FACT CHECKER

The Company values the hard work and dedication of its employees, but this media narrative does not match up with the actual hours worked by represented employees at Warrior Met Coal. The average represented employee worked 239 days. That means the average worker had 126 days off.

The nature of the operations at the Company requires some level of staffing 24/7 for safety reasons. Employees are made aware of the time commitment these jobs require during the hiring process.

In the proposed contract from April 2021, the Company included a policy that employees wouldn’t be scheduled for 7 consecutive days unless they wanted to be, which generally, would result in Sundays being optional if an employee has worked the full week.

This is not true.  Overtime is paid on all hours worked over 40 per week. The average represented employee worked 45 hours per week last year. Represented employees have many opportunities to earn overtime pay, and the Company has never proposed eliminating this right.

All represented employees currently receive paid time off for eight holidays: Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. If an employee is scheduled to work on any of these days, they receive another paid day off during the year. The “three holidays” referred to by the represented employees are actually days when no coal is produced, and no represented employee is scheduled to work on these days without volunteering to do so. In the proposed contract, the Company increased the number of non-production holidays from three to six and provided that any of these holidays worked would receive double pay. In addition, the proposed contract offered two additional holidays bringing the total holiday count to 10.

Warrior Met Coal pays for the cost of health insurance coverage for represented employees, which is provided through Blue Cross Blue Shield. These are above average health insurance benefits in Alabama and are the same benefits provided to the rest of the Company’s workforce.

The proposed contract from April 2021 had further improvements to the healthcare plan – including reduced deductibles (to $250/year) and out of pocket expenses, in addition to wellness incentives.

The current expired contract provides the represented employees with a 401(k) plan that has an hourly employer contribution. In the proposed contract from April 2021, the Company offered an enhancement to this retirement benefit, including an additional Company match on contributions.

The Company provides generous personal time off and complies with all applicable laws. Currently, workers who simply don’t show up for work and have four unexcused absences within a year can be terminated under the current CBA.

In the proposed contract from April 2021, the number of unexcused absences allowed during the calendar year was increased to six.

In fact, since 2016, only a small number of employees who had worked at the Company for longer than a year were terminated for violating this attendance policy.

Warrior Met Coal does not condone any acts of violence. In fact, the Company was granted a court-ordered injunction which prohibits picketers from engaging in certain conduct, including blocking entrances and exits to Company property and damaging Company and employee personal property.  Warrior Met Coal sought the injunction to maintain a safe environment for its employees – including those actively at work and those currently on strike.  On July 23, the Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court found that the union knowingly and intentionally violated the Court’s order by blocking entrances and exits to the Company’s property.  As a result, the Court also issued an Order setting out future sanctions for union picketers and union officials who violate the Court’s injunction, including potential fines and prison sentences. The National Labor Relations Board also issued a Complaint and an Amended Complaint against the union in multiple cases based on the union’s conduct and acts of violence.

Warrior Met Coal puts safety first in everything it does, with health and safety policies and programs serving as the cornerstone of the Company’s operating philosophy. As a result, Warrior Met Coal is proud of its safety record; it has a safety incident rate that is 32% better than the U.S. industry rate. And the Company’s severity measure of incidents is consistently less than half the national average.

One note: The union did not request any substantive changes relating to Company safety procedures in the proposed contract from April 2021.

The Company has been actively engaged at the bargaining table and available every time the union has asked to meet. Warrior Met Coal has put forth 8 full written proposals, responded to hundreds of requests for information from the union, and produced tens of thousands of pages of documents that the union has requested.

The Company has and will continue to meet with union representatives and to bargain in good faith.