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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. 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. I am the only man in the United States who would do that sort of thing.". Where will the families go? We gather back in Evarts and announce that our report will be ready in two or three weeks. It is too early for dolor. 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. Theoretically, even operators' and owners' children were . My brother died at the age of forty. 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." Harlan, district mine inspector of the State Department of Mines and Minerals, and James Bryson, safety director, Harlan County Coal Operators Association. 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. But what of the people of Harlan County? Before the first meeting of the Citizens Inquiry, we sit around and talk with the Inquiry chairman, Daniel Pollitt, a professor of law at the University of North Carolina. had them make me go in and pin it because it wasn't done right the first time. An open shop is where union membership is allowed but not mandated to work at that location. Harlan Fuel Co. Download PDF. There are nearly 40,000 people in the county, a drop of 36 percent since 1960. They say no action has been taken on this report. ("Tony") Boyle for the national presidency of the UMW in 1972 in an election closely supervised by the federal government. KCA traces its origin to a statewide association of coal operators who united their efforts in 1942. "We want safety all the time, not just when the inspector comes," Jerry Johnson says. Duke Power Company of North Carolina, he says, is the sixth largest utility company in the world. The National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP) was of the American Communist Party. We are picked up at the airport by Si (for Simon) Kahn, a Pennsylvania rabbi's son who graduated from Harvard, came to the Southern mountains as a Vista worker, and remained here, working for local community groups. Capitalizing on the general . These battles will end the Coal Wars proper. In response, the United Mine Workers of America attempted to organize the miners. . They have probably helped keep their own men from exploding too. "It's one of 'em," Yarborough says. It does not store any personal data. The county became nationally famous in 1931 and 1932 when it was the site of one of the earliest and bloodiest labor battles of the decade. Three Point, Harlan County, Kentucky September 16, 1943 No. . They want portal-to-portal pay from the time they enter the mine until they leave it. At these locations, the mine wages began to be comparable to other jobs around the nation. Expand. 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. And I can't get you off of that couch. We agree that most of us lean toward the miners, but we think we can be fair in trying to learn the facts. Our delegation arrives on time at the Eastover office in Brookside. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. 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. We hope that our hearings will help hold down violence. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. 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. 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. The most memorable of those are 1964, 1966, 1969 (The West Virginia Black Lung strike that the miners won) 1971, and the 1974 Strikes. He discusses the formation and activities of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association . James Willard Pope officiating. They exercised their powers with impunity and operated under Sheriff J.H. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to . These interviews with major coal operators document their personal histories and the history of the coal industry in eastern Kentucky during the twentieth century. In June of 1973, workers at the Brookside coal mine in Harlan County, Kentucky voted 113-55 to replace their membership in the Southern Labor Union (SLU) and join the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) union. Figure 2: Harlan County Coal Mine Employment, 2000-2016, (KYEEC, 2017) In 1942, shortly after Harlan County experienced record high coal mine employment, the county experienced is highest production levels with 15.6 million tons of coal being produced in this year (KYEEC, 2017). Harry Caudill, attorney and author of Night Comes to the Cumberlands, will not be able to join us in Harlan because of legal business. I've read that in its heyday, the Blackjoe coal camp consisted of 60 or so houses. That year, annual wages dropped from $1,235 to $749. The UMW union called in the National Guard to help them. Midway in the trial, Judge Hogg dismissed the jury and directed a verdict of guilty. 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. They are neatly and attractively dressed. 25 (N.L.R.B. In America, the word describes a region, including Harlan County, Kentucky, between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic coast. The motorcade stopped and the deputies got out of their cars to return fire. Coal employment in Harlan county dropped 53.7% in the second quarter of this year compared with last year, driven by Blackjewel's bankruptcy. 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." One of the better houses is already being demolished. 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. Biographical History . These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. 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. 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. And you wondr why I keep running my mouth . The Brookside labor dispute erupted spontaneously soon after Miller's election. Among coal miners, Harlan County, Kentucky, is known as "Bloody Harlan." If you protested this safety violation, he says, "the boss would just say, 'Run it.'" [Verse 2] I got 27 peopl coming over to this house. Three of the federal reports state that there was no safety committee at Brookside, as required by law. 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. Crossing the Clinch River, we turn onto Highway 421 and leave the modern world. 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 I have an Associates Degree from Hazard Community College and Technical School. HARLAN COUNTY COAL OPERATORS ASSOCIATION. He says that he will not agree to the Brookside contract applying to "all" of Eastover's operations. Toilets are built out over the river, and the water has obviously been much higher in the recent past. Fifty miners and their wives have at one time or another been held in contempt of this order. The miners could be fired if they refused to spend their paychecks only in the store. I have two children and four grandchildren from a previous marriage. "I cain't get a job nowhere in this county. A young woman from the Associated Press asks me, aren't we getting only one side of the story? Outlining the legal framework for labor unions and management relations to improve the working conditions for workers. McDonald's. those in the Harlan County Coal Operators . Partial Transcript: August 27, '86. Four men were arrested in connection with this murder. "I don't know nothing about the electrical part." Miners die, and last year was the deadliest in American coal mines in more than a decade. The Benham Coal Company records (151 cubic feet, 302 Boxes; dated 1911-1973) focus primarily on the early years of Benham Coal through the 1940s. Breaks in the cable, they say, are often just wrapped with mask-ing tape and exposed again to the water. Lois Scott, a woman of about forty-five, begins to speak first. 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. I glance at the new Piedmont magazine, Pace. There had been several clashes with the "scabs," the mine guards, and the state police, Kahn says. June 17th of that same year, the first strike was over as the last miner had returned to work. This active organization is made up of those who represent the leader in the mining industry. There are still ongoing strikes today and the violence in Harlan County Continues. I don't like- workin' in them kind of conditions." Bobby's wife, Becky, who died in 2013, was a lifelong advocate for the people of Harlan County. 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. Whitfield recalls working in his father's coal mines during the first years of commercial mining in Harlan County, and he describes the conditions. He says that, standing. (There is such a provision in the standard UMW contract.). 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. The latest unrest in Harlan County came when in July of 2019, Black jewel LLC filed for bankruptcy and liquidation. When fuses blow, they are not immediately replaced; the cable is spliced or "hot-wired" around the fuse. Established in 1916, its membership consisted of nearly all the large mining companies, and it represented the major political force in the county. 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. Get a Demo. "My daddy's a retired coal miner, and he's got the black lung. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. (This . Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. I can see twenty-five miles to the southeast, five ridges. Willard Wirtz says that it is important to remember that one side of the dispute felt confident enough about their case to arrange to spread it before the widest possible audience. "Yarborough says he just don't want nobody tellin' him how to run his mine," Deaton says. Miners laid in an ambush on the day of May 5, 1931, near the Evarts railroad crossing. Nobody knows how long the UMW can keep paying strike benefits. 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. Since the county began mining, over one billion tons of coal have But, Aaronson says, Norman Yarborough had then called back to say, simply, that there was nothing of further interest to them in the negotiations More public pressure on Duke is needed, he says. I was born in Florida and grew up in Burdine, Kentucky. Former Director of Harlan County Coal Operators Association. There is a hard edge in her voice, and her blue-gray eyes are flashing. Overturned car bodies everywhere. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. It is the second coal mining fatality in . "I've got so many duns from the hospital that I just quit lookin' at them. ", What about the Southern Labor Union? Others say they intend to speak and write about what they have heard. 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. It is clear that these women have been a main factor in keeping the mine shut down. At Washington's National Airport, I board Piedmont Airline's fat little silver jet on a Sunday afternoon in early March. My man was mashed up in the mines. 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 . Someone had planted dynamite in his automobile and when he started it up the car blew up. It was a nearly decade-long conflict, lasting from 1931 to 1939. . 1931, only $13.5 million. Harlan County to unionize miners. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Is the safety provision in the UMW contract the sticking point for Eastover? It is also women's day before the Citizens In-quiry. Mine operators viciously opposed miners' efforts to unionize, particularly in Harlan County. Documentary of mining practices in Hazard County, Kentucky. 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. Attempts to organize led to the dismissal of employees who were suspected of having leanings toward the organization and having them evicted from their family homes. "They sent me to 'Waterhole No. Harlan, city, seat of Harlan county, southeastern Kentucky, U.S., in the Cumberland Mountains, on the Clover Fork Cumberland River. . Before this war was over it is not known exactly how many miners, coal operators, deputies, and bosses would be killed. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Willard Wirtz asks how it will all come out, how the strike will end. the foreman would just say, "We gotta run coal. The women spent the night. Trailer parks called Walnut Grove, Mobile Manor, and Mesa Village Mobile Manor. 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. 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. The Kentucky mining camps still had the paternalism idea in their mists and the ever-independent Appalachian people were not having it. Nannie Rainey says, "I told him if he got my children, he was gonna haveta take me too." Nonunion workers were attempting to leave the mine. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. The women are nervous about testifying, afraid of retaliation. In June of 1973, in a National Labor Relations Board election, the miners at Brookside voted 113 to 55 to affiliate with the United Mine Workers. The nearest ridge is green with spruce and pine. Done. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. 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. During the big coal boom in the early 1900s, Harlan County was amongst the largest contributors. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. 5355 after Local Union 4495 at Black Mountain folded up. 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 . Hennen attributes this abandonment to the increasingly conservative John L. Lewis, the longtime and powerful president of the UMWA, who feared . Name Entry; Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. Killed - 12. Up at seven on a Monday morning, I walk out onto the balcony of my motel room. B.W. 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. 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. Perched atop Inspiration Mountain is the modern Mount Aire Motel. While their main objectives were a steady job, a decent wage and a program of safety checks . With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners' sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and company thugs. The trees are barely beginning to bud in the early March warmth. 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. Sadly, the state and federal troops would occupy the county several times. "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. Frame houses with rusty tin roofs. 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. A Brief History of Harlan County, USA. 5355, atEvarts . Yarborough's affidavit stated that "the group swarmed out into the roads, stopped cars, and forced company employees into coercive conversations and indulged in generally raucous name-calling and abuse." The bosses wouldn't go in, but I've. I've got five living children and four dead. Listen to "Harlan County Coal" from Pistol Annies' album, 'Hell of a Holiday,' out now: https://pa.lnk.to/HOAHAY Chorus:Making decorations out of shotgun she. How does the Harlan County Coal Operators Association fit into the picture? 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." 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. There is one ostentatious feature about him, though: a large, multi-diamond ring on the third finger of his left hand. There were constant beatings of the miners by the Sheriffs deputies. "In Harlan County, U.S.A., sound anchors, explains, and makes 'authentic' visual imagery compromised by the long history of documentary work in Appalachia.". There were only nine hundred miners working and 5,800 miners were idle and striking during the first strike. At first, there were little battles with gunshots being exchanged between the strikers and the private guards, and the local law enforcement agents. The Harlan County coal miners campaigned and fought to organize their workplaces and better their wages and working conditions. 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 radical ideology of the union began gaining some ground in the mountains. "I've had the foreman to tell me to set timbers or something until the inspector got gone. The aftermath of this battle led to wider strikes in the Harlan County area. 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. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The final straw was when the Harlan County Coal Operators Association cut miners' wages by 10%. Over one thousand shots were exchanged during those fifteen minutes. Depression-era Harlan County, Kentucky, was the site of one of the most bitter and protracted labor disputes in American history. Duke Power Company appears to be the key to breaking the deadlock in negotiations. Kahn says that the miners were encouraged by Eastover's management, headed by Norman Yarborough, to join a small "company union," the Southern Labor Union. Even though things were doing better for the unions in Harlan County, there was still civil unrest. Mr. Other times, he says, "Roof was workin', rock was a-hangin', and it sounded like thunder. The SLU was largely seen as serving the interests of the mine owners rather than the workers. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". 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. Funeral Wednesday March 1 at 11 a.m. at Grays Knob Bible Church. Copy as parenthetical citation. Miners also wanted the right to organize and have a union. The union abandoned its efforts after less than a year. 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. 2011: $1,161,330. After nearly 40 years of working in coalmines, David . Based on this new Act, from October 27, 1933, to March 31, 1935, the mines ran as open shops. What did the foremen say on those occasions? With this Supreme Court ruling, all but one of the open shops in Harlan County went back to the previous mine operations. And always there is a murky roadside stream, beech and sycamore trees lining its banks. Those with running water rent for around $20 a month, plus electricity. Willard Wirtz says he senses that the Harlan County Coal Operators Association is a major factor in the dispute, that it doesn't want a settlement with higher wages and benefits and tough safety provisions to be made by Eastover, because it fears the domino effect of such a settlement on the rest of the companies in the county. Yarborough says that he will not agree to the contract applying to Eastover's subcontractors. In the year of "the energy crisis," Coal is King again at $30 a ton. Harlan County sits in the sweet spot of coal mining in southeastern Kentucky. However, after the dust was clear, the anti-labor coal country would end up being represented by unions. As correspondent Bob Simon reports, 47 miners died, six of them from just one county in eastern Kentucky . Yarborough comes out of a staff meeting and ushers us hack to a large, paneled meeting room with folding tables and chairs. ~~ David Sergent. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". It was Miller who defeated W. A. While it succeeded in organizing thousands of miners, it failed to complete a bargaining agreement with Harlan County's coal operators. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. 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 . He tells me that the miners plan to picket on Wall Street, hoping to give Duke problems with its stock. 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. We return to our series on the Coal Wars of the United States with Bloody Harlan and the Battle for Evarts. The roof is approximately forty-eight inches high in the mine. Neither will Dr. Robert Coles, psychiatrist and author of Children of Crisis. Featuring a haunting soundtrack-with legendary country . "They didn't say nothin'; all they want's coal.' Most of the land is owned by the mining companies. I have also attended the University of Pikeville. For a time after the hearing, he says, it appeared that Duke had softened. Prior to Miller's election, the union had become corrupt, dictatorial, and a frequent collaborator with the mine owners. 1 mine in Evarts, in Harlan County, Kentucky. Captain James Cromer of the state police later tells news reporters, "The women are a problem. The remaining workforce then went on strike as a sign of solidarity with those that were fired from their jobs. They were convicted on charges of conspiracy to murder. 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 . Betty Eldridge is a mildmannered, well-dressed woman of about forty. Eastover agreed to sign the 1971 wage pact of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association which is in force at 1,200 mines. 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. Past that, the other undulating ridges are blue and hazy. Bill McQueen says that the shuttle car into the mine usually has no brakes, and that it can only be stopped by putting it in reverse. Some seventy-five state policemen were on hand as the crowd gathered. To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association decided to cut all wages by ten . One of the towns that were a refuge was Evarts, Kentucky. (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.) They made several attempts at holding strikes against the coal companies, but these failed in Harlan County. I'm standing at 2800 feet above sea level. A federal bankruptcy judge ruled that the company could leave damages to the environment, abandon assets, and not pay the coal miners owed wages. Here, too, are some of the richest natural resources in the countryand some of the poorest people. "The way I figured it, they done that because it was just a faster, way of getting coal." (Brookside) were the only two mines of the Harlan County owner/operators association who rejected a 10% pay increase in 1933. 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. 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. Tuesday morning: Norman Yarborough has agreed to meet some of our group. The miners and the coal owners were still having disputes. Some of the women went to jail with the men, and some took their children with them. 8 N.L.R.B. The transcript will be published as a book. The UMW had made written proposals for compromising these issues a little. A month later, back in Washington, I meet with Bernie Aaronson at UMW headquarters. The decision caused unrest in the county among the miners. She talks about the women being armed with sticks, mace . As the motorcade approached a single shot rang out in the air. . There was no standard contract for the miners. When Barbara finishes her answer, Wirtz raises a clenched fist and says, "Right on!"