Rosebud Mining furloughs 429 workers

A Western Pennsylvania coal company is furloughing 429 workers and idling 20 mines due to poor market conditions exacerbated by an usually warm winter, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Kittaning-based Rosbud Mining says the employees will keep their benefits and the company hopes to bring them back to work next month.
“We would expect, based on the guidance from our customers, to start shipping again by the end of the month and bring everyone back in February,” company vice president Jim Barker told the newspaper.
The furloughs are the latest setback for Pennsylvania’s coal industry, which has struggled in recent years from what it calls a “perfect storm” of problems, including competition from cheaper natural gas and tougher environmental regulations aimed at curbing damaging greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
Nationally coal jobs have decreased by 10 percent between 2012 and 2013, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
 

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