Looking out over a sea of UMWA members who were wearing T-shirts that had the message “Peabody Promised” on the front and “Peabody Lied” on the back, United Mine Workers of America International President Cecil Roberts didn’t shy away from attacking Peabody Energy:
“You see where I am, I’m standing out here in the street and you see where they (Peabody) are. They are up there hiding (in their office building). They’ve got million dollar lawyers. They’ve got million dollar mouthpieces. They pay them $1,000 hour. … They are already paying pursuant to a court order $20 million a year for those 3,100 people. What they want is to give us $10 million a year for the same 3,100. No, thank you. The people who issued that statement want us to sell somebody out, but we’re not doing that. There are a lot more than 3,100 people that Peabody is responsible for. You can’t settle all the claims unless you cover all the people.”