunches: trash to be taken out, hallways to be swept, lawns to be mowed, make them earn it. If they miss a lunch or they miss a meal they might not, in that class that afternoon, learn to add, they may not learn to diagram a sentence, but they'll learn a more important lesson." I guess he had been inspired by Newt Gingrich's remarks about how poor children should clean school toilets and work as janitors if they want to be educated. I wonder how all this fits in with that Republican rebranding thing RNC Chairman Reince Priebus is supposed to be working on.

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