[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 33 (Thursday, March 17, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2967-S2968]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             HORIZON MINERS

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, Smithers, WV, is a town of 904 residents on 
the banks of the Kanawha River, just outside of the state capitol of 
Charleston. Last October some 1,500 active coal miners and retirees, 
along with their wives, their children, their families, sat inside a 
hot and crowded gymnasium trying to cope with how, in a few short 
weeks, their lives had been turned upside down.
  Two months earlier, a bankruptcy judge whom they had never met, and 
who resides in another state, vitiated their collective bargaining 
agreement. In West Virginia, this judge cost 270 active miners their 
jobs, and, along with 1,270 retirees and their dependents, rescinded 
their health benefits. These folks gathered in that gymnasium trying to 
understand what had happened and what could be done.
  They are the Horizon miners. They are good, strong people. They 
devote themselves to their labors, and take pride in their work. They 
are committed, hardworking individuals who contribute much and ask for 
nothing more than simple fairness. And so imagine how they are made to 
feel, the anguish, frustration, and betrayal they are made to feel, 
when they learn the health benefits they labored for, the job security 
they I toiled for, has been taken away.
  One can hardly blame these workers for feeling as though the world 
has ganged up on them. Their former employer, Horizon Natural 
Resources, for which they loyally worked for many years, had lobbied 
intensely in bankruptcy court to eliminate the health benefits of its 
own employees. In a U.S. court, where every honest man should expect a 
fair shake from an impartial judge, these workers were betrayed by the 
judicial system.
  The judge, with the rap of a gavel, vitiated the 1992 Coal Industry 
Retiree Health Benefit Act, legislation passed by the Congress and 
signed by the President, to provide qualified coal miners with 
guaranteed health benefits, a promise dating back to President Harry S. 
Truman's pledge to John L. Lewis in 1946. One judge overturned a 60-
year-old promise that had been codified by the Congress and endorsed by 
three Presidents. It was a disgraceful, shameful act.
  These Horizon coal miners, betrayed by their employer, beguiled by 
the courts, now turn to their elected representatives in the Congress 
for help. And, thanks in large part to the efforts of Congressman Nick 
Rahall and Senators Rockefeller and Specter, the Senate is in a 
position to get something done.
  Building on Senator Rockefeller's efforts, Senator Specter has 
introduced legislation to help the Horizon miners. I urge the Judiciary 
Committee to take a careful look at that legislation. I urge the 
committee to hold hearings, and to listen to the plight of those coal 
miners and their families affected by Horizon's bankruptcy. This is an 
issue that affects not just the Horizon coal miners, but workers across 
the Nation who have seen their pension and health benefits taken from 
them.
  It is happening across West Virginia. It is happening across the 
Appalachian region. It is happening in Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois. 
In West Virginia, it is affecting elderly workers who are near 
retirement. What security they had is gone. What they had been 
promised, they have no time to get back. In such circumstances, it is 
incumbent upon the Congress to take action.
  I urge the Finance Committee, as well as the Judiciary Committee, to 
consider these issues. I urge both committees to hold hearings and 
solicit

[[Page S2968]]

testimony from those workers affected. The chairman of the Finance 
Committee has said that his committee ought to look at the issues 
raised by Senators Specter and Rockefeller in the context of a 
comprehensive review and a comprehensive solution. That makes sense, 
and I am encouraged by his statement.
  Abraham Lincoln reminds us that ``Inasmuch [as] most good things are 
produced by labor, it follows that [all] such things of right belong to 
those whose labor has produced them.''
  The Horizon miners labored for their health benefits, and they ought 
by right have them. Let us organize our efforts. Let us build momentum, 
and let us, at long last, take a stand in defense of the men and women 
who epitomize America's time-honored work ethic.

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