Wages, safety, and working conditions are considerably worse in nonunion mines in Alabama than when they were under UMWA contract. Some nonunion mines offer health benefits, but the premiums are usually sky-high. Others offer no medical coverage at all. In this context, coal mines that traditionally have been nonunion are also slashing wages and benefits. The Taft Coal Company, for example, closed two surface mines south of Jasper about two years ago, and soon after opened a third in the vicinity.
Layoffs are widespread through the coalfields as the price of coal has plummeted in recent months.
Coal production in 1999 fell to 21 million tons from 24 million in 1998. Many Alabama mines, including the struck Shoal Creek mine, provide much of their coal under contract to Alabama Power. But in recent years the power company has begun purchasing a substantial amount of coal from the western states at much reduced prices. Drummond Company is also supplying Alabama Power with 3.5 million tons of coal a year from one of its mines in Columbia, South America. In late January, the United Mine Workers sued Drummond Co. in federal court here for failing to give required notices before a large layoff in November.