11 Striking Warrior Met Miners Arrested, Charged with Trespassing
11 striking miners were arrested Tuesday evening and charged with third-degree trespassing after they allegedly blocked the roads leading to Warrior Met Coal's No. 7 Mine in Brookwood.
1,100 miners have been on strike since April 1st, when contract negotiations with Warrior Met failed. Since then, they have been on the picket line demanding pay increases, more holidays off work and better health care plans.
The striking miners blocked roads during a brief sit-in at Warrior Met's headquarters earlier in May, but dispersed before anyone was arrested.
Another sit-in was held Tuesday, blocking the roads into the No. 7 mine, and 11 men were arrested on the scene when they did not obey police orders to move.
Chief among those charged is Cecil Edward Roberts, the president of the United Mine Workers of America union, who has been in close contact with the Brookwood miners since the strike began last month.
According to court documents filed Wednesday afternoon, the others arrested Tuesday were Richard Thomas Altman, William Joseph Attig, Dedrick Darnell Gardner, James Louis Gibbs, Michael Wayne Jordan, Brian Michael Kelly. Rickey Kornegay, Darrell Bren Riley, Lawrence Paul Spencer and Carl Douglas White, Jr.
All 11 had been released from the Tuscaloosa County Jail on bond by the time of publication Wednesday afternoon.
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