The demonstrators will take to the streets at 10am on April 1 at the Charleston Civic Center, calling the march part of its “ongoing campaign to achieve fairness” for its beneficiaries, who could lose retiree pensions and healthcare.

United Mine Workers of America UMWA spokesman Phil Smith told the Associated Press that demonstrators would travel through downtown Charleston to Laidley Tower.

Participants, some of whom will arrive on a fleet of 50 UMWA buses, will arrive from West Virginia as well as Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio.

The union has held several protests in St Louis to speak out against Patriot’s plans to rid a $1.6 billion liability for retiree benefits.

Some of those in danger of losing benefits had never worked for Patriot. Rather, they had signed on with Peabody Coal and Arch Coal.

Peabody Coal spun off Patriot in 2008, and Patriot bought Arch’s Magnum Coal the following year.

Smith told the AP that some potential featured speakers at the event include UMWA president Cecil Roberts, US Senator Joe Manchin, Representative Nick Rahall and AFL-CIO union president Richard Trumka.

On Monday, the West Virginia House of Delegates approved a resolution that supported UMWA’s fight against Patriot, Peabody and Arch.

“We cannot allow corporate greed to run roughshod over the people who have exchanged their working lives, and frequently their health, for a promise of a secure retirement,” UMWA District 31 vice president Mike Caputo said.

Caputo is a house majority whip who was a primary sponsor of the motion.

“This resolution tells these rogue coal companies that their flagrant abuse of the bankruptcy process to shed their contractual obligations to their workers is strongly opposed by the people of the Mountain State,” he said.