Coal Miner Layoffs Possible, Company Owner Blames Obama
Coal miner layoffs are possibly coming soon from Murray Energy, which operates their coal operations in six states. The coal miner layoffs come at a time when politics have been polarized for a push toward clean energy and the main issue that has split the conservative and liberal bases are clean energy versus coal miner jobs.
That political issue also seems to have made it into the core values of Murray Energy, a company that makes its fortune off of the coal energy market and is also owned by Bob Murray, an outspoken Donald Trump supporter and a fierce critic of current President Barack Obama, according to the Hill.
“These workforce reductions are due to the ongoing destruction of the United States coal industry by President Barack Obama, and his supporters, and the increased utilization of natural gas to generate electricity,” Murray Energy said in a statement they released last Friday.
At 9: A 4th generation coal miner pays tribute to all the miners who continue to see layoffs in their communities pic.twitter.com/ATrojnwc2p
— Josh Gauntt (@joshg_TV) January 2, 2016
Although the news of the layoffs is not official, given the company is only warning of this possible measure that it could be laying off 82 percent of its workforce in September, it still seems to be coming at quite a convenient time for Bob Murray, who advocates for Donald Trump as President in the November 2016 election against presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Hillary is officially backed and endorsed by President Obama, and she also seems to have the same progressive policies that he has in regards to domestic policy and the push for clean energy over the burning of fossil fuels such as coal.
The coal mining industry has indeed seen some decline over the past eight years, which has resulted in the layoffs of coal miners across the country. The coal mining industry used to employ 80,000 people back in 2008, but it now employs around 60,000 people today. This might be due in part to Barack Obama’s domestic policies in regards to clean air and clean energy, but there are two sides to every story. There is also the dissolution of union rights to consider in areas that have coal mines, which eroded the coal miner’s ability to take part in collective bargaining, thus potentially forcing a few jobs out the door.
Something that has been apparent in the past few years is that coal miners have jobs that do not produce clean energy, but rather quite the opposite. That is where the struggle for the fight against global warming comes into play, with the burning of coal releasing so much carbon monoxide in the air every day that it is a heavy contributor to climate change.
But what most people in the conservative movement, or the Republicans, will claim is that global warming is a hoax and that humans are not responsible for the change in climate. Thus, if the world is fighting to combat the climate change crisis, then coal miner layoffs would naturally be a result of such a change. But for a company like Murray Energy to come out and say that they are going to layoff 82 percent of its workforce due to domestic policies by President Obama, that just seems to be a bit of a stretch.
Largest privately held #coal #miner in U.S., warned that it may undertake one of biggest #layoffs #jobs Fox News | https://t.co/Oc5dJRGH5b
— Sharon Martin Andre (@Sharonema) July 2, 2016
The first thing that people need to look at are the politics that are involved with these coal miner layoffs and how it might sway the 2016 general election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. One thing that is already known for sure is that Murray Energy owner Bob Murray is a vocal supporter of Donald Trump. If you are to take that into consideration, then this announcement by Murray and his company could have a far-reaching political strategy at play.
[Photo by Sascha Schuermann/Getty Images]
