U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., said Wednesday he has posted on his office Web site a “resource manual” to assist laid-off coal miners with unemployment, retraining, education and other assistance resources.
“There’s a lot of folks out of work in Virginia,” said Griffith, who represent’s Virginia’s 9th District.
Griffith blamed recent mine closures and idled operations, most notably last week’s layoff notice by Alpha Natural Resources and an idled Consol operation in Buchanan County.
“The good news is — if there is any there — is that Alpha said it can reassign out all but 55 workers” to other Alpha operations, Griffith said, and Consol hopes to restart its Buchanan No. 1 mine after a temporary closure of about two months.
Griffith said Consol is also continuing health insurance coverage for miners out of work due to the temporary closure “or until further announcement, and hopefully they will be able to go back to work” after the idle period.
Consol said it needed to idle the mine until stockpiles are reduced by purchases.
“We want to let people know there are services available,” Griffith said of Wednesday’s notice of a resource manual.
The resource packet e-mailed to media Wednesday is prefaced with acknowledgement that more job losses from the mining industry “are nothing less than devastating news. While there is no easy or immediate solution to cover a loss of this magnitude, my office is here to support you by providing information, resources and tools that are available to assist individuals, families and businesses.”
The information includes unemployment benefits, health care and retirement benefits, employment training, job resources, housing resources, consumer protections and financial planning and steers constituents to familiar assistance resources such as the Virginia Employment Commission and the unfamiliar such as the U.S. Department of Labor’s rapid response service teams for laid-off workers.
Griffith’s official House of Representatives Web site can be accessed at www.morgangriffith.house.gov.
Griffith, who has been critical of the Obama administration’s policies toward the coal industry, said Wednesday’s announcement was intended to publicize an easily accessible one-stop source for assistance for laid-off miners and not delve into political tit for tat.
“Obviously, we believe the upcoming election makes a difference,” he said. “Everybody already knows my positions on the president’s coal policies.”