harlan county coal operators association

"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. You come out of there lookin' like a hog that's been rootin' in the mud.' They tell of two night incidents when rifle shots were fired at the picketers by unidentified persons. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". "Roof falls are a constant hazard, but the bosses just keep on rushin'.". In response, the United Mine Workers of America attempted to organize the miners. Now and then, there is a neat, new frame house or a Pic and Pay market between scattered tarpaper shacks. The Kentucky mining camps still had the paternalism idea in their mists and the ever-independent Appalachian people were not having it. The sign man for R C Cola has worked this territory well. I have an Associates Degree from Hazard Community College and Technical School. A reporter asks us again how we can expect to make an unbiased report when we've heard only one side. We never would find out what happened. The National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP) was of the American Communist Party. 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. Harlan County sits in the sweet spot of coal mining in southeastern Kentucky. Talking to Aaronson, I am reminded of an old tin sign I saw tacked on a tree along the highway as I left Harlan. The latest unrest in Harlan County came when in July of 2019, Black jewel LLC filed for bankruptcy and liquidation. Five men and their titles are listed and all are doing all they can.. Burger Chef. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. "Yeah," a coal miner says, "but the land's so poor, you can't hardly raise an umbrella on it.". I can see twenty-five miles to the southeast, five ridges. The United Mine Workers of America represented 400,000 miners at that point and promised miners safer work conditions and higher wages. The UMW union called in the National Guard to help them. Expand. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". 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 name comes from a series of United Mine Workers strikes and labor-management battles which ended in a gunfight between deputized mine guards and miners on May 4, 1931, in the tiny community of Evarts. If you protested this safety violation, he says, "the boss would just say, 'Run it.'" Why is garbage left on the roadway? The women spent the night. 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. Darrell Deaton says there is a direct telephone line to Washington for safety complaints, "but if you identify yourself; you're gonna be out of a job.". Back in my motel room, a gathering place, Bernie Aaronson of UMW says that the union is paying strike benefits and medical bills for the 160 strikers. ", We break for lunch, prepared by the women of the Evarts Community Center. Pay ranged from $17 to $32 day, the average being $25. The Harlan County Wars took on its own epic spin on the ongoing fight between labor disputes and the coal operators and owners lasting almost ten years. James Sizemore says that frequently float dust, which is dangerously explosive, would get too heavy in the mine, and he would complain, but that. "With all those state police, we knew we had three choices," she says. These disputes were still brewing when on December 8, 1934, the United Mine Workers Union was threatened by deputies and mine bosses. Battle of Evartshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Evarts, National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/new-deal/national-industrial-recovery-act-of-1933/, Battle of Evartshttps://pipiwiki.com/wiki/Battle_of_Evarts, Battle of Evartshttps://wiki2.org/en/Battle_of_Evarts, Harlan County Warhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_County_War, A Brief History of Harlan County, USAhttps://labornotes.org/blogs/2019/08/brief-history-harlan-county-usa, Harlan County Warhttps://everipedia.org/Harlan_County_War, https://appalachiancenter.as.uky.edu/coal-strike/background-coal-strike, https://appalachiancenter.as.uky.edu/coal-strike/local-elite, https://appalachiancenter.as.uky.edu/coal-strike/new-york-writers, https://appalachiancenter.as.uky.edu/coal-strike/national-miners-union-and-other-radical-groups, The Wagner Act of 1935 (National Labor Relations Act)https://www.thebalancecareers.com/the-wagner-act-of-1935-national-labor-relations-act-2060509#:~:text=%20The%20Wagner%20Act%20defines%20and%20prohibits%20five,or%20administration%20of%20a%20labor%20organization.%20More%20, BOMB IN AUTO KILLS KENTUCKY OFFICIAL; Harlan County Attorney Predicted Assassination for Backing Troops in Election.https://www.nytimes.com/1935/09/05/archives/bomb-in-auto-kills-kentucky-official-harlan-county-attorney.html#:~:text=HARLAN%2C%20Ky.%2C%20Sept.%204%20%28AP%29.%20%20The%20death,his%20automobile.%20View%20Full%20Article%20in%20Timesmachine%20%C2%BB, Elmon Clay Middleton https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70804679/elmon-clay-middleton, KENTUCKY HOLDS FOUR IN AUTO BOMB KILLING; Harlan Prosecutors Death Is Laid to His Fight Against Slot Machines.https://www.nytimes.com/1935/09/06/archives/kentucky-holds-four-in-auto-bomb-killing-harlan-prosecutors-death.html, Blackjewel Bankruptcy Leaves Damaged Lands and Miners Compensation in Limbo, https://ohiovalleyresource.org/2021/03/22/blackjewel-bankruptcy-finalized/, This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/?fbclid=IwAR21nYphw4Dul-_EwuAmSWgzsvPLNwsMM0FtV75j0y-mGUHq-lCZjJxZot8, For more about us, you can visit our Facebook at:https://www.facebook.com/kytnliving, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs0oV5gFzIS2JdMJ3HvTOgA, When we forget our past and who we are as a people, then we become who they say we are. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. There are very few vacant houses in the county. (Eastover offered fifty cents a ton.) It was two o'clock on a Monday morning when the accident occurred, and he'd been in the mine., more than twelve hours. Available for both RF and RM licensing. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Which Side are You on? Exist Dates. At these locations, the mine wages began to be comparable to other jobs around the nation. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. Up at seven on a Monday morning, I walk out onto the balcony of my motel room. Many of the houses have no running water, and these families have to carry all their water from a common outdoor spigot. As correspondent Bob Simon reports, 47 miners died, six of them from just one county in eastern Kentucky . Lifelong resident of Harlan. The miners could be fired if they refused to spend their paychecks only in the store. "We've took about all we can take," he says. Pierce mentions the "toothpick incident." 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. McQueen says that in late 1972 he burned his fingers to the bone on a switchbox where a blown fuse had been hot-wired. Big Boy. 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. . A rural county of 27,000, Harlan County's average household income is about $29,000. Based on this new Act, from October 27, 1933, to March 31, 1935, the mines ran as open shops. Abstract. The remaining workforce then went on strike as a sign of solidarity with those that were fired from their jobs. those in the Harlan County Coal Operators . Our delegation arrives on time at the Eastover office in Brookside. Eastover agreed to sign the 1971 wage pact of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association which is in force at 1,200 mines. Done. The Harlan County Coal War is one of the . 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. 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. "I've been juiced a lot, and I've had to just set down thirty-five minutes because it just takes the pep out of you." Eight miners were sentenced to life in prison for the actions that were taken on May 5, 1931. Altogether, it is a heavy financial burden for the UMW. Forty percent of the county's dwellings lack some or all of plumbing, water, or toilet facilities. The miners say that they often have to stand knee-deep in water while handling 440-volt electrical cables. [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%. Other clippings detail the earlier bloodshed and misery in Harlan County. "They sent me to 'Waterhole No. Get a Demo. They want portal-to-portal pay from the time they enter the mine until they leave it. 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. And, all around, there are the rolling mountains, covered with second-growth timber. (This . However, after the dust was clear, the anti-labor coal country would end up being represented by unions. Miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, have drawn national attention with their direct action occupying a railroad track to halt a coal train . Dalton points out that there were 132 mine fatalities in the United States in 1973, only seventeen of them in UMW mines. Unemployment in 2017 was 9.4 percent, far above the national average. Frame houses with rusty tin roofs. Established in 1916, its membership consisted of nearly all the large mining companies, and it represented the major political force in the county. There had been several clashes with the "scabs," the mine guards, and the state police, Kahn says. Only to be escorted to the county line and told not to return. Yellow-dog contracts (Contracts where the employees agreed to never organize into a union before they were employed with a coal company), company unions, blacklists, all tactics that were employed by the companies to bust up unions, and discrimination-based on union activity were all outlawed under this act. At Brookside, this would amount to $400,000 a year. Those with running water rent for around $20 a month, plus electricity. (Brookside) were the only two mines of the Harlan County owner/operators association who rejected a 10% pay increase in 1933. All during the day they worked in shifts, trying to penetrate to the point where the explosion occurred. The most shocking moment in Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) looks at first like an abstract painting. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Her daughter, Bessie Cornett, an attractive young brunette, says, "I'm not in jail today because you people are here." When Barbara finishes her answer, Wirtz raises a clenched fist and says, "Right on!" The company will probably demand a new election. Conflict broke out again the 1970s in what was known as the Brookside strike. United States Washington D.C. District of Columbia Washington D.C . My man was mashed up in the mines. Sudie Crusenberg, a plain woman in a cotton dress, gives us some idea of what life is like for a coal-mining family. However, the battle continues to this day. Trailer parks called Walnut Grove, Mobile Manor, and Mesa Village Mobile Manor. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. When fuses blow, they are not immediately replaced; the cable is spliced or "hot-wired" around the fuse. Jacqueline Brophy asks why public services have broken down. He is a sturdily built, self-assured man of about fifty, with a strong, square jaw and a rough, weathered face. You just don't hit a woman in Harlan County." We hope that you have enjoyed our stop in Bloody Harlan and the history of the longest and still ongoing coal struggles of the United States. They have probably helped keep their own men from exploding too. Bobby Simpson, 79, has been blind for more than a half-century, but still managed to shovel coal. Three Point, Harlan County, Kentucky September 16, 1943 No. Killed - 12. The Sheriff reportedly got rich on payoffs from the companies, and he used 181 mine company gunmen as special deputies. Brophy's was the last reform insurgency against UMW leadership until Joseph Yablonski's fatal try. This caused the clergy to denounce the union. They're trapped. The aftermath of this battle led to wider strikes in the Harlan County area. 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. Make your practice more effective and efficient with Casetext's legal research suite. The company also agreed to abide by any agreement reached between the . Mr. Blanton explained the reasoning behind coal camps. Someone had planted dynamite in his automobile and when he started it up the car blew up. I remind her that Duke and Eastover executives were invited, and have refused to appear before us. 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. 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. Genders. Freda Armes says, "I run him off. The union abandoned its efforts after less than a year. There is one ostentatious feature about him, though: a large, multi-diamond ring on the third finger of his left hand. 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. The women furnish the panel with a copy of a report from the Harlan County Health Department, dated October 12, 1973, which states that the drinking water in the Eastover mining camp, where approximately thirty of the striking Brookside families live, is "highly contaminated" with fecal bacteria. Or all you're gonna get's a chunk of Harlan County coal. The group publishes policy papers on the benefits of coal for Kentucky and sponsors the "Friends of Coal" initiative. He discusses the formation and activities of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association . A young woman from the Associated Press asks me, aren't we getting only one side of the story? 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 . No concessions or deals were made between the two factions and the membership of the United Mine Workers union plummeted. James Willard Pope officiating. He hopes the other side will do the same. Crossing the Clinch River, we turn onto Highway 421 and leave the modern world. He does say, I think primarily for the record, that he would like to see negotiations begin again. Blaine Sergent, coal leader, putting up his check at the end of a workday in Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1946. Even pop culture cannot ignore its impact with such shows as Justified. I've got five living children and four dead. . 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. And you wondr why I keep running my mouth . 8 N.L.R.B. 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. 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. 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. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. During the day, a man came and said that if their children weren't out of the jail by night, the welfare people would take them. Bright yellow forsythia has begun to bloom in the yards of Harlan and Brookside and Evarts. corporateBody associatedWith : Heyl & Patterson, Inc . Yarborough replies. Pricing; Switch; Big firm; It was a nearly decade-long conflict, lasting from 1931 to 1939. . The trees are barely beginning to bud in the early March warmth. those in the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association, were run as open shops from October 27, 1933 - March 31, 1935. 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. Interview Summary. The Harlan County Coal Wars lasted from 1931-1939. Poffitt, Jacqueline Brophy, and I meet the other members of the Citizens Inquiry in a private dining room in the Mount Aire: James David Barber, chairman of the Political Science Department at Duke University and author of The Presidential Character; Monsignor Geno Baroni, president of the National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs, a Catholic priest whose father is a retired Pennsylvania miner with black lung; Barbara Bode, president of the Children's Foundation in Washington; and Dr. Raymond Wheeler of Charlotte, North Carolina, president of the Southern Regional Council. McDonald's. Harlan County Coal Miners Deaths 1940-1949 1940 1940 Hayes, Petry - Harlan Central Coal Company Totz No. I have also attended the University of Pikeville. A Brief History of Harlan County, USA. 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. After this, the first strike occurred, in which only about 13% of strikers showed up to work. The miners say that they want their own safety committee, elected by the miners, as the standard UMW contract provides, with the right to walk out, losing their pay, when there is eminent danger in the mine.

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