A spokesperson for the United Mine Workers of America said the union does not expect a move to decertify it at Tuscaloosa County’s Warrior Met Coal to stand.

Phil Smith, chief of staff from the UMWA, said a petition filed last week with the National Labor Relations Board “will not pass muster.”

The petition was filed on April 6, according to the NLRB website. Attempts to reach the NLRB and Warrior Met Coal for comment were not immediately successful.

According to the NLRB website, employees in a workplace may file a petition for decertification if they believe support for a union has diminished. An election can be held after collecting signatures from at least 30% of workers in a unit.

A majority of votes in an election decides the outcome. The NLRB lists 795 employees affected in the Warrior Met Coal case.

The petition comes a month after union members at Warrior Met Coal began returning to work after a 23-month strike, believed to be the longest in Alabama history.

The union offered an unconditional return to work in February after months of stalemate in the labor talks.

The strike began April 1, 2021, when approximately 1,100 union members walked off the job, seeking better pay and benefits that they say were part of an earlier contract negotiated under Warrior Met’s corporate predecessor.

According to the union, concessions to keep the company afloat back in 2016 were not restored in subsequent contract offers.

Smith referred other questions to an earlier statement in the pro-union Valley Labor Report by the UMWA’s director of communications, Erin Bates.

“It’s unfortunate that this is happening at the very moment our members are going back to work and all parties are trying to move forward and the fact is that the company’s consistent refusal to bargain in good faith from the outset of this process has created an atmosphere where this kind of union-busting could exist,” Bates said.

“We certainly hope that no management personnel are encouraging or participating in this effort, which would be a blatant illegal act.”

According to the NLRB, 311 decertification petitions were filed last year in the U.S., with 93 lost by unions and 54 won by them. The majority of petitions were withdrawn.