Changes

{{#Badges: CoalSwarm}}'''Alliance Resource Partners, L.P.''' (ARLP) operates five mining companies in western Kentucky, along with mines in Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia and Maryland. The company describes itself as "a diversified coal producer and marketer with significant operations in the eastern United States" and states that it is "the fifth-largest coal producer in the eastern United States."<ref name="About">Alliance Resource Partners, [http://www.arlp.com/about/index.htm "About ARLP"], Alliance Resource Partners website, accessed June 2009.</ref>

At 2008 year end, ARLP states that it had approximately 2,955 full-time employees, $1.0 billion in assets and $1.2 billion in total revenues.<ref name="About"/>

In a 2011 lawsuit, federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) accused Alliance Resource Partners' River View Coal of discriminating against black applicants while hiring miners for a new mine from 2008-2010, suing on behalf of Shawn King and a "class of black applicants." At issue is how River View conducted hiring at a mine in Waverly, a non-union mine about 25 minutes west of Henderson, Ky., between Aug. 1, 2008 and 2010. The mine started operations in 2009. The underground mine employs 437 people. EEOC was hesitant to say how many people were covered by the lawsuit, saying that figure was still being determined, but that 13 people filed complaints with the agency after being rejected for jobs between 2008 to 2010, when River View began interviewing for miners. The company didn't give any of the applicants a specific reason for being turned down, and several were not interviewed for open positions.  River View produced 5.9 million tons of high-sulfur coal in 2010, with 128.5 million tons listed in reserve at the end of that same year.<ref>Brett Barrouquere, [http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9Q0UQ382.htm "EEOC: Mining company wouldn't hire black miners"] Bloomberg, Sep. 27, 2011.</ref>