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. Jacob Morrison, David Story, and Adam Keller at The Valley Labor Report (Alabama's only weekly labor radio talk show), have been doing more than almost anyone to cover the strike and support striking miners and their families. There is one person, however, who has done more than anyone to lift the strike at Warrior Met into public consciousness for five months straight, and that is independent journalist and all-around badass Kim Kelly. In Part II of our special, two-part update on the miners' strike, Jacob from TVLR and Kim have a wide-ranging conversation about Kim's labor and writing background, the experience of covering the Amazon union drive and the Warrior Met strike in Alabama, and what it means to truly care about and be invested in the people and struggles we cover in labor media. 

 

Additional links/info below...

• Join our Working People listener hang session on Monday, August 16, from 8-9:30pm ET! Here's the zoom link
• UMWA 2021 Strike Fund
• Donate to the 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'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"

Permanent links below...

• Working People Patreon page
• Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!
• Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

• Jules Taylor, "Working People Theme Song"