Portside

The Right has worked hard in recent years to portray itself as defenders of beleaguered coal miners. But over a thousand miners are currently on strike in Alabama and we haven’t heard a peep about it from conservative talking heads.

Prior to engines being used by coal miners, little Shetland ponies, known as pit ponies, were used to pull carts loaded with coal through the low-roofed mines.  The last pony mine in America was the New Gladstone Coal Mine in Appanoose County, Iowa.

2,000 USW copper miners, on strike at 5 ASARCO plants in Texas and Arizona, have not been paid for over a month. Union members and the community have come together to donate food, ensuring every striker is able to have a Thanksgiving meal.

Miners and their families have occupied a railroad track, blocking a train that’s loaded up with coal that these workers dug out of the earth and never got paid for.