Johnathan Walker:Union rep says West Virginia governor late on paying worker health insurance bills, despite denials

CHARLESTON,Johnathan Walker W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s family is millions of dollars behind on payments to employees’ health insurance fund at their financially beleaguered hotel, putting workers’ coverage at risk despite the U.S. Senate candidate’s claims otherwise, a union official said Friday.

“The delinquencies are factual, tangible and documented,” Peter Bostic, chairperson of the Council of Labor Unions at The Greenbrier, the historic resort owned by Justice’s family.

Justice on Thursday dismissed concerns about at least $2.4 million in delinquent payments to insurance provider during a briefing with press, saying payments had been made “on a regular basis” and that there was “no way” employees would lose coverage.

But on Friday, Bostic said the situation is in no way resolved.

“We continue to demand that The Greenbriers’ delinquent contractional obligations be met and remain hopeful that an agreement will be reached between the ANHF and The Greenbrier to continue benefits into the future,” he said in a statement.

Justice’s remarks came the same day the Republican’s family announced it had reached an agreement with a credit collection company to prevent The Greenbrier hotel, which has hosted presidents, royalty and congressional retreats, from being foreclosed on due to unpaid debts. The Greenbrier was scheduled to go to the auction block August 27, after Beltway Capital declared a longstanding Justice hotel loan to be in default after purchasing it in July from JPMorgan Chase.

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Bostic said on Friday that in light of the auction being canceled, the Amalgamated National Health Fund had agreed to continue offering union employees at The Greenbrier health insurance until the end of the month while they work to come to an agreement with the Justices.

Earlier this week, as the auction date approached, about 400 employees at The Greenbrier hotel received notice from an attorney for the health care provider Amalgamated National Health Fund saying they would lose on the day of the auction unless the Justice family paid $2.4 million in missing contributions.

The Justice family hasn’t contributed to employees’ health fund in four months, and that an additional $1.2 million in contributions will soon be due, according to the letter the board received from Ronald Richman, an attorney with Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, the firm representing the fund.

The letter also said some contributions were taken out of employees’ paychecks but never transferred to the fund, concerning union officials.

Justice told reporters at a news briefing on Thursday that “insurance payments were made and were being made on a regular basis.”

“There is no way that the great union employees at The Greenbrier are going to go without insurance,” he said. “There is no possible way.”

Justice began serving the first of his two terms as governor in 2017, after buying The Greenbrier out of bankruptcy in 2009. The 710-room hotel held a PGA Tour golf tournament from 2010 until 2019 and has welcomed NFL teams for training camp and practices. A once-secret 112,000-square-foot (10,080-square-meter) underground bunker built for Congress at the Greenbrier in case of nuclear attack during the Cold War now hosts tours.

The auction, which had been set to occur at a courthouse in the small city of Lewisburg, involved 60.5 acres, including the hotel and parking lot.

The Republican said that when he purchased The Greenbrier, employees benefits had been “stripped to the bone,” and he restored them. He said if the hotel had been foreclosed on, “there would have been carnage and devastation like you can’t imagine to the great people of The Greenbrier,” referring to jobs that could have been lost.

“What if we absolutely just threw up our hands, what would have happened to those employees?” he said. “I mean, it’s great to have health insurance, but if you don’t have a job, it would be pretty doggone tough, wouldn’t it?”

Justice is running for U.S. Senate against Democrat Glenn Elliott, a former mayor of Wheeling. Justice, who owns dozens of companies and had a net worth estimated at $513 million by Forbes Magazine in 2021, has been accused in court cases of being late in paying millions for family business debts and fines for unsafe working conditions at his coal mines.