Happy Labour Day! Last union mine in Harlan County shuts down

I like to say that nobody who works indoors needs a union but now it looks like not even coal miners need them either.

(Also? “Progressives” live in the past…)

“Anymore, I just don’t think there’s that level of discontent between the company and working coal miners, which I think is a very good thing,” said Bill Bissett, president of the Kentucky Coal Association, an industry group. “If anything, they’ve won, which I think they’ve worked themselves out of a job, in that respect.”

Bissett said mines have become safer despite the union’s diminished presence in Kentucky.

“We’re in some of the safest time in the history of U.S. mining right now and a time when the UMWA is at their lowest level,” he said.

(Hey, does Kopple have to give her Oscar back?)