harlan county coal operators association

California labor activist Caroline Decker also raised money for the relief of the striking miner efforts. Faith, power, and conflict: Miner preachers and the United Mine Workers The roof is approximately forty-eight inches high in the mine. 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%. 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. . HARLAN COUNTYHarlan County, Kentucky, is a rural county located in a major coal-mining region in the Appalachian Mountains. Yarborough is tough and unyielding. 25 (N.L.R.B. Bobby's wife, Becky, who died in 2013, was a lifelong advocate for the people of Harlan County. A reporter asks us again how we can expect to make an unbiased report when we've heard only one side. They are merely a service organization, Yarborough says. "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. After nearly 40 years of working in coalmines, David . The accident was the second worst mine fatality in the history of Harlan County coal mining, the worst being Harlan Fuel Company . "Faith, power, and conflict: Miner preachers and the United Mine Worker 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. However, the battle continues to this day. "The danger's just the same," they say. Frame houses with rusty tin roofs. The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! Outlining the legal framework for labor unions and management relations to improve the working conditions for workers. A rural county of 27,000, Harlan County's average household income is about $29,000. This was not just a flashy slogan, and the truth of it is . He was transferred to a worse section, he says. 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. The unrest continues in Harlan and surrounding counties as there have been many strikes. Mine operators viciously opposed miners' efforts to unionize, particularly in Harlan County. Even though things were doing better for the unions in Harlan County, there was still civil unrest. There was no standard contract for the miners. Appalachia: Coal Operators Oral History Project SPOKEdb 8 N.L.R.B. Capitalizing on the general . USBM Final Investigation Report (1.7 Mb) Successful Rescue . 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 judge's fines and sentences were appealed. With the passage of these acts, there was unrest in Harlan County. Theoretically, even operators' and owners' children were . The UMW had made written proposals for compromising these issues a little. It seems to me that for a great many people in Harlan County-for poor people and a lot of coal miners the whole county is a jail. Burger Chef. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. My man was mashed up in the mines. 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. "We've took about all we can take," he says. The UMW union called in the National Guard to help them. The radical ideology of the union began gaining some ground in the mountains. The Harlan County Coal Wars 1931-1939 - Kentucky Tennessee Living But Barbara Bode has arranged for eleven of them to come up onto the stage at the same time, and they seem to take strength from their numbers. He fined the UMW $20,000. 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. When drafting these articles, I found that many things have not been taught to the future generations about the struggles for coal miner rights have been in the Appalachian Mountains. In the year of "the energy crisis," Coal is King again at $30 a ton. In Harlan County, Kentucky, are some of our country's richest natural resourcesand some of its poorest people. Expand. Pay ranged from $17 to $32 day, the average being $25. Soon after the "Battle of Evarts," novelist Theodore Dreiser led a citizens' group to Harlan County to find and publicize the bloody facts. Nonunion workers were attempting to leave the mine. Benham Coal Company Records - University of Kentucky The Brookside mine is capable of producing only about a half-million tons of the 15 million tons of coal Duke uses each year. "I've had the foreman to tell me to set timbers or something until the inspector got gone. The company also agreed to abide by any agreement reached between the . We gather back in Evarts and announce that our report will be ready in two or three weeks. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. Former Director of Harlan County Coal Operators Association. Nannie Rainey takes us into her four-room house where she and her husband and five children live. 2011: $1,161,330. Overturned car bodies everywhere. He says that he will not agree to the Brookside contract applying to "all" of Eastover's operations. The miners speak of other dissatisfactions with Eastover and the old Southern Labor Union contract. They tell of two night incidents when rifle shots were fired at the picketers by unidentified persons. The committee has invited owners as well as workers to participate in the hearings, but the impression we get is that management will not appear. "We want safety all the time, not just when the inspector comes," Jerry Johnson says. 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.". Life After Coal in Harlan County, U.S.A. - In These Times 3.' Why wasn't the fuse replaced at once? If for example, they did not behave in the way the companies wanted them to, they could lose all their benefits up to and including their jobs. Strike benefits are $100 weekly for a family, $90 for a couple, and $80 for a single man. Miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, have drawn national attention with their direct action occupying a railroad track to halt a coal train . The local grand jury returned an indictment against Dreiser for adultery, but by that time Dreiser had finished his work and had left the county on the train. He hopes the other side will do the same. Don Dalton, UMW Safety Director for Region Six, explains this. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. On May 24, 1931, Sheriff Blair rescinded the miners right to assemble and tear-gassed a union rally. Here at Kentucky Tennessee Living we fully support the coal miners and their families. The motorcade stopped and the deputies got out of their cars to return fire. It was Miller who defeated W. A. The women are nervous about testifying, afraid of retaliation. They fed strikers' children as well as the employed, blacks as well as whites. It is an area of Kentucky that you only go to if you are intentionally going to the county. Their foothold there ultimately ended because the local clergy who were the labor organizers found out that the union was communist in nature and held animosity toward religion. Funeral Wednesday March 1 at 11 a.m. at Grays Knob Bible Church. They also plan to join with a North Carolina group in protesting Duke's requested rate increase, and they are going to attend the meeting of Duke's stockholders on May 30. Finally, in 1939, the coal companies agreed to allow unions in their coal mine operations. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The Harlan County coal miners campaigned and fought to organize their workplaces and better their wages and working conditions. Why is garbage left on the roadway? Mostly, the miners were fighting for improved working conditions, higher wages, and better housing options for their families. Killed - 12. I have two children and four grandchildren from a previous marriage. Fifty miners and their wives have at one time or another been held in contempt of this order. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. Dixon and union leaders worry that the union's disappearance in Kentucky has opened the door for coal operators to . 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. Their activities began with a demonstration and march in Harlan on September 27, 1973. ("Tony") Boyle for the national presidency of the UMW in 1972 in an election closely supervised by the federal government. 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. or smaller. It seems that unfriendly local law enforcement officials kept a constant surveillance on Dreiser, hoping to catch him in something that would justify a criminal charge against him. On May 5, 1931, the Battle of Evarts began. These interviews with major coal operators document their personal histories and the history of the coal industry in eastern Kentucky during the twentieth century. Only 23 percent of those in the county over the age of twenty-five have completed high school. Its profits in 1973 were $90 million, up 14 percent from the year before. The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. Harry Caudill, attorney and author of Night Comes to the Cumberlands, will not be able to join us in Harlan because of legal business. Pistol Annies - Harlan County Coal (Audio) - YouTube Three Harlan County incorporated towns were not owned by the coal mines, they became a sanctuary for the evicted and starving miners. The Brookside Women's Club of Harlan County - New York Women in Film 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. The records show that Beach was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in 1954 and sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary, that he was later charged with carrying a concealed pistol (no disposition shown), and that in 1966 he was tried and acquitted on a murder charge. 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. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. She talks about the women being armed with sticks, mace . That's an old term in Harlan County, used to describe special, plain-clothed guards. Some of the women cut switches and joined the picketers. (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.) He says that, standing. 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. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. The officials were listed were the "veteran safety director of the Harlan Coal Operators Association, and Rufus Bailey and H. Hamlin, state . Interview with Lois Scott, August 27, 1986 - Nunn Center Bobby Simpson, 79, has been blind for more than a half-century, but still managed to shovel coal. Harlan County in eastern Kentucky, which has been brought out into the spotlight this summer by the violence with which the local Coal Operators' Association has carried on this attack, is, as far as I can find out, a pretty good medium exhibit of the entire industry: living conditions are better than in Alabama and perhaps a little worse . That means, among other things, an average daily wage of $45. This was thirteen percent of the workers showing up for their scheduled work times. We hope that our hearings will help hold down violence. They have probably helped keep their own men from exploding too. This caused the clergy to denounce the union. Neither will Dr. Robert Coles, psychiatrist and author of Children of Crisis. Those with running water rent for around $20 a month, plus electricity. PDF "I Am a Union Woman": Gender, Class, and Folk Music in The Harlan In one of these, the septic tank has been out of order for several months. Another press member criticizes Barbara Bode for having raised a clenched fist during the women's testimony. "If we could monitor these inspections, perhaps we could cut down on the fatalities," he says. 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 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 Price of Coal, Part I - kentuckymonthly.com 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. Other times, he says, "Roof was workin', rock was a-hangin', and it sounded like thunder. If you wouldn't do it, they'd just say, 'Get your bucket.' In Harlan County, Kentucky, the 1931 Battle of Evarts ended in four deaths. 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. The Sheriff reportedly got rich on payoffs from the companies, and he used 181 mine company gunmen as special deputies. There was no functioning safety committee Medical and retirement benefits were minimal and unreliable. 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 . During the big coal boom in the early 1900s, Harlan County was amongst the largest contributors. The nearest ridge is green with spruce and pine. On Jan. 25, 1890, a new union, the United Mine Workers of America, was formed, and in 1903 its young president, John Mitchell, led the union on a successful 24-week strike. Harlan County. There had been several clashes with the "scabs," the mine guards, and the state police, Kahn says. "I don't like to handle that raw juice," he says. The strikebreakers were under the protection of private mine guards. "The personal is political" was a rallying cry of second wave feminism. 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). Drift mines back into the mountains follow the seam of coal wherever it goes." For a time after the hearing, he says, it appeared that Duke had softened. . She speaks in a soft, pleasant voice. Pricing; Switch; Big firm; Jacqueline Brophy asks why public services have broken down. Only three of the families in the camp have indoor toilets. The Price of Coal, Part II. 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. They relate federal mine-safety figures which show that in 1971 the accident rate in the Brookside mine was three times the national average, and in 1972 was twice the national average. We come into Harlan County at dusk. We drive to the Evarts Community Center and report to the other members of the Citizens Inquiry. . Done. "In Harlan County, U.S.A., sound anchors, explains, and makes 'authentic' visual imagery compromised by the long history of documentary work in Appalachia.". We look back on the film, which screens this Sunday, February . 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. If you protested this safety violation, he says, "the boss would just say, 'Run it.'" Harlan county coal hi-res stock photography and images - Alamy Lois Scott, a woman of about forty-five, begins to speak first. He decided to make Harlan County a test case in the UMW's new, more aggressive organizing efforts. Most of the land is owned by the mining companies. While their main objectives were a steady job, a decent wage and a program of safety checks . I can see twenty-five miles to the southeast, five ridges. The issues had been narrowed down to Eastover's demand for a "no-strike clause" and a limit on the power of the safety committee. Each of us makes a statement. The aftermath of this battle led to wider strikes in the Harlan County area. Genders. Harlan County War - Wikipedia 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. 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. A month later, back in Washington, I meet with Bernie Aaronson at UMW headquarters. 4 . "Yeah," a coal miner says, "but the land's so poor, you can't hardly raise an umbrella on it.". There's water in the mine because the pumps often won't work. The coal companies refused to back down from their positions and change anything. Harlan County U.S.A. by Felicia Elliott, August 2, 2016. A young woman from the Associated Press asks me, aren't we getting only one side of the story? The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Where will the families go? "It's one of 'em," Yarborough says. 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. had them make me go in and pin it because it wasn't done right the first time. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal.

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