Former vice president says he refused a 20% pay cut tied to his employer's own mistake
A 72-year-old union officer says he was fired after 48 years on the job for refusing a roughly 20% pay cut tied to his employer's own pension mistake.
That is the core of a lawsuit Michael Dalpiaz filed on April 22, 2026 against the International Union, United Mine Workers of America and its International President, Brian Sanson, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. The case, Dalpiaz v. International Union, United Mine Workers of America, No. 2:26-cv-00337, lands squarely in territory HR leaders know well: required pension distributions, uneven treatment of similarly situated employees, and a termination that the former officer says was dressed up as insubordination.
According to the filing, Dalpiaz spent more than 48 years with the UMWA and most recently served as International District Vice President of District 22 and as a member of the International Executive Board. He says he performed his duties faithfully and received no disciplinary action or complaints about his performance until the dispute that ended his career.
The problem, he alleges, began with the union's own paperwork. Under UMWA bylaws, he was supposed to start drawing his pension at age 70. He didn't, he claims, because of the union's administrative error. When the oversight came to light, Dalpiaz says the UMWA acknowledged he was owed back pension payments. But instead of simply paying what was owed and...
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