Interview by Sarah Lazare

On July 29, coal miners in Cumberland, Kentucky began blocking a train carrying more than $1 million worth of coal to protest their former employer, Blackjewel LLC, which declared bankruptcy on July 1. According to CNN, the company wrote bad checks to 350 miners in Harlan County alone, prompting the workers to stage the protest to demand their paychecks. Holding signs that say, “No pay, we stay,” the coal miners have been buoyed by community support, with churches and restaurants donating food and supplies. They say they will stay on the tracks until they get the wages they’re owed for the work they’ve already done. While Harlan County stands as the site of militant coal-miner labor struggles in the 1930s and 1970s, these workers are non-union.

This dramatic action underscores the need for a “just transition” — a key demand of today’s climate movement. Developed twenty to thirty years ago by environmental justice, labor, and indigenous movements, the proposal rests on the principle that, as we shift away from a fossil-fuel economy, we must ensure workers in those industries are taken care of. That includes retraining workers and providing new, well-paying union jobs while protecting their pensions and ensuring they play a role in shaping the economic transformation as we shift to a zero-emissions economy. This principle has made its way onto the national stage and into the proposed Green New Deal resolution. As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said in December 2018, “We can use the transition to 100 percent renewable energy as the vehicle to truly deliver and establish economic, social and racial justice in the United States of America.”

As the coal industry declines, it’s becoming increasingly clear that a just transition is not a far-off goal post: people are losing their jobs now. If climate campaigners are serious about building trust with workers and ensuring they lead a just transition away from the fossil-fuel economy, now is the time to engage with coal miners’ struggles to survive a transition they did not choose. Josh Holbrook is a thirty-six-year-old coal miner and former employee of Blackjewel, where he worked as a third-shift foreman. He is now helping his fellow workers block the coal train in Cumberland. Currently living in the small town of Fleming-Neon, Kentucky, Holbrook has been working in coal mines for eighteen years.

In an interview with In These Times , Holbrook says that the coal miners are in dire need of solidarity, and he’s open to the idea of transitioning into a new job. But he needs proof that a just transition is a serious proposal. “Bring jobs in,” he says. “Money talks.”

You can hear more from Josh Holbrook on the podcast Working People, hosted by Maximillian Alvarez.