UMWA Fish Fry brings support to Powers in congressional race

CASTLEWOOD — Local and national United Mine Workers members had plenty of actual and political fish to fry in Castlewood Saturday. The annual UMWA Fish Fry — originally started in the old UMWA District 28 — has been an annual chance for union members and retirees to socialize and welcome political candidates to make their case for union support in the fall elections. Saturday's fish fry brought UMWA's national leadership before approximately 250 retires and rank-and-file members to support Democratic Ninth District Congressional challenger Joy Powers and incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Warner for their November election bids. Union officials said the annual event is open to candidates who reach out and attend the event. Powers appeared in-person, and Warner sent staffer Shane Clem to meet with the attendees. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine also came to the fry even though he is not up for election in the midterms. UMWA District 17 Vice President Brian Lacy and others said incumbent Republican Ninth District Congressman Morgan Griffith did not "reach out" to appear Saturday. Calling the November midterms "a historic election," UMWA International President Brian Sanson called on members to vote for Powers and Warner. A chorus of no's from the audience greeted Sanson when he asked, "Are we going to send Morgan Griffith back to Washington, D.C.?" Sanson attacked Griffth for supporting upper-class tax cuts, cutting programs affecting coalfields residents and not supporting legislation for miners' health care. He also criticized Griffith for supporting data centers in Southwest Virginia. Mentioning reports that the former Moss 3 coal processing plant site in Russell County is being considered as a data center location, Sanson called that "an absolute insult to every striker that's fought their rear ends off to keep this union fighting for health care for those retirees when we fought the Pittston strike." Sanson added to the data center issue, saying they do not create long-term local jobs during or after construction. Centers also have the potential with artificial intelligence to create 20-50% unemployment, he added. "How are we going to function as a society?" said Sanson. "AI would eliminate basically almost every white-collar job and, at some point in time, it's going to eliminate all of our jobs … They need to put a pause on data centers and this artificial intelligence until they have the ability to control it." Referring to the year Griffith took congressional office, Sanson got more no's from the audience when he asked if they were better off now than in 2011. "(Griffith) has had the opportunity to show you that he wants to work for you," said Sanson. "He has not done that. Joy Powers is a real hope to help these coalfields around." Sanson and UMWA Secretary-Treasurer Mike Phillippi also credited Kaine and Warner with consistent support for miners' health care, safety and retirement benefits. Phillippi pointed to a Trump administration slowdown in implementing a federal limit on miners' exposure to silica dust — a byproduct of mine operations having to reach thinner coal seams in rock layers. Sanson said Powers and Kaine both have shown the ability to reach across party lines. "She's going to fix as many problems as she can that Morgan Griffith created in this country," Sanson said. "We don't put people in office to become billionaires. We put people in office to be public servants and treat our citizens with dignity and respect, and we need to do everything in our power to send Joy Powers to Congress to help us do that." Powers said she has campaigned from the start about the election not being about party. "That seems to be resonating, whether it be Democrats who're excited to have a viable candidate or a lot of Republicans going to be voting for me because they know Morgan Griffith doesn't represent the conservative values that he says he's supposed to," said Powers. "With 45 days of early voting and a week of that under our belt, you can see who's voting," said Kaine. "That tells you where the excitement is, and that excitement for Joy and Democratic challengers is off the charts. It's much bigger than in '24 or '25." Kaine said reversing health care cuts will be a top priority if Democrats gain control of Congress."The bill that Republicans did that Morgan voted for that made such big cuts in health care is hitting rural Virginia more than anywhere else," said Kaine. "You've already had eight primary health clinics in schools in Appalachia close down because of Medicaid cuts. Primary health care clinics, hospital OB-GYN wards, just because of the cuts Republicans enacted in that big, beautiful bill a year ago." "Joy's point is, if you can do something about stopping the health care cuts and people see you're coming down to talk to them and not hiding in your office," Kaine added, "they're going to say you're producing some results and you're paying attention to us, we want you to stick with us." Saying a congressman's duty is to get some funds appropriated to help his constituents, Powers said Griffith gets "a bit of a free pass" from Kaine and Warner's efforts to get tax dollars invested in Southwest Virginia.