. Here at Kentucky Tennessee Living we fully support the coal miners and their families. He is a sturdily built, self-assured man of about fifty, with a strong, square jaw and a rough, weathered face. The men's life depended on my job, but I knowed if I protested I'd a got fired. Kentucky communities discussed include Artemus, Burdine, Jenkins, Jellico, Van Lear, and Wheelwright; and Kentucky counties include Bell, Clay, Floyd, Harlan . This action did not go unnoticed by the labor unions and the United Mine Workers union decided to attempt to organize the already-impoverished labor force of the area. Two hundred people crowd. Mostly, the miners were fighting for improved working conditions, higher wages, and better housing options for their families. The Harlan Daily Enterprise story of September 16, 1943 is serious and straightforward: 17 miners are trapped a mile underground and help is on the way.. Much of the story is about help. Filmed during the coal strike of 1974-1975, this documentary does much to capture the tension brought on by the injustice of the coal operators to the coal miners in Harlan County, Kentucky. The Wagner Act of 1935 (National Labor Relations Act or NLRA) guaranteed the rights of workers to choose to organize. But is it really hurting? Done. "Then he'd come out looking like a sheep-killing dog and get in his truck and run. Miners die, and last year was the deadliest in American coal mines in more than a decade. Pierce has brought the actual Courier-Journal clippings about the Dreiser inquiry and shares them with us. Miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, have drawn national attention with their direct action occupying a railroad track to halt a coal train . Leroy Helton says miners often have to splice electrical cable, even though they're not qualified to do so. In 1981, he traded coal mining for gold mining as one of the founders of the current . Whitfield's family was from Alabama where his father had been in the coal business. Blair made it clear that he was on the side of the mine operators and the people of the county lost any illusion that the law enforcement would be impartial in this strike. The company will probably demand a new election. At Washington's National Airport, I board Piedmont Airline's fat little silver jet on a Sunday afternoon in early March. Other times, he says, "Roof was workin', rock was a-hangin', and it sounded like thunder. We are handed copies of court records concerning a certain Claude Beach, who has been hired by Eastover during the strike as a "security guard." Did she find the stick on the ground? National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions Jul 5, 1938. He was transferred to a worse section, he says. I glance at the new Piedmont magazine, Pace. As part of his New Deal, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented and had passed the National Industrial Act. He run all the way down the stairs and out of the jail." On Friday, March 25, a continuous mining machine operator was killed by a wall collapse at the Huff Creek No. He can't never walk again." But will Norman Yarborough ever agree to recognize the UMW? The group included John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and a number of other writers and artists. Mr. Nolan, a resident of Cawood, is survived by his wife, Mrs. Stella Nolan . Five men and their titles are listed and all are doing all they can.. The miners say that all of the strikers have been blacklisted by the Association. She says that she and some of the other women hid out last night to avoid being served with a contempt citation from Judge Hogg's court. It doesn't seem like enough. Wirtz says that his arbitration experience tells him that if Eastover really wants to negotiate in good faith, the remaining issues, tough as they are, can probably be worked out. The men and women were released on good behavior. The miners and the coal owners were still having disputes. There were ten lodges that were chartered for the National Miners Union. The magazine presents a different picture of the people and conditions in the Piedmont region than the one I am to see in Harlan County, Kentucky. The miners could be fired if they refused to spend their paychecks only in the store. (Brookside) were the only two mines of the Harlan County owner/operators association who rejected a 10% pay increase in 1933. When a miner complains, Jerry Johnson says, the foreman says, "If you don't like it, you can always get your bucket," meaning pick up your lunch bucket and get out. Eight miners were sentenced to life in prison for the actions that were taken on May 5, 1931. The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! On May 24, 1931, Sheriff Blair rescinded the miners right to assemble and tear-gassed a union rally. We are joined by Bernie Aaronson, the young public relations director of the UMW, and John Ed Pierce, a reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal. Freda Armes says, "I run him off. The Kentucky Coal Association is an IRS designated 501 (c) (6) nonprofit organization that aims to educate its members and the public of coal production and safety in the state of Kentucky. ", "They've done discriminated me," Grover Jennings continues. Strikebreakers were often beaten. Miner Curtis Cress, 34, says towns that . If those under them behave in an approved manner then they receive housing, work, food, and other perks of their position. The Citizens Inquiry meets in the attractive, river-rock Evarts Community Center, directly across the Clear Fork from the site of the 1931 "Battle of Evarts." The money was . Paternalism is the practice of people who have a business or other authority to restrict the freedoms of those who are subordinate to them. It is too early for dolor. The coal companies refused to back down from their positions and change anything. It will be a two-hour, winding drive through the Cumberland Mountains to the town of Harlan. Visit us and take a step back in time to learn more about how Harlan County helped build a nation at Portal 31 Exhibition Mine tour or come experience the delight of . The strikebreakers were under the protection of private mine guards. There are very few vacant houses in the county. On September 9, 1935, for the first time since the beginning of the war, troops were dispatched to Harlan County on behalf of the miners by the Governor of the State of Kentucky. During the Great Depression of the 1930s coal miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, struck against the coal operators for better pay and better working conditio. "It's one of 'em," Yarborough says. (Fifty million tons of union coal are mined in western Kentucky; only 6.5 million tons of union coal are mined in eastern Kentucky.) That commitment has never waivered, and has grown . safety director for the Harlan County Coal Operators Association; Moss Paterson, chief of the State Bureau of Mines and Minerals, and State and Federal mine inspectors. Faith Primitive Baptist Church. A Brief History of Harlan County, USA. It took forty-five minutes for someone to come and help get him out, Deaton says. The company also agreed to abide by any agreement reached between the . This series of skirmishes and strikes, lasting from early 1931 into 1939, began because of the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association's (HCCOA) decision to cut miners' wages by 10%. Drift mines back into the mountains follow the seam of coal wherever it goes." When fuses blow, they are not immediately replaced; the cable is spliced or "hot-wired" around the fuse. "The way I figured it, they done that because it was just a faster, way of getting coal." Is the safety provision in the UMW contract the sticking point for Eastover? These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Yarborough tells us that the company does not now object to paying the miners for portal-to-portal time for inside mine work, but that the union wants comparability for outside workers too, in effect requiring the company to pay outside workers overtime for all work in excess of a seven and-a-quarter-hour regular day. "Here at Brookside, if you called someone from SLU, he might come in a week, he might come in two weeks, but when he did come, he'd go into Eastover's office and talk for an hour," Bill Doan says. On one excuse or another, such as not having personnel readily available to accompany the inspector into the mine, the company can delay the inspection. Genders. She says that the women decided that they couldn't fight guns with switches and that they had taken sticks with them the next time. A third generation coal operator, he served as President of the Harlan County Coal Operators and the Harlan Mining Institute, as Vice President of the Kentucky Coal Association and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Associated Industries of Kentucky. United States Washington D.C. District of Columbia Washington D.C . The Act also made a provision for a National Labor-Relations Board to designate a legal structure for the workers to conduct fair and legal elections of their officers and representatives. Our driver points out Norman Yarborough's two-story frame house, across the highway from the camp and up out of the river bottom. The airline magazine contains an article on southern skiing, a feature on hot, winter drinks for the "Piedmont palate," an article on how tough it is to be thirty-three and middle-class today, and a success story about an Atlanta bra, sleepwear, girdle, and pantie company. And I can't get you off of that couch. In 1973 the 13-month Brookside Strike brought almost 200 workers to battle Eastover Coal Company's Brookside Mine and Prep Plant, a company owned by Duke Power. Why is garbage left on the roadway? It comes to a bill of about $20,000 a week for the national union. Unlike the previous Coal Wars that took place in West Virginia with the Paint-Creek Strike of 1912 and Matewan that lasted for a year or two. Don Dalton, UMW Safety Director for Region Six, explains this. "They don't want miners havin' any say in safety." In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. The remaining workforce then went on strike as a sign of solidarity with those that were fired from their jobs. Perched atop Inspiration Mountain is the modern Mount Aire Motel. But negotiations for a contract with Eastover soon broke down, and on July 30 the miners at Brookside began the strike that now, as we arrive, is in its eighth month. Documents the 1973 Kentucky coal miners' strike against the operators of the Brookside mine and the Duke Power Company, which resulted from the company's refusal to honor the . There is a suit still in litigation. Interviews with residents of Hazard who discuss the coal miners' union, the harassment union miners faced from large mining companies, and the unofficial strikes that are being organized in Hazard County. At first, heading northwest on modern Route 23, through Kingsport, Tennessee, Weber City, Virginia, and Gate City, Virginia, the sights are the same as almost everywhere else in America today. During the rest of the afternoon, the miners talk about what has happened on the picket line and in the local court. Expand. Its initial land holdings were in the Irwin gas coal basin in Westmoreland County, but as these were exhausted the company purchased 14,000 acres of undeveloped coal land along the border of Boone and Logan Counties in West Virginia in 1923-28. . 4 . These battles will end the Coal Wars proper. Sometimes, they'll be a black scum on the rag." As in Germany, the AFSC used need alone to determine who got fed. He says that they do not need the UMW to look after them; he will do that. In the throes of the Great Depression, Harlan County coal owners and operators, in an effort to expand national dependency on their fuel, chose to sell below cost. My man was mashed up in the mines. Partial Transcript: August 27, '86. Where will the families go? There was a scuffle when a state police captain tried to remove one of the women, she says, adding, "Captain Cromer did get hit several times; I hit him with a stick myself." They're trapped. The miners say that, somehow, management always knows when the government inspectors are coming. Now, Tony Boyle is among those who have been convicted of complicity in the murders, and Arnold Miller is the head of the revamped union. We soon get into a discussion about Dreiser's 1931 inquiry. Now, along a cloudy green stream, or through deep cuts in the mountains, or high atop a timbered ridge, looking down on green quilt-patch valleys, we wind our way toward Harlan. Bill Doan says that the roof bolts often didn't have enough torque on them, sometimes causing roof falls as high as thirty-five feet above the regular ceiling, and that once he complained about this to the visiting inspector in the presence of his foreman. James Willard Pope officiating. Dateline New York City, November 13, 1931: Dreiser again denies the charge and adds, "Even if it were true, I wouldn't give a damn. The aftermath of this battle led to wider strikes in the Harlan County area. Others say they intend to speak and write about what they have heard. A young woman from the Associated Press asks me, aren't we getting only one side of the story? Destitute miners were in no position to take a 2 wage cut; yet, in February of 1931 the newest in a long series of wage cuts occurred, reducing miners' weekly pay by 10 percent. 5355 after Local Union 4495 at Black Mountain folded up. The women say they then organized a "sunrise worship service" to begin at 4:30 on the morning of October 23, on the railroad tracks across the highway from the picket line. I have also attended the University of Pikeville. J. D. Skidmore says, "I have no chance of getting a job in Harlan County if this strike is not settled." America in the Harlan County Mine Wars, 1931-1939 Carletta A. Bush Early accounts of the Harlan County mine wars place the inability of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) to establish a permanent foothold in the county, first at the feet of of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association (HCCOA) and secondly at While their main objectives were a steady job, a decent wage and a program of safety checks . California labor activist Caroline Decker also raised money for the relief of the striking miner efforts. June 17th of that same year, the first strike was over as the last miner had returned to work. [citation needed] On February 16, 1931, in order to prevent operating at a loss, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association cut miners' wages by 10%. The miners, impoverished due to their already low pay (this coming in the form of company scrip, room, and board), decided enough was enough, and some of them . Though the union had made substantial inroads into the Central Appalachian coalfields by 1930, when miners in Bell and Harlan Counties went out on strike in early May, 1931, the UMWA removed its support. There is no water in the house. Eastover agreed to sign the 1971 wage pact of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association which is in force at 1,200 mines.

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