He says that negotiations were broken off on November 28, 1973, because of the miners' insistence on the full terms of the standard UMW contract. It read: RE-ELECT GAW, JAILER. 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 . I glance at the new Piedmont magazine, Pace. They want portal-to-portal pay from the time they enter the mine until they leave it. by Ron Soodalter. Leroy Helton says miners often have to splice electrical cable, even though they're not qualified to do so. Four men were arrested in connection with this murder. These interviews with major coal operators document their personal histories and the history of the coal industry in eastern Kentucky during the twentieth century. On May 5, 1931 the pot boiled over; in Harlan County Kentucky, heavily armed deputies and company men, called "gun thugs" by miners, confronted disgruntled union men on a road near Evarts. Lois Scott explains that during the first confrontation at the mine, she saw a pistol in the front seat of every "scab" car she looked into and that a company "gun thug" pointed a submachine gun at the women from the porch of the Eastover office. Two hundred people crowd. The miners charge that Eastover has hired what they call "gun thugs." It took forty-five minutes for someone to come and help get him out, Deaton says. The motorcade stopped and the deputies got out of their cars to return fire. We stop for fish and chips at a chain-operated Long John Silver's Sea Food Shoppe, as out of place in the Cumberlands as a clam in a spruce tree. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Others claim that his death was caused by an election concerning slot machines into the county. I have also attended the University of Pikeville. Altogether, it is a heavy financial burden for the UMW. Harlan County. 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. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". 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. 2011: $1,161,330. Miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, have drawn national attention with their direct action occupying a railroad track to halt a coal train . Cite. Is that the only objection that is holding up a settlement? The decade-long conflict between miners and the coal operators who adamantly resisted unionization has been immortalized in folksong by Florence Reece and Aunt Molly Jackson, contemplated in prose by Theodore Dreiser and Sherwood Anderson, and long been obscured by . "I've seen some hurt and some killed. Others say they intend to speak and write about what they have heard. Get a Demo. Interment at Resthaven Cemetery, Keith, Ky. Visitation 6-9 p.m. at the Grays Knob Bible Church. Yarborough replies. No. After the Battle of Evarts, the Red Cross and the United Mine Workers Union refused to help the striking men on the basis that it was now an industrial conflict that needed to be resolved internally. I have taken several classes in Journalism as well as in the Appalachian History, Literature, and Sociology during my time at those schools. All too many Americans are under the naive belief that, while unions may have been necessary in the 30's, they are no longer needed in the United States today. The decrease in wages, unemployment, and irregular employment caused "poverty, hunger, and disease.". A shoulder blade and five of his ribs were broken. It was a nearly decade-long conflict, lasting from 1931 to 1939. . Pierce mentions the "toothpick incident." Done Citation. Pay ranged from $17 to $32 day, the average being $25. Harlan County sits in the sweet spot of coal mining in southeastern Kentucky. The Brookside labor dispute erupted spontaneously soon after Miller's election. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". Duke Power Company appears to be the key to breaking the deadlock in negotiations. Bill Doan says, "When I got hurt, I couldn't find Jim Miller, the man who had charge of the sick fund." "They sent me to 'Waterhole No. Hennen attributes this abandonment to the increasingly conservative John L. Lewis, the longtime and powerful president of the UMWA, who feared . Exist Dates. Copy with citation. It was the most violent attack of the Harlan County Coal wars and the most violence would only last fifteen minutes in total but would forever change the name to Bloody Harlan. She talks about the women being armed with sticks, mace . The kind of house she would like, if she could find one, would rent for about $50 a month, but she and her husband cannot pay that much. The transcript will be published as a book. You come out of there lookin' like a hog that's been rootin' in the mud.' Strike benefits are $100 weekly for a family, $90 for a couple, and $80 for a single man. That commitment has never waivered, and has grown . In the face of what promised to be a lengthy struggle for the Harlan County coal miners of 1931, their wildcat strike had left thousands jobless and many homeless as well. She doesn't know where she will go when the camp is closed. 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. Pricing; Switch; Big firm; Harry Caudill, attorney and author of Night Comes to the Cumberlands, will not be able to join us in Harlan because of legal business. 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. (The union has told us that they are quite willing to limit the contract to the Brookside mine.) On Friday, March 25, a continuous mining machine operator was killed by a wall collapse at the Huff Creek No. Our drive takes us upstream along the yellow-brown Clear Fork River. It was Miller who defeated W. A. Is the safety provision in the UMW contract the sticking point for Eastover? A historical marker says we are near the Little Shepherd Trail, the setting for the novel Shepherd of the Hills. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. He discusses the formation and activities of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association . Following this episode, the women say, Norman Yarborough asked Judge Hogg to hold the UMW and a number of miners and women in contempt of the Judge's order limiting the number of picketers to six. 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." 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. They have probably helped keep their own men from exploding too. Three Harlan County incorporated towns were not owned by the coal mines, they became a sanctuary for the evicted and starving miners. Miners laid in an ambush on the day of May 5, 1931, near the Evarts railroad crossing. Almost immediately after the explosion became known rescue teams, under the direction of J. F. Bryson, safety director of the Harlan County Coal Operators association, started into the entry. They range in age from about twenty-one to seventy. All during the day they worked in shifts, trying to penetrate to the point where the explosion occurred. : The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! 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. There were shots exchanged and all three deputies and one striker were killed. "Try walking out of there, carrying a man with a broken back," one of the miners says. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Many of the houses have no running water, and these families have to carry all their water from a common outdoor spigot. One night, they saw a secretary for the Dreiser group enter Dreiser's hotel room, and they placed toothpicks against the door to determine whether she ever came back out during the night. The next morning the toothpicks were still in place, it was said. The Price of Coal, Part II. Nobody knows how long the UMW can keep paying strike benefits. Harlan, district mine inspector of the State Department of Mines and Minerals, and James Bryson, safety director, Harlan County Coal Operators Association. The bosses wouldn't go in, but I've. Office files covering topics such as "accounts receivable," "baseball club," "coal production," "garnishment orders," "Harlan Coal Operator's Association," "labor conditions," "medical conditions . 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. Barbara says that she was reacting spontaneously to the spirit and determination exhibited by the women, that their testimony was the highlight of our hearings. Three of our Inquiry members plan to talk with the president of Duke Power Company. 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. Mr. Nolan, a resident of Cawood, is survived by his wife, Mrs. Stella Nolan . Under this Act, the right to organize in ones workplace was granted as well as it outlawed any discrimination whether employed or seeking employment based on union membership. These disputes were still brewing when on December 8, 1934, the United Mine Workers Union was threatened by deputies and mine bosses. "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. Norman Yarborough, head of Eastover Mining Company, is not coming either. In the year of "the energy crisis," Coal is King again at $30 a ton. Theoretically, even operators' and owners' children were . Typical of counties with low income, counties where the mine companies own everything and pay low taxes, our UMW driver says. ", We break for lunch, prepared by the women of the Evarts Community Center. 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. He sentenced nine men and seven women to six months in jail and fined them $500 each. 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 the 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. 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. The AFSC fed almost 1500 children in Harlan by the end of the 1931-2 schoolyear, as well as about a hundred nursing and expectant mothers. On top of that, we learn later, the union is spending $108,000 a year for medical and hospital coverage for the striking miners and their families. Expand. One of the better houses is already being demolished. I have an Associates Degree from Hazard Community College and Technical School. J. D. Skidmore says, "I have no chance of getting a job in Harlan County if this strike is not settled." With this Supreme Court ruling, all but one of the open shops in Harlan County went back to the previous mine operations. Evarts welcomed the miners because it was filled with spurned politicians and business owners who wished to see the company stores and company men in political positions vanish. He'd worked seventy-eight hours straight the preceding week. Past that, the other undulating ridges are blue and hazy. Miners also wanted the right to organize and have a union. The Harlan County coal miners campaigned and fought to organize their workplaces and better their wages and working conditions. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Thirty percent of the families lack automobiles. The warrant was never served. These guards were legally able to protect these men during their off duty time. We drive to the Evarts Community Center and report to the other members of the Citizens Inquiry. Si Kahn says that Eastover tried for a time to operate the mine with "scabs," but that the mine was shut down when the coal miners' wives and other women joined the men on the picket line. [ 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%. Duke Power Company of North Carolina, he says, is the sixth largest utility company in the world. Trailer parks called Walnut Grove, Mobile Manor, and Mesa Village Mobile Manor. And you wondr why I keep running my mouth . They have done this only since the Brookside strike. (This . Si says Harlan is a dry countyno legal liquor and no beer. However, after the dust was clear, the anti-labor coal country would end up being represented by unions. There are very few vacant houses in Harlan County and virtually no available land to build on. Done. There's water in the mine because the pumps often won't work. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. Darrell Deaton, president of the Brookside UMW local, says he was caught in a belt line last year because he had to work alone, without a helper. Crossing the Clinch River, we turn onto Highway 421 and leave the modern world. She pays $10 a month for rent and $10 a month for electricity. It is thought that Middleton was assassinated for backing troops who were present in the County to protect the miners. So we lay down in the road." In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. No wonder R C Cola has so many signs everywhere. By comparison to Harlan, the Pittston strike in 1989-1990 shut down almost 70% of that company's production (and completely halted production during the Moss 3 refining plant occupation) and won back the health care benefits of around 1500 miners and their families, as well as the Coal Act of 1992 that requires all coal operators in the U . The men's life depended on my job, but I knowed if I protested I'd a got fired. There was an addition to where miners could choose their own representation for these negotiations. "If we could monitor these inspections, perhaps we could cut down on the fatalities," he says. And always there is a murky roadside stream, beech and sycamore trees lining its banks. 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. Talking to Aaronson, I am reminded of an old tin sign I saw tacked on a tree along the highway as I left Harlan. 25 (N.L.R.B. We return to our series on the Coal Wars of the United States with Bloody Harlan and the Battle for Evarts.