The new contract will replace the existing one, set to finish at the end of this year.

 

Union officials hope Peabody will agree to the terms of a contract reached last week in West Virginia which averted a possible strike, Evansville Courier Press reported.

 

The terms of that contract were the same as those of the agreement reached with the Bituminous Coal Operators’ Association in December.

 

Some of the details of the contract include a $US1000 bonus to all active miners, $10-per-month pension increases over the life of the agreement, and an increase in shift differentials. Preserved as part of the pact were full health care benefits for all workers, active and retired, as well as their dependents.

 

One of the most significant parts of the new contract is a 20% union-wide wage increase, which amounts to 32% when all other increases are factored in. The training rate for new miners will be $22.47 per hour in the last year of the agreement, while top-rate workers will be earning $24.42 hourly.

 

Highland No. 9 Mine is the largest new mining facility developed in Kentucky in more than 15 years. In 2005, the mine shipped nearly 4 million tons of coal to TVA's Cumberland generating station in Tennessee under an eight-year coal supply agreement.