The workers of a bankrupt Pike County coal producer have sued the company to recover back pay and benefits.
Joseph Barnett, a former employee of Clintwood JOD LLC, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in London, Kentucky, last week.
Barnett is seeking class status for himself and 300 workers who were terminated in February.
According to the complaint, Clintwood did not provide its affected workers with the 60 days notice required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN Act.
The lawsuit seeks 60 days of wages and benefits that workers should have been paid through April.
About 700 workers of two West Virginia coal operators who were terminated since the beginning of the year did receive WARN notices. All told, 1,000 coal jobs have been cut across both states in 2026.
Mettiki Coal notified about 200 workers in West Virginia in late January that they’d be laid off by April 1.
Greenbrier Minerals notified 530 workers in West Virginia in mid-February that their jobs would be gone by April 14.
Hundreds of coal workers had already been let go last year in both West Virginia and Kentucky.
Data from the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet show a reduction of 400 positions in 2025, all of them in eastern Kentucky.
By year’s end, Kentucky had about 3,600 coal mining jobs, the lowest number on record.
As U.S. Census data released this month show, Kentucky’s coal-producing counties – east and west – experienced the largest population losses from 2020 to 2025.
President Donald Trump – who overwhelmingly won both states in 2024 – has taken steps to boost coal production and employment, but so far the efforts appear to have saved few jobs.
