(CNN) For the eighth straight day, miners are blocking cars full of coal from passing on a railway track in Eastern Kentucky to protest their employer, who stopped paying their wages after declaring bankruptcy.

Now, to ease the miners' financial burden, a former coal tycoon has donated over $1 million to directly assist those miners and their families.

On Monday, the Richard and Leslie Gilliam Foundation donated over $1 million to give 508 Blackjewel miners in immediate need $2,000 each. Checks were presented to community assistance groups in Harlan and Letcher counties in Kentucky and Wise County, Virginia.

Blackjewel LLC filed for bankruptcy on July 1, and thousands of miners in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia have been without work and haven't been paid since. The coal operator owes its 1,700 miners about $5 million in back pay, according to attorney Joe Childers, whose firm represents miners in litigation with the employer.

CNN has been unable to reach Blackjewel LLC for comment.

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