Benefits concern ex-Consol workers
Don Krek said the onus is on Consol Energy to provide health coverage for retired salaried employees.
Bob Long leads a group of retired salaried employees who are hoping to get their health benefits restored by Consol Energy.
Don Krek will turn 60, a milestone birthday, Sunday. It may not be the cheeriest celebration.
Health coverage is an ominous cloud of concern. Krek, of Houston, is among more than 1,200 retirees from former Consol Energy mines who are in line to lose medical, prescription drug and life insurance coverage Dec. 31.
The 1,200-plus were salaried, non-union supervisors at five Consol mines in West Virginia, which were sold late last year to Murray Energy Corp. About 160 Pennsylvania families were affected.
“My goal was to get out healthy, and I was blessed along those lines,” Krek said Friday morning, during a meeting of the group “Consol Retirees United for Our Rights” at Panera Bread in South Strabane Township.
Krek worked for Consol for 38 years, 34 in production, before retiring in April 2012, when he was 57.
He said he passed opportunities for better-paying jobs, and was loyal to his company.
About a year ago, Southpointe-based Consol sold those mines – McElroy, Shoemaker, Robinson Run, Loveridge and Blacksville No. 2 – to Murray Energy Corp.
Then, in mid-April, Murray announced it would terminate medical, prescription drug and life insurance coverage for those salaried, non-union retirees by the end of 2014.
Some will be too young to apply for Medicare before the year ends; some who are on already Medicare may have to search for supplemental coverage.
That termination of coverage does not include union employees.
Krek was among a group of about 20, including a few spouses, who expressed anger and frustration over the pending loss of coverage. And that anger and frustration, almost invariably, was directed at Consol.
The prevailing sentiment, in the words of group organizer Bob Long: “We retired from Consol, not Murray.”
“Bob Murray doesn’t owe me a nickel,” Krek said, referring to the chief executive officer of the St. Clairsville, Ohio, firm, one of the largest indepndent coal operators in the country. “At no time in my career did I get anything from Murray Energy.”
“Consol didn’t give us anything,” said Long, of Peters Township, who retired following 35 years of service in five Consol mines. “I worked for everything I got, and people who are interested feel the same way.”
Kate O’Donovan, manager of corporate communications for Consol, declined comment.
In April, when it announced the dropping of coverage, Murray said in a prepared statement that “in keeping with Murray Energy’s historic practice, it will not be able to provide retiree medical coverage to salaried retirees of Murray American Energy Inc., formerly Consolidation Coal Co.”
Long organized the group, which he hopes will grow (it has a website – consolretireesunited.org).
Those on hand Friday were spirited and eager to explore options, with the hope Consol may reverse course. They pledge to continue to mobilize as the calendar heads toward 2015.
“We’re not trying to cause trouble,” Krek said. “We want to correct an issue. Positive steps forward is the direction we’re going to go.”