Peabody and Patriot May Have Found a Way to Dodge Workers’ Pension Payments

Jacob Barker for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

A squabble between Peabody Energy and bankrupt Patriot Coal is putting funding for a special trust that pays retired coal miner health benefits at risk.

Bankrupt miner Patriot Coal and the United Mine Workers of America are accusing St. Louis-based Peabody Energy of trying to get out of $145 million in payments to a health fund for retired miners created two years ago.

But Peabody, in a lawsuit filed Oct. 9 in bankruptcy court in St. Louis, says it doesn’t have to make those payments if the bankruptcy court allows Patriot to end its obligations to the fund.

Miner health fund at risk due to Peabody, Patriot dispute