When the 340 miners, prep plant employees and loading dock workers at Kanawha Eagle Coal want to talk to management, they go to Bob Ellis.
His official title is vice president of operations, but the fact is, he's management personified. Following the 44-year-old around is like following Billy in the cartoon, "Family Circus," because he's everywhere: in and out of the company's offices, bath houses and mines, greeting employees, asking about their kids, quizzing them about production and cracking jokes.
Ellis asked if anyone had heard people talk about their "carbon footprint." Several miners nodded that indeed, they'd heard the phrase. Ellis said the thermostat at his house is set at 67 and all of the windows are fogged. He reminded everyone that he drove up Winifrede Hollow in a Chevrolet Tahoe that gets 12 miles per gallon -- his way
George HohmannDaily Mail business editor
Tuesday September 18, 2007
When the 340 miners, prep plant employees and loading dock workers at Kanawha Eagle Coal want to talk to management, they go to Bob Ellis.
His official title is vice president of operations, but the fact is, he's management personified. Following the 44-year-old around is like following Billy in the cartoon, "Family Circus," because he's everywhere: in and out of the company's offices, bath houses and mines, greeting employees, asking about their kids, quizzing them about production and cracking jokes.
On a recent sweltering day, Ellis repeatedly praised the weather. Everyone knew what he was getting at: The utilities would be burning lots of coal to generate the electricity needed to keep America's air conditioners humming.
Ellis asked if anyone had heard people talk about their "carbon footprint." Several miners nodded that indeed, they'd heard the phrase. Ellis said the thermostat at his house is set at 67 and all of the windows are fogged. He reminded everyone that he drove up Winifrede Hollow in a Chevrolet Tahoe that gets 12 miles per gallon -- his way of helping the oil boys. When it comes to a carbon footprint, he said, "I'm keeping up my part!"
He's always bantering with employees. It's part of his management style. "If you get to know people, they'll open their mind to you," he said.
Ellis' photographic memory and negotiating skills get a workout during monthly employee meetings. A recent meeting at the Coalburg No. 1 Mine started, as usual, with Ellis talking about safety. He said that to comply with a new law, the company would be installing three emergency refuge chambers in the Coalburg Mine and six in the Kanawha Eagle Mine. Ellis mentioned that the chambers cost $100,000 each, so the total cost will be almost a million dollars. "But if it saves one life, it'll be worth every penny of it," he said.
He asked the miners to be kind when handling emergency air packs. A new law requires underground mines to have enough air packs to fill caches every 30 minutes of foot travel along escape routes. The company will be placing thousands of them underground and they cost $660 each, he said. "But if they save one life, they'll be worth every penny of it."
Ellis reminded the workers that Kanawha Eagle won the state's Mountain Guardian safety award last year. Kanawha Eagle is still below the national average incident rate, he said. One result: the miners would receive a $250 safety bonus.
He announced they also would receive a $50 production bonus.
He recalled that the Coalburg No. 1 mine went to four-day weeks in June because of a weak market, but miners worked all four Saturdays in July.
"We've got a good reputation, based on your good work, as a dependable supplier," he said. In the months ahead, "I think more coal will come offline because of regulatory issues. We'll be there."
Ellis casually mentioned that the company is paying $1,400 per employee per month for insurance.
Then somebody asked about a raise.
"If I could pay you $40 an hour I would, because you deserve it," he replied. "At least most of you. Just kidding!" He said he doesn't want to give out raises, and then maybe see the company get into a tough situation next year and have to reduce pay.
"To my knowledge, we've never lost a man here who didn't want to come back," he said.
Ellis went over some of the benefits at the non-union mine: nine paid holidays, 10 vacation days, two personal days, one employee appreciation day. Then this: "Effective today, immediately, any of you who have five years of continuous, uninterrupted service, I'll give you an extra float day."
As the meeting drew to a close someone propped open the bathhouse door, mentioned that it was awfully hot and asked, "Couldn't we get air conditioning?"
Well, maybe a big fan could be installed, Ellis said. Then he gave in -- some. When the miners move to a new bathhouse at Coalburg No. 2, they'll get air conditioning there, he promised.
After the meeting, Ellis explained that there had already been several employee meetings. Many of the miners are neighbors and had been swapping notes about earlier meetings. The miners on Coalburg No. 1's evening shift had come loaded for bear.
Ellis loves the give and take.
The fourth-generation coal miner has always been around mining. "I grew to love the coal miner -- going to the dinner hole, listening to them rewrite history," he said.
His great-grandfather, Jefferson Adkins, had a punch mine on a 1,200-acre farm along Twelve Pole Creek on the Mingo-Wayne County border. "It was the Coalburg seam," Ellis noted. Ellis' grandfather, Millard Ellis, worked in mines in both Logan and Mingo counties.
Ellis' father, Ernie Ellis, 79, of Logan, worked for Island Creek Coal, worked punch mines, was a federal inspector. He eventually got an equity position with some partners and managed six or seven mines.
Ellis said when he was a kid it was common for his dad to come home after a day's work, have dinner with the family, then take him out to a mine. His dad would mine coal. Ellis would pick slate. He said his dad "was strictly no-nonsense, but he paid me well."
In the mid-1970s, when Ellis was about 12, he started working Saturdays and summer vacations. "I was working outside, sweeping up, ordering supplies. It wasn't fun then, but I see the benefit now."
His dad never pushed coal mining but offered opportunities, Ellis said. "My dad told me, ‘You can go to any college you can get into. I'll find a way. You can be anything you want to be.' I told him once I might be a garbage man. He said, ‘That's fine. You'll be the best-educated damned garbage man on the truck.' "
A Logan High School graduate, Ellis went to West Virginia University from 1981 to 1987 and earned a degree as an underground mining engineer. "You'll notice it took six years," he said. "My dad says I crammed four years of college into six years."
His dad always worked in low seams. "He's a small, wiry guy," Ellis said. "You should see how he could duck-walk through a mine." His dad welcomed him to stick around "but wanted me to see a bigger operation," and suggested that Ellis work a 1982 summer internship at Marrowbone Development, a big new A.T. Massey operation.
"I was already a Black Hat," Ellis said. "I started underground as a laborer." Ellis worked summers and vacations at Marrowbone. The mine manager was Odell Hensley.
Ellis eventually managed the Rocksprings Mine in Wayne County. His work site moved in 1995 when a group of investors bought the former Carbon Fuel Co. property in eastern Kanawha County.
Coal has been mined in Winifrede Hollow for more than 100 years. Ellis said there are stories that when the Winifrede Railroad first began operating, it used a narrow gauge and wooden rails. Gravity was used to feed coal cars down to the Kanawha River. Oxen were used to pull the cars back up the grade.
"We're what I like to call Brownfield developers," Ellis said. "We bring in new technology, a new management style to bring old operations back to life."
Kanawha Eagle rebuilt the 6.5-mile-long railroad and renamed it the Big Eagle Railroad. It ties into the CSX mainline at Winifrede Junction on the Kanawha River. It is the oldest shortline railroad in the state. Kanawha Eagle also built the Emerald Preparation Plant in Winifrede Hollow. They started mining near Comfort -- that's the Kanawha Eagle No. 1 Mine -- then opened the Coalburg No. 1 Mine in 2003. The operations produce about 2.3 million clean tons of coal a year. Ellis hopes to open another mine -- Coalburg No. 2 -- at the head of the hollow next year.
Ellis describes his father as "my greatest mentor. He's far smarter, far wiser than I'll ever be."
Ellis counts his professors at WVU, especially Syd Peng and Larry Grayson, as mentors. He also admires some vendors, like Calvin Kidd. He counts many people he's worked with as mentors, including John Smith, Luther Collins, Odell Hensley, Mike Castle "and countless hourly employees."
His mentors today include the partners in Kanawha Eagle Coal: Bill Kilgore, Jim Bunn and F.D. "Red" Robertson -- and in 1994 he got involved with another coalfield legend, Buck Harless. Ellis marvels at his good fortune. He describes the partners as entrepreneur-spirited capitalists who put their own money up to a lot of risk and a potential great reward. He said the partners' philosophy is this: "If we succeed, we'll share that with you."
Ellis said the partners are hands off.
"It's your operation to run. But if you need them to provide guidance and assistance, they're there for you."
Odell Hensley now works for Ellis as manager of the Kanawha Eagle Mine. In fact, about 40 of the people on Ellis' staff have worked with him at several locations over the years. "The key is to get the right people, getting them to follow you, believe in you," Ellis said. "My style is to try to get good people and treat ‘em good. I'm a salesman. I tell people, ‘We'll build something here and prosper.'"
"It's very easy being me," Ellis said. "I don't put up any roof bolts. I don't cut any coal. I have great respect for those who do."