Hundreds more coal miners are out of a job after Appalachian Fuels Lays off employees in Pike County.

A letter sent to employees said the layoffs are due to weak market conditions.

No one from the Appalachian Fuels office in Ashland has returned our calls yet, but the letter says the layoffs are temporary.

We caught up with two of the workers now struggling to make ends meet.

Coal Miners Danny Coleman and James McKinley Akers went to work at Appalachian Fuels as normal over the weekend but when they got there, they got a letter telling them they no longer had a job, effective immediately.

“Just went in, all the equipment was packed up. That was it. Just didn't see it coming to me,” James McKinley Akers said.

The letter says the layoffs are due to weak market conditions.

Now the two men are joining the other estimated couple of hundred laid off Appalachian Fuels employees in the Pike County unemployment line.

“It's tough. You have to try and sign up on everything and try to get everything you can get. A person don't want to, but you have to. There just aren't any other jobs around right now,” Danny Coleman said.

Coleman and his wife have two young children they are worried about, “It's going to be rough, especially when you're used to, you know, the income,” said Coleman.

Akers and his wife are also struggling to make ends meet.

The notice says the layoffs are temporary and Appalachian Fuels managers hope to call them back to work when the market improves.

Now they are waiting to see.

The layoff notice says Appalachian Fuels hopes to call them back to work in a few months, but they cannot give a time frame.