Blackjewel miners protesting for over three days on the tracks at Sand Hill Bottom Road agreed to let the CSX train engine and caboose through after being approached by drivers of a CSX service truck Wednesday afternoon. The miners huddled together on the tracks and took a vote, coming to a final decision to allow the train by with the understanding the cars loaded with coal would be left sitting at Cloverlick Mine No. 3.

“They’re not bringing the coal out,” said miner Chris Rowe. “CSX has come up and talked to us about letting their engines come out without the coal. We’re not here to stop CSX from doing their job or anything like that. We’re here because of the coal and they’re going to leave the coal where it’s at.

“CSX approached us with the most respect. These guys understand, we understand, and we’re not here to stop anybody from a job they have to do. But, like I said, we all feel like that’s our coal. We mined that coal, so they’re leaving it where it is.”

“We’re for the coal miners,” said one CSX truck driver. “We’re for everybody, including the nurses in Pineville that was out of a job when the hospital was shut down. Any time that a company doesn’t pay somebody is a sad day.”

“It actually works out better because now if there’s no engine, they have to get engines back in first before they can attach and before they can leave,” said District 3 Magistrate Paul Browning III. “So, it’s actually a benefit to these miners.”

Rowe said although the miners are allowing the engines to pass, they have no intention of stopping their protest any time soon. Rowe added everyone involved in the protest just want to be paid for their work.

“Everybody agrees with what we’re doing,” Rowe said. “We don’t have one or two people that are making all the decisions; everybody comes together and agrees on what we’re doing.”

Rowe said even throughout this process, Blackjewel has still managed to remain silent about when the miners would be paid, if they will be at all.

“I don’t think they’re going to say anything at all,” said Browning. “There could be some things out there about resolving this, but I’ve not heard anything.

“I hope that this is bringing some attention to it and they realize they just need to do the right thing. This can be easily resolved. It’s not a World War II situation. They know what they owe them; the payroll department’s got it right there on paper, every single dime. Pay them and be done.”

“The only thing that we have seen is a thing on our page saying that they’re looking for a resolution, but that’s it. No one’s been contacted, nothing,” Rowe said. “We don’t know where it (the train) was headed, but the company got paid for the coal and we’ve not been paid. So, it’s technically our coal. We mined it.”

Rowe said there’s no timeline on how long the protest will continue, but every miner involved plans on continuing to block the tracks until they are paid.

“I don’t mean this in a bad way, but what else have they got to do right now?” Browning said. “They’re going to make this wrong right, prior to something silly happening.”