RYAN C. HERMENS

A coal train sits on railroad tracks Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020, near where coal miners who hadn’t been paid in three weeks set up a blockade the previous day in Pike County, Ky. “They won’t get their coal until we’re paid,” said Kenny Collins, who operates a shuttle car at the Quest Energy underground mine.

Kenny Collins poses for a photograph while holding his mining helmet. Collins, who is financially responsible for two children and a grandchild, said the lack of pay has been a hardship. His power got cut off Monday, and it was the last straw for him.

The blockade began Monday afternoon when miners and their wives stood on the tracks to prevent a load of coal from moving. It is the second protest in six months in which Kentucky coal miners blocked a railroad track after a company failed to pay miners for work they had already completed.

Dusty Maynard, an employee of Quest Energy, stands for a portrait. The miners say about 50 employees are owed for three weeks of work, totaling $2,000 to $3,000 each.

Richie Noble, a coal miner, walks along railroad tracks toward a rail car filled with coal on the first night of the blockade. Throughout the night, more miners and their wives arrived at the tracks, lit a bonfire, and swapped stories about the struggles they had suffered from the lack of payment.

The miners at the tracks say there are 120 cars in the train, and 100 hold coal they produced at the Quest mine.

Ray Jones, fourth from left, Pike County judge executive, takes down contact information from the miners. “I’m optimistic that we’re going to be able to see that these people are paid, but there needs to be something done going forward to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he said.

Dusty Maynard holds pieces of coal he gathered near the railroad tracks.

Jennifer Blackburn, whose husband works for Quest Energy, walks on the tracks. One miner, a father of two small children, said the power company had come to turn off his electricity earlier that day. Another said he was late on his mortgage payment and worried that he could lose his house. Melissa Collins, the wife of one of the two miners who kicked off the protest, said, “If it hadn’t been for my mom, I don’t know how we would’ve made it.”