The SLU was largely seen as serving the interests of the mine owners rather than the workers. The bosses wouldn't go in, but I've. Bobby's wife, Becky, who died in 2013, was a lifelong advocate for the people of Harlan County. There were ten lodges that were chartered for the National Miners Union. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. By 1908 the union had . Enforcing the operators' political will, both within and outside the law, was the Harlan County Coal Operators Association. We agree that most of us lean toward the miners, but we think we can be fair in trying to learn the facts. Nevertheless, as the county seat, the city of Harlan has resources much of the county lacks. In the year of "the energy crisis," Coal is King again at $30 a ton. Harlan, city, seat of Harlan county, southeastern Kentucky, U.S., in the Cumberland Mountains, on the Clover Fork Cumberland River. The Brookside mine is capable of producing only about a half-million tons of the 15 million tons of coal Duke uses each year. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. I have attended the University of Kentucky. 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 the Harlan County Coal Operators Association (HCCOA) and secondly at the worn work boots of miners who, when work was plentiful, saw little or no need for a union. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. 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. Harlan Daily Enterprise, September 17, 1943. Steeped in Appalachian culture and surrounded by the influence of coal, Harlan County has amassed an interesting reputation and national attention with rest of the world. Kentucky communities discussed include Artemus, Burdine, Jenkins, Jellico, Van Lear, and Wheelwright; and Kentucky counties include Bell, Clay, Floyd, Harlan . Each contract varied from mine to mine. Burger Chef. There were constant beatings of the miners by the Sheriffs deputies. I look at the government statistics once more. It is clear that these women have been a main factor in keeping the mine shut down. The next morning the toothpicks were still in place, it was said. Pic from Harlan County USA of a Coal Camp. Faith Primitive Baptist Church. The coal miners, lean and tough from Kentucky mountain life, knew how to fight back. Three of our Inquiry members plan to talk with the president of Duke Power Company. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. However, they did make a greater effort than the United Mine Workers with relief as they opened soup kitchens around the county. Killed - 12. . 2012: $1,552,717. Leroy Helton says miners often have to splice electrical cable, even though they're not qualified to do so. 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 . This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. When the smoke had cleared, the bodies of three guards and one miner were found, and an undetermined number of other dead and dying had been carried away into the mountains. Pierce has brought the actual Courier-Journal clippings about the Dreiser inquiry and shares them with us. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Which Side are You on? They are demanding the standard UMW provision requiring the company to pay a royalty of seventy-five cents a ton on mined coal into the UMW Welfare & Retirement Fund. Other clippings detail the earlier bloodshed and misery in Harlan County. The final straw was when the Harlan County Coal Operators Association cut miners' wages by 10%. With the added protection for workers and the addition of collective bargaining between the workers and their employers. But I ain't leaving because this is my home.". Harlan County to unionize miners. We come into Harlan County at dusk. Even pop culture cannot ignore its impact with such shows as Justified. Even though things were doing better for the unions in Harlan County, there was still civil unrest. The company also agreed to abide by any agreement reached between the . Yarborough is tough and unyielding. He fined the UMW $20,000. The members of the Inquiry panel leave the Community Center to visit the coal camp at Brookside-rows of delapidated frame houses, identical except for their weathering gray, green, red, and beige paint. Breaks in the cable, they say, are often just wrapped with mask-ing tape and exposed again to the water. "This troubles me; I don't sleep," Yarborough says. It will be a two-hour, winding drive through the Cumberland Mountains to the town of Harlan. 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. In Harlan County, Kentucky, the 1931 Battle of Evarts ended in four deaths. You come out of there lookin' like a hog that's been rootin' in the mud.' Where will the families go? Daniels was one of the most hated deputies in the county due to his anti-union views. When this strike was broken in1924, none of the non-union mines in Harlan County, all of which were members ofthe Harlan County Coal Operators Association, would employ a man from BlackMountain."Many of the men who worked at Black Mountain transferred to LocalUnion No. "This whole country is like a layer cake," Si Kahn says, "a layer cake of shale, coal, and sandstone. But is it really hurting? It was [and still is] used to signify that what happened in the realm of politics, a field largely controlled by men, affect women's everyday lives. Tuesday morning: Norman Yarborough has agreed to meet some of our group. Now, forty-three years later, Harlan County is again gripped in a UMW strike, this time at the Brookside mine of the Eastover Mining Company, and another citizens' group has been formed. Norman Yarborough, head of Eastover Mining Company, is not coming either. The accident was the second worst mine fatality in the history of Harlan County coal mining, the worst being Harlan Fuel Company . 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 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. My man was mashed up in the mines. Some of the women say they haven't had a drink of water since moving to the Brookside camp. Hennen attributes this abandonment to the increasingly conservative John L. Lewis, the longtime and powerful president of the UMWA, who feared . Lois Scott says that the women organized the Brookside Women's Club and got involved in the strike "because we knew that if the women didn't come in there would be violence." Mrs. Herschel Gaw, wife of the ailing jailer, locked them all up. He is dressed more like a miner than a mining executive. June 17th of that same year, the first strike was over as the last miner had returned to work. I have also attended the University of Pikeville. I am the only man in the United States who would do that sort of thing.". The nearest ridge is green with spruce and pine. More than twenty-four babies out of a thousand die before they are one year old, and the expenditure per child in the public schools is one-half the national average. 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. But mostly the scenery is depressingly bleak. ", Bill Doan says that he was hurt in a rockfall at 7:15 one morning and that he didn't get out of the mine until nine o'clock. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Word precedes him. I remind her that Duke and Eastover executives were invited, and have refused to appear before us. 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. "We've took about all we can take," he says. Apparently, this is one of Eastover's major objections. 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. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. Jacqueline Brophy asks why public services have broken down. Pricing; Switch; Big firm; The UMW had made written proposals for compromising these issues a little. To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association decided to cut all wages by ten . "We could lay down, fight the police, or let them scabs go to work. He says that wages are no longer a problem and that the amount of the royalty to be paid into the UMW Welfare & Retirement Fund is not crucially important. It was settled in 1819 by Virginians led by Samuel Howard and was known as Mount Pleasant until renamed in 1912 for Major Silas Harlan, who was killed during the American Revolution at the Battle of Blue Licks (August 19, 1782). This active organization is made up of those who represent the leader in the mining industry. These battles will end the Coal Wars proper. . Lifelong resident of Harlan. 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 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 miners say that, somehow, management always knows when the government inspectors are coming. "Dreiser, Woman Indicted," one headline reads. Does the Association hire for all the mines in the county? On May 24, 1931, Sheriff Blair rescinded the miners right to assemble and tear-gassed a union rally. Captain James Cromer of the state police later tells news reporters, "The women are a problem. There were only nine hundred miners working and 5,800 miners were idle and striking during the first strike. For a time after the hearing, he says, it appeared that Duke had softened. The group included John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and a number of other writers and artists. Troops had to be called into the county three times to maintain order. Grover Jennings says that six months ago he applied for a job at the Mary Helen mine and was apparently accepted, but that when he went back for his physical, Clyde Goitis, an official at the mine, said, "Buddy, there just ain't no way I can do anything for you. Harlan County Coal Miners Deaths 1940-1949 1940 1940 Hayes, Petry - Harlan Central Coal Company Totz No. Our delegation arrives on time at the Eastover office in Brookside. Others claim that his death was caused by an election concerning slot machines into the county. California labor activist Caroline Decker also raised money for the relief of the striking miner efforts. Thirty percent of the families lack automobiles. Dalton points out that there were 132 mine fatalities in the United States in 1973, only seventeen of them in UMW mines. Five men and their titles are listed and all are doing all they can.. Project Summary. Why is garbage left on the roadway? The unemployment rate in the county is 7 percent; that doesn't count those who have long since given up looking for the scarce or nonexistent jobs. "Yarborough says he just don't want nobody tellin' him how to run his mine," Deaton says. However, the battle continues to this day. "Boss walks up and says, 'We've got to make this mine look good now, boys; the inspector's comin','" Jerry Johnson says. These guards were legally able to protect these men during their off duty time. The motorcade stopped and the deputies got out of their cars to return fire. Herndon J. Evans, the editor of the Pineville Sun, argued, The troubles of the coal industry had their inception in war times. Several folk singers and other artists toured the United States to raise money during the strikes. They lobby in Frankfort and Washington and sponsor an annual "Coal Miners Day" to try to get more high school students interested in mining engineering. corporateBody associatedWith : Heyl & Patterson, Inc . It is also women's day before the Citizens In-quiry. "A gun thug pulled a gun on us, and I broke a switch over his head, and the little gun thug pulled out," Lois Scott says matter-of-factly. 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. Crossing the Clinch River, we turn onto Highway 421 and leave the modern world. They range in age from about twenty-one to seventy. To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators Association decided to cut all wages by ten percent. No, Yarborough says; it just serves as a central clearing house, so that job applicants won't have to go around and apply at each of the mines separately. 25 (N.L.R.B. Some seventy-five state policemen were on hand as the crowd gathered. Dateline Newport News, Virginia, November 12, 1931: Dreiser denies the charge and says he wants people to concentrate on the facts of the labor dispute and "get the American mind off sex for a moment." 1931, only $13.5 million. They want the terms of the standard UMW contract or better. On the plane with me, it turns out, is another member of the Citizens Inquiry, Jacqueline Brophy, who is the director of the Labor-Liberal Arts Program of Cornell University's School of Industrial Labor Relations in New York. That year, annual wages dropped from $1,235 to $749. As the motorcade approached a single shot rang out in the air. 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. If those under them behave in an approved manner then they receive housing, work, food, and other perks of their position. Copy with citation. The remaining workforce then went on strike as a sign of solidarity with those that were fired from their jobs. On September 4, 1935, Harlan County Attorney Elmon Clay Middleton, age 31, was assassinated by a car bomb containing eighteen sticks of dynamite. Ky., told the Senate Civil Liberties Committee as it resumed its investigation of alleged terrorism in connection with Harlan County Coal Operators' efforts to resist union organization drives. Two more Inquiry panel members join us, Willard Wirtz, who was Secretary of Labor under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and the Reverend Max Glenn, executive director of the Commission on Religion in Appalachia. This was not just a flashy slogan, and the truth of it is . 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." Up at seven on a Monday morning, I walk out onto the balcony of my motel room. We drive through the streets of the town of Harlan, past the stores and houses, past the Harlan Baptist Church with a sign out front which reads: "If you are unkind, you are the wrong kind." 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. Throughout 1931, violence sprouted between miners "I've seen some hurt and some killed. the meeting room. And lastly, the Harlan Fox Mining Co - presumably derived from the Harlan Fox Coal Co - was in operation from 1925-1932. She talks about hiding behind cars on the picket line for protection from the "gun thugs." She talks about a standoff against Basil Collins and the scabs and gun thugs. It reports that "Piedmont" is an adjective derived.from Italian words that literally mean "formed at the foot of the mountains." In the bloody 1930s coal wars, miners known to be union members were fired and evicted from company-owned homes. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. We gather back in Evarts and announce that our report will be ready in two or three weeks. had them make me go in and pin it because it wasn't done right the first time. 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. Or all you're gonna get's a chunk of Harlan County coal. Mine operators viciously opposed miners' efforts to unionize, particularly in Harlan County. He can't never walk again." by Ron Soodalter. Three of the federal reports state that there was no safety committee at Brookside, as required by law. It was two o'clock on a Monday morning when the accident occurred, and he'd been in the mine., more than twelve hours. Louis Stacy that he has several times been running a defective roofbolting machine when word came that inspector was on his way. The slab of slate, more than 51 feet long, and 17 feet wide and weighing tons, was dodged by two men. Perched atop Inspiration Mountain is the modern Mount Aire Motel. A thousand feet below me lies a small, green valley, partly shrouded by the morning mist. It is unclear who fired that shot but both sides claim that the other side did it. He is a sturdily built, self-assured man of about fifty, with a strong, square jaw and a rough, weathered face. "It's one of 'em," Yarborough says. "I don't know nothing about the electrical part." When fuses blow, they are not immediately replaced; the cable is spliced or "hot-wired" around the fuse. It does not store any personal data. The Harlan County Coal Operators Association, still functioning today, spent nearly a half million dollars from 1927 to 1938 to combat unionism, most of it going to pay strongarm men to terrorize . It comes to a bill of about $20,000 a week for the national union. But what of the people of Harlan County? The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". I remind her of what Bill Doan has said: "You work with one eye on the roof, one eye on your job, and your mind's outside.". 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 . They have done this only since the Brookside strike. 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 . Carl Horn of Duke Power and Arnold Miller of the UMW had talked, and negotiations had been resumed. The miners express extreme dissatisfaction with Eastover's medical and retirement benefits. (Eastover, to repeat, now pays portal-to-portal wages for inside workers in its other mines and has raised the wages of nonstrikers to the UMW level.) J. D. Skidmore says that, back in the mines, the phones are always out of order, there is no transportation out until the end of the shift, and it's a one-hour walk to daylight. There was no standard contract for the miners. Make your practice more effective and efficient with Casetext's legal research suite. "They sent me to 'Waterhole No. 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. [videorecording] Contributor(s): Kopple, Barbara; First-Run Features (Firm) Cabin Creek Films; Publication details: New York : First Run Features, 1976. . Here, too, are some of the richest natural resources in the countryand some of the poorest people. I'm standing at 2800 feet above sea level. 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. . Wanted to be able to spend their money at a store of their choice besides the Black Mountain Coal Company store. A young woman from the Associated Press asks me, aren't we getting only one side of the story? But, I say, even without further investigation of each of the complaints, it is possible to conclude that fear is an everyday part of the miners' lives. 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. October 31, 2016. A rural county of 27,000, Harlan County's average household income is about $29,000. 3.' Office files covering topics such as "accounts receivable," "baseball club," "coal production," "garnishment orders," "Harlan Coal Operator's Association," "labor conditions," "medical conditions . In one of these, the septic tank has been out of order for several months. Miners also wanted the right to organize and have a union. But you must remember I am an immoral man. Two hundred people crowd. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. "The way I figured it, they done that because it was just a faster, way of getting coal." 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. An open shop is where union membership is allowed but not mandated to work at that location. If any attractive woman became interested in me, I'd think it was a very lovely thing. Brophy's was the last reform insurgency against UMW leadership until Joseph Yablonski's fatal try. The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. Another press member criticizes Barbara Bode for having raised a clenched fist during the women's testimony. On the way back to the Mount Aire at the end of the day, we pass back through Brookside with its deteriorating mining-camp houses along the stinking Clear Fork River. Talking to Aaronson, I am reminded of an old tin sign I saw tacked on a tree along the highway as I left Harlan.
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