Emerald miners tell stories of unemployment woes
Dave Baer, a peer counselor with Southwest Training Services and former Emerald Mine worker, talks with fellow laid-off miner Bill Meyers while the two helped to deliver food to unemployed miners at the UMW union hall in Nemacolin.
Brian Schaum
David Serock
Brian Schaum never expected his Friday the 13th to be as bad as it was last November, when he was laid off from Emerald Mine near Waynesburg.
“I didn’t believe it until the last month and then I thought, ‘Oh, it’s really happening,'” he said. “I just thought it was a scare tactic.”
Schaum, 41, of Jefferson Township, has three daughters, who are dependent on him, and a wife who has recently been without work, too. Now, the family has no income.
“They’re used to having a lot more than what they have now. Words can’t describe it until you’ve actually lived it,” Schaum said.
Schaum’s been in the coal industry for 13 years and he started at Emerald in 2007. He has a background in welding and was a mechanic in the mine.
When he started hearing rumors the mine was closing, he didn’t prepare for unemployment because he didn’t believe it would happen.
“A lot of us just didn’t believe it was going to happen,” he said.
After the layoff, Schaum still wasn’t concerned because he thought he had options in welding or construction. He also had hopes the Cumberland Mine would hire some of the 235 laid-off miners from Emerald.
“Every day, you just wonder if it’s going to happen or not,” he said.
While on unemployment, he took a three-week course in Columbus, Ohio, to get his crane operator certificate, which was paid through the state. He thought it would help him land a construction job.
“I was worried, but at the same time, I wasn’t,” he said. “I knew I wouldn’t be making the same money I did in the mine, but I figured I’d make enough to get by.”
He was wrong and now, months later, he’s still looking for a job and his unemployment benefits ran out. He said the available jobs he’s found in Greene County pay “peanuts” compared to coal mining.
“It’s just not feasible for me to take a job like that,” he said. “This area just seems like it’s really slowed down. All the decent paying jobs, there’s none left here.”
Schaum even tried getting his own construction business going to renovate houses, but that’s not panning out. He’s now contemplating relocating his family to another state if he can find a job. He had to sell his boat and make other sacrifices to pay bills.
“It’s a real adjustment,” he said. “Everything I’ve worked for and now I’m trying to sell it all just so we can survive.”
Schaum is hoping for a welding position in Newport News, Va. With a family of five to support, that might be his only option.
“If it wasn’t for my family, I probably wouldn’t be here,” he said. “I think everybody in the community is feeling the hurt right now.”
David Serock is in a bracket of laid-off coal miners who have it the worst: Too young to retire, but too old to start over.
Serock, 44, of German Township, Fayette County, worked in coal mining 15 years and at Emerald Mine near Waynesburg since 2004, until last November’s layoff.
“They told us two years ago that this was a possibility,” he said. “There’s really no way to prepare for it. You’re kind of trapped because of insurance, and where are you going to find that kind of money?”
With two children to support, Serock had to sell his truck and cut back on internet and cable packages and stop eating out.
“There are a bunch of people selling vehicles now because you have to dump all of the extra things,” he said.
Serock said he initially went into mining for the high-paying salary, good health insurance and because his family worked in coal mining for generations.
“It’s a whole different way of life underground and most people enjoyed their jobs,” he said. “When you’re spending 60 hours a week with the same people, they become like family.”
Serock was making $30 per hour as a mobile equipment operator for the mine. Serock said he isn’t ready to start looking out-of-state for a job, because he’d “never see his children.” He hoped to go to another mine, but that hasn’t happened.
“You think that the market’s going to rebound or that you can find work at another mine,” he said. “We thought a lot of us would be at Cumberland Mine right now, but that just didn’t happen.”
He went to CareerLink in Fayette County to attend a mandatory workshop and complete job searches, required of him while receiving unemployment benefits. While there, he was told about a peer counseling position that would allow him to work one-on-one with laid-off miners and help them get back to work. It was the highest-paying job he could find in the area, he said, but was still less than half of what he was making at the mine. He began in March.
“We were always helping our guys and this is another way to help them – by getting them through this next phase of their lives,” Serock said. “We still hope that the mining industry will come back, if not for us, than for some of these other guys.”
Dave Whipkey was one of the fortunate Emerald Mine workers. At 62, he was able to retire in 2014 before the mine shut down last November.
“I saw it coming, so I got out when I did,” he said. “I was one of the lucky coal miners who spent my whole career at the same mine.”
But even after working 38 years at Emerald, he now worries about his retirement deal.
Whipkey, of Cumberland Township, said he got a letter in the mail this month, saying there would be changes to his health care plan by the end of August.
“I’m taking my wife to the doctor tomorrow because we’re trying to get doctors’ appointments done before we lose any medical coverage,” he said last week. “I’m concerned about what my wife and I are going to do.”
His wife, Kitty, is already on Medicare, and he will be eligible for it in May, when he turns 65. Whipkey hoped he would have the health insurance from the mine as a secondary insurance for the remainder of his and Kitty’s lives, but now, losing that coverage will always be a concern for him.
“If you don’t have a secondary insurance then you’ll have to pay for whatever Medicare doesn’t cover,” he said. “In time, it could be that the pension fund runs out of money too, and then we won’t have much of a pension either.”