Insight: Miner’s union charts new course to save benefits in bankruptcy

By Nick Brown (Reuters) – As mineworkers and retirees battle to salvage their pensions and benefits from the bankruptcy of Patriot Coal Corp, lawyers for their union are trying an unusual gambit – and one that may be a test case for workers’ rights when companies spin off assets. With a difficult road ahead in bankruptcy court in St. Louis, the United Mine Workers of America has brought a parallel lawsuit 500 miles away, in West Virginia, the heart of coal country. …