The United Mine Workers of America is telling its members that they may return to work at Warrior Met Coal next month, 23 months and one day after the union’s strike began.

UMWA International President Cecil Roberts sent a letter today to Warrior Met Coal CEO Walt Scheller announcing that union members would return to work at the company’s four locations on March 2.

The letter, known as an “unconditional offer to return to work,” follows federal labor law, according to the union. It would allow union members to return to work, while giving the union and Warrior Met time to work out a new agreement.

A Warrior Met Coal representative said the company has received the letter and has no comment.

“We are entering a new phase of our efforts to win our members and their families the fair and decent contract they need and deserve,” Roberts said in a statement.

“We have been locked into this struggle for 23 months now, and nothing has materially changed. The two sides have essentially fought each other to a draw thus far, despite the company’s unlawful bargaining posture the entire time. The status quo is not good for our members and their families.”

The strike, believed to be the longest in Alabama history, began April 1, 2021, when approximately 1,100 union members walked off the job.

Union members are 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 were not restored in subsequent contract offers.

The union overwhelmingly voted down a tentative offer made a few weeks into the walkout, and the strike continues to this day. An estimated 800 miners are still taking part. When a restraining order put an end to pickets, union members took their case to corporate offices in New York, to Congress, and even to the homes of company executives.

The union contends that temporary replacement workers are making bonuses of up to $2,000 more a month than were offered to union members.

“If (Warrior Met) is going to pay that kind of money, we believe it should be going to Alabama miners and their families, not those coming from out-of-state,” he said. “The status quo is not good for the company or its shareholders either, as the current workforce it has in the mines cannot match the level of production that our members can.”

Yesterday Warrior Met reported business interruption expenses of $3.4 million in the fourth quarter last year “directly attributable to the ongoing labor strike” for safety and security, as well as idle mine expenses of $2 million from reduced operations. The company reported net income of $99.7 million in the fourth quarter, compared to $138.5 million for the same quarter a year earlier.

Schiller, in a statement yesterday, said the company’s fourth quarter results “marked the conclusion of an exceedingly strong financial year for Warrior” which posted strong net income and record operating cash flows.

Roberts said he hopes the company leadership will “accept this offer, get our members back to work, engage in good faith bargaining and finally sit down face-to-face with us to resolve this dispute for the betterment of all concerned.”

“We have long said that we are ready to get in the same room with Warrior Met leadership and stay there until we have an agreement,” Roberts said.