Coal producers, facing strong demand and an ongoing labor shortage, are offering pay hikes, improved benefits and bonuses in an effort to attract new miners, and to keep existing employees from being raided by competitors. The prolonged surge in coal demand has led companies to reopen shuttered mines and add new ones. Coal fuels more than half of all electricity generated in the United States.
See "Coal Producers Offer Perks to Draw Workers", Associated Press, The New York Times, November 20, 2005