Tri-State miners protest outside coal company bankruptcy hearing - 14 News, WFIE, Evansville, Henderson, Owensboro

Tri-State miners protest outside coal company bankruptcy hearing

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TRI-STATE (WFIE) -

A group of Tri-State miners is heading to St. Louis to protest Wednesday.

Two charter buses, one from Henderson and the other from Madisonville, left early Wednesday morning.  The protestors are made up of mostly retired miners from various western Kentucky coal mines.

They are heading to St. Louis for Patriot Coal's bankruptcy hearing. They tell 14 News they plan to march and picket outside the courthouse.

The president of the United Mine Workers and nine others were arrested about two weeks ago while protesting outside the St. Louis headquarters of Peabody Energy.

Peabody is one of the companies the union holds responsible for Patriot Coal's bankruptcy.

That bankruptcy involves pension and health care benefits for some 20,000 people, mostly in West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.

The union says saving families' benefits may not mean much to wall street, but to active and retired coal miners, health benefits can mean the difference between life and death. 

14 News is continuing to follow these breaking developments, and we will have the latest on air, online at 14News.com and on mobile with the 14 News mobile app.

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