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Justice’s Greenbrier comes to last-minute deal on union health care

The sun peeks out through rain clouds gathering over the historic Greenbrier Resort Thursday afternoon. (Photo by Steven Allen Adams)

WHITE SUPLHUR SPRINGS — The Greenbrier Resort, the historic hotel owned by Gov. Jim Justice, and the union representing 400 Greenbrier employees announced a deal on overdue payments to the union’s health care plan, though the governor still denies that any payments were withheld.

In statements released Thursday, the Greenbrier Resort and the Greenbrier Council of Labor Unions announced that a settlement agreement was reached between the hotel and the Amalgamated National Health Fund.

“The Greenbrier proudly announces there will be no interruptions in health care coverage for any of the hundreds of hard-working union employees and their families,” according to a statement from the Greenbrier.

Both parties provided no details, but the union said the agreement “should secure our Members’ Health Care Benefits into the future and address prior delinquencies.”

“We are hopeful that The Greenbrier will honor all commitments and contractual obligations moving forward so that our members are not forced to endure any uncertainties in the future,” the union said in its statement. “Our members’ hard work and dedication is what truly makes The Greenbrier the destination that it is renowned for.”

Speaking during his weekly administration briefing from Charleston Thursday afternoon, Justice said he was pleased an agreement could be reached.

“It’s cost big money really hard … But I’m glad we got where we can put it to bed, so we go forward,” Justice said

Union employees of the Greenbrier received a letter Aug. 19 from attorneys for the Amalgamated National Health Fund claiming that the Greenbrier was behind on its health plan contributions to the tune of $2.4 million, plus another $1.2 million if not paid by a Tuesday deadline. The deadline was later moved to Saturday by the end of this month.

The delinquent amount included employee contributions for 400 union employees of the resort that were deducted from paychecks by the Greenbrier but not remitted to Amalgamated National Health Fund according to attorneys for the fund and the union.

Both Justice and the Greenbrier in its Thursday statement continue to claim that employee health care contributions were not mishandled or misappropriated.

“The employee contributions that were withheld from employees’ paychecks were always timely remitted to the Health Fund, and not a single time was a penny of those contributions used for any purpose other than funding the health care coverage of The Greenbrier employees,” representatives of the Greenbrier stated.

“As far as our employees, I hate the stress and surely to goodness I hate the union coming out and sending out a letter basically saying we had withheld Toby and Edith’s money, which was completely false,” Justice said. “The worst of the whole thing from my standpoint is not taking the crap on my side. The problem is just this: the worries of the employees. These are good people … We care about all those folks like that.”

Thursday’s announcement comes after a deal was reached last week between the Greenbrier and Beltway Capital Management and McCormick 101 LLC to temporarily avoid an auction of the Greenbrier that had been planned for Tuesday. According to the agreement, the Justice family agreed to pay a specific amount in full by Oct. 24, with the funding already secured by Justice though no further details were released.

Beltway Capital/McCormick 101 declared a loan transferred from JPMorgan Chase Bank in default last month after Justice was unable to pay the full amount by the June 28 maturity date, placing the resort in foreclosure. JPMorgan transferred what was left of a $142 million loan the elder Justice took out in 2014 on the Greenbrier to Beltway Capital/McCormick 101 on July 2.

Representatives of Justice’s companies claim the loan was paid down to $9.4 million, but Beltway Capital/McCormick 101 filed a separate court case July 18 in New York seeking $40.3 million plus interest and late charges accruing since July 15 from Justice, James C. Justice Companies Inc., Justice Holdings LLC, GSR LLC, Wintergreen Partners Inc. and the Greenbrier Hotel Corp.

Justice continues to claim that the transfer of the loan from JPMorgan to Beltway Capital/McCormick 101 and the timing of the foreclosure was meant to hurt him politically though no evidence has been presented to back the governor’s claim. Justice is the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, facing Democratic former Wheeling mayor Glenn Elliott.

“I absolutely hate like crazy to see things happen like Beltway,” Justice said. “Beltway came out of no man’s land. I’ll never, ever believe on my life that it wasn’t 100% political because it made no sense in the world. We had JPMorgan paid down $9.4 million and they sold the note significantly less than that I think but I don’t know that for sure. How does it make any sense that JPMorgan didn’t call us?”

Justice bought the Greenbrier in 2009 from rail company CSX. Since Justice first took office in 2017, his daughter Jill Justice runs the Greenbrier Hotel Corp. as president while Justice serves as governor, though Justice is still listed as CEO. The Greenbrier owes millions of dollars in state and county taxes, including sales tax, personal income tax withholding on behalf of employees, and property taxes.

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com

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