Canadian UMWA Miners and Widows Share 40 Million dollars in Pension Surplus

摘要

Thanks to the UMWA, Christmas 2004 turned out to be a lot brighter for more than 6,700 former Devco miners and widows who might have faced another bleak new year. In October, a Canadian arbitrator ruled these UMWA members and their families on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island are entitled to share a 40 million dollars pension plan surplus. L.U. 1888 retiree Alex "Sugars" Leadbeater of New Waterford, N.S., his wife Sally and two daughters are among the families ecstatic about this ruling. "This is a very big deal not only for our miners' families but for all of our communities which suffered tremendously when Cape Breton's mines were closed," he said. "Many older pensioners and widows were left with nothing. That's why this pension award is like an unexpected Christmas gift for us," added Leadbeater, 63, who worked 31 years in Cape Breton's mines, most recently at Lingan colliery which closed in 1993. "We all appreciate the UMWA's hard work to pull this off."