"I cain't get a job nowhere in this county. 5355, atEvarts . 5355 after Local Union 4495 at Black Mountain folded up. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Coal employment in Harlan county dropped 53.7% in the second quarter of this year compared with last year, driven by Blackjewel's bankruptcy. It has assets worth $2.5 billion. Exist Dates. But mostly the scenery is depressingly bleak. 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. Harlan County. Si has signed on as head of the staff for the Citizens Inquiry, which is funded with a five-thousanddollar grant from the Field Foundation. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. Is that the only objection that is holding up a settlement? "The danger's just the same," they say. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to . 25 (N.L.R.B. Killed - 12. 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. 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. "This whole country is like a layer cake," Si Kahn says, "a layer cake of shale, coal, and sandstone. The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators Association decided to cut all wages by ten percent. 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. 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." or smaller. On February 16, 1931, in order to prevent operating at a loss, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association cut miners' wages by 10%. ", What about the Southern Labor Union? Tuesday morning: Norman Yarborough has agreed to meet some of our group. Another press member criticizes Barbara Bode for having raised a clenched fist during the women's testimony. It is an area of Kentucky that you only go to if you are intentionally going to the county. Kentucky communities discussed include Artemus, Burdine, Jenkins, Jellico, Van Lear, and Wheelwright; and Kentucky counties include Bell, Clay, Floyd, Harlan . 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. While their main objectives were a steady job, a decent wage and a program of safety checks . Depression-era Harlan County, Kentucky, was the site of one of the most bitter and protracted labor disputes in American history. "Dreiser, Woman Indicted," one headline reads. With the added protection for workers and the addition of collective bargaining between the workers and their employers. She pays $10 a month for rent and $10 a month for electricity. 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. I'm standing at 2800 feet above sea level. Now, Tony Boyle is among those who have been convicted of complicity in the murders, and Arnold Miller is the head of the revamped union. Interment at Resthaven Cemetery, Keith, Ky. Visitation 6-9 p.m. at the Grays Knob Bible Church. After this, the first strike occurred, in which only about 13% of strikers showed up to work. I've read that in its heyday, the Blackjoe coal camp consisted of 60 or so houses. Breaks in the cable, they say, are often just wrapped with mask-ing tape and exposed again to the water. Now and then, there is a neat, new frame house or a Pic and Pay market between scattered tarpaper shacks. Harlan, city, seat of Harlan county, southeastern Kentucky, U.S., in the Cumberland Mountains, on the Clover Fork Cumberland River. Rev. Dalton points out that there were 132 mine fatalities in the United States in 1973, only seventeen of them in UMW mines. "I've had the foreman to tell me to set timbers or something until the inspector got gone. The letter states that Eastover has now raised the wages in their other mines to the UMW scale and is paying the miners for time spent with the mine moving to and from the face of the coal. No wonder R C Cola has so many signs everywhere. She's been picketing with the other women. Harlan Daily Enterprise, September 17, 1943. The slab of slate, more than 51 feet long, and 17 feet wide and weighing tons, was dodged by two men. But relatives did come and take the children. 1931, only $13.5 million. Miner Curtis Cress, 34, says towns that . The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! 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. Others claim that his death was caused by an election concerning slot machines into the county. It is not all Duke's fault by any means. 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. They fed strikers' children as well as the employed, blacks as well as whites. On May 24, 1931, Sheriff Blair rescinded the miners right to assemble and tear-gassed a union rally. If you wouldn't do it, they'd just say, 'Get your bucket.' Willard Wirtz asks how it will all come out, how the strike will end. Find the perfect harlan county coal stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. Why are people allowed to dump raw sewage in the streams? There were only nine hundred miners working and 5,800 miners were idle and striking during the first strike. Biographical History . 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." Paternalism is the practice of people who have a business or other authority to restrict the freedoms of those who are subordinate to them. 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. Harlan County U.S.A. by Felicia Elliott, August 2, 2016. The Price of Coal, Part II. The Harlan County Coal War is one of the . Neither will Dr. Robert Coles, psychiatrist and author of Children of Crisis. It was a nearly decade-long conflict, lasting from 1931 to 1939. . Our delegation arrives on time at the Eastover office in Brookside. On September 4, 1935, Harlan County Attorney Elmon Clay Middleton, age 31, was assassinated by a car bomb containing eighteen sticks of dynamite. In America, the word describes a region, including Harlan County, Kentucky, between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic coast. ~~ David Sergent. The group included John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and a number of other writers and artists. It is also women's day before the Citizens In-quiry. Other times, he says, "Roof was workin', rock was a-hangin', and it sounded like thunder. Some of the women cut switches and joined the picketers. Yarborough replies. What a marvelous view! 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 . There were only three cars in the motorcade each of which contained a sheriffs deputy. Jacqueline Brophy is the daughter of Pat Brophy, who went into the mines when he was twelve, and who, in 1926, ran against John L. Lewis and lost. 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. After breakfast, we travel fifteen miles east to Evarts. In Harlan County, Kentucky, are some of our country's richest natural resourcesand some of its poorest people. Over one thousand shots were exchanged during those fifteen minutes. Harlan, district mine inspector of the State Department of Mines and Minerals, and James Bryson, safety director, Harlan County Coal Operators Association. Mine operators viciously opposed miners' efforts to unionize, particularly in Harlan County. We soon get into a discussion about Dreiser's 1931 inquiry. On May 5, 1931, the Battle of Evarts began. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Hennen attributes this abandonment to the increasingly conservative John L. Lewis, the longtime and powerful president of the UMWA, who feared . "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. 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. Their General Secretary recently released some facts which help to illustrate the reason for much of the unemployment in the county. Finally, in 1939, the coal companies agreed to allow unions in their coal mine operations. 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. There are still ongoing strikes today and the violence in Harlan County Continues. Herndon J. Evans, the editor of the Pineville Sun, argued, The troubles of the coal industry had their inception in war times. 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 . 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. He'd worked seventy-eight hours straight the preceding week. "They don't want miners havin' any say in safety." The mining company had ordered a motorcade to deliver food and supplies to the strikebreakers known as Scabs. (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.) Whitfield recalls working in his father's coal mines during the first years of commercial mining in Harlan County, and he describes the conditions. The miners say that, somehow, management always knows when the government inspectors are coming. Here, too, are some of the richest natural resources in the countryand some of the poorest people. We huddle before breaking up. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. But you must remember I am an immoral man. The county was once part of Knox County, only becoming official in 1819. Overturned car bodies everywhere. He speaks of "my people" and "my men." Altogether, it is a heavy financial burden for the UMW. In response to the violence, the Kentucky National Guard was called upon and arrived for the first time in the county to try to stem the violence. We first hear from a number of the striking miners about safety conditions in the Brookside mine. They were convicted on charges of conspiracy to murder. Blaine Sergent, coal leader, putting up his check at the end of a workday in Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1946. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Trailer parks called Walnut Grove, Mobile Manor, and Mesa Village Mobile Manor. Our drive takes us upstream along the yellow-brown Clear Fork River. 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. 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. 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. He does say, I think primarily for the record, that he would like to see negotiations begin again. I glance at the new Piedmont magazine, Pace. No one knows who fired the first shot but when it was over four were . There is one ostentatious feature about him, though: a large, multi-diamond ring on the third finger of his left hand. After nearly 40 years of working in coalmines, David . (Eastover offered fifty cents a ton.) October 31, 2016. 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. In 1981, he traded coal mining for gold mining as one of the founders of the current . No concessions or deals were made between the two factions and the membership of the United Mine Workers union plummeted. Funeral Wednesday March 1 at 11 a.m. at Grays Knob Bible Church. Only to be escorted to the county line and told not to return. 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. A month later, back in Washington, I meet with Bernie Aaronson at UMW headquarters. It does not store any personal data. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. However, they did make a greater effort than the United Mine Workers with relief as they opened soup kitchens around the county. The money was . 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 three houses with baths rent for $24 a month, plus $14 a month for electricity. The Act was an attempt to restructure the industrial sector of the economy and to alleviate unemployment with a public works program. The group publishes policy papers on the benefits of coal for Kentucky and sponsors the "Friends of Coal" initiative. This law was enacted to try to reverse the hardships to those who were out of a job because of the economic collapse of the Great Depression. Strikebreakers were often beaten. With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners' sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and company thugs. Three Point, Harlan County, Kentucky September 16, 1943 No. This was thirteen percent of the workers showing up for their scheduled work times. I've talked to Norman Yarborough, and you ain't bringing no union down here. Along the way, we pass through the community of Brookside, its mine-camp houses dominated by the brooding tin presence of the Eastover mine building on the hill. 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. A reporter asks us again how we can expect to make an unbiased report when we've heard only one side. And you wondr why I keep running my mouth . "Try walking out of there, carrying a man with a broken back," one of the miners says. The most memorable of those are 1964, 1966, 1969 (The West Virginia Black Lung strike that the miners won) 1971, and the 1974 Strikes. Captain James Cromer of the state police later tells news reporters, "The women are a problem. [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%. 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." We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. How does the Harlan County Coal Operators Association fit into the picture? During the rest of the afternoon, the miners talk about what has happened on the picket line and in the local court. Carl Horn of Duke Power and Arnold Miller of the UMW had talked, and negotiations had been resumed. 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." I can see twenty-five miles to the southeast, five ridges. It is thought that Middleton was assassinated for backing troops who were present in the County to protect the miners. Grace Elizabeth Hale. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. 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 . James Sizemore says that frequently float dust, which is dangerously explosive, would get too heavy in the mine, and he would complain, but that. There had been several clashes with the "scabs," the mine guards, and the state police, Kahn says. Segment Synopsis: Lois Scott continues her conversation from her previous interview. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. "In Harlan County, U.S.A., sound anchors, explains, and makes 'authentic' visual imagery compromised by the long history of documentary work in Appalachia.". 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. HARLAN COUNTYHarlan County, Kentucky, is a rural county located in a major coal-mining region in the Appalachian Mountains. The United Mine Workers union also cited that they did not have the resources to help in the battle. Two hundred people crowd. 9:03 PM. 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. Even pop culture cannot ignore its impact with such shows as Justified. Outlining the legal framework for labor unions and management relations to improve the working conditions for workers. had them make me go in and pin it because it wasn't done right the first time. 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. If you protested this safety violation, he says, "the boss would just say, 'Run it.'" I've got five living children and four dead. The decrease in wages, unemployment, and irregular employment caused "poverty, hunger, and disease.". The strikebreakers were under the protection of private mine guards. Free shipping for many products! During the big coal boom in the early 1900s, Harlan County was amongst the largest contributors. Eight miners were sentenced to life in prison for the actions that were taken on May 5, 1931. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Harlan County sits in the sweet spot of coal mining in southeastern Kentucky. This active organization is made up of those who represent the leader in the mining industry. Wanted to be able to spend their money at a store of their choice besides the Black Mountain Coal Company store. With this Supreme Court ruling, all but one of the open shops in Harlan County went back to the previous mine operations. Each contract varied from mine to mine. The UMW had made written proposals for compromising these issues a little. Sheriff Blair was voted out of his office in 1933 and died just a year later. The Brookside labor dispute erupted spontaneously soon after Miller's election. 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 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. 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 will be a two-hour, winding drive through the Cumberland Mountains to the town of Harlan. 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. Most of the land is owned by the mining companies. And I can't get you off of that couch. I have been married to David W. Sergent since May 4, 2013. Established in 1916, its membership consisted of nearly all the large mining companies, and it represented the major political force in the county. Freda Armes says, "I take a cloth and strain the water to cook with. There are very few vacant houses in Harlan County and virtually no available land to build on. It is clear that these women have been a main factor in keeping the mine shut down. Pay ranged from $17 to $32 day, the average being $25. The next morning the toothpicks were still in place, it was said. Make your practice more effective and efficient with Casetext's legal research suite. Since the county began mining, over one billion tons of coal have Si says Harlan is a dry countyno legal liquor and no beer. A rural county of 27,000, Harlan County's average household income is about $29,000. One of the Deputies was Jim Daniels. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. He sentenced nine men and seven women to six months in jail and fined them $500 each. In one of these, the septic tank has been out of order for several months. That commitment has never waivered, and has grown . Partial Transcript: August 27, '86. Based on this new Act, from October 27, 1933, to March 31, 1935, the mines ran as open shops. That year, annual wages dropped from $1,235 to $749. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. They are neatly and attractively dressed. Why wasn't the fuse replaced at once? McQueen says that in late 1972 he burned his fingers to the bone on a switchbox where a blown fuse had been hot-wired. (This . ", What about federal inspection? They are merely a service organization, Yarborough says. Its profits in 1973 were $90 million, up 14 percent from the year before. New subdivisions named Tall Oaks and Colonial Heights. 3.' 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. Leroy Helton says he still owes a lot of bills that should have been paid by SLU. "I don't like to handle that raw juice," he says. 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 . "They sent me to 'Waterhole No. [ 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%. The men's life depended on my job, but I knowed if I protested I'd a got fired. If those under them behave in an approved manner then they receive housing, work, food, and other perks of their position. California labor activist Caroline Decker also raised money for the relief of the striking miner efforts. An investigation was conducted on Terrorism in the Kentucky Coal Fields. (That is a tough point.) Prior to Miller's election, the union had become corrupt, dictatorial, and a frequent collaborator with the mine owners. There were ten lodges that were chartered for the National Miners Union. I say that the issue is whether or not the men will be allowed to have their own union to protect their safety and secure and maintain decent wages and benefits, that if enough pressure is put on Duke Power Company, maybe something will give. 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. Miners also wanted the right to organize and have a union. They exercised their powers with impunity and operated under Sheriff J.H. The prospects for settlement do not look good unless Duke begins to feel public pressure. These women have organized a special kind of feminist movement, and the issues to them are life-and-death issues. 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. She doesn't know where she will go when the camp is closed. There is a suit still in litigation. There was no functioning safety committee Medical and retirement benefits were minimal and unreliable. As discussed in a previous video. "Yeah," a coal miner says, "but the land's so poor, you can't hardly raise an umbrella on it.". CBS is represented by a camera crew, and there are a number of national reporters. You just don't hit a woman in Harlan County." Yarborough comes out of a staff meeting and ushers us hack to a large, paneled meeting room with folding tables and chairs. Apparently, this is one of Eastover's major objections. For a time after the hearing, he says, it appeared that Duke had softened. Miners die, and last year was the deadliest in American coal mines in more than a decade. 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. . When Barbara finishes her answer, Wirtz raises a clenched fist and says, "Right on!" Don Dalton, UMW Safety Director for Region Six, explains this. The radical ideology of the union began gaining some ground in the mountains. The Three Point disaster was the worst suffered in the county since December 9, 1932, when 23 men were killed in an explosion in "Zero" Mine of Harlan Fuel Company, Yancey. Here and there, we also see white-blossoming pear and dogwood trees. My brother died at the age of forty. On February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association reduced wages for miners in that part of eastern Kentucky by 10 percent. KCA traces its origin to a statewide association of coal operators who united their efforts in 1942. He discusses the formation and activities of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association . Harlan Fuel Co. Download PDF. The union abandoned its efforts after less than a year. 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. A thousand feet below me lies a small, green valley, partly shrouded by the morning mist. They have probably helped keep their own men from exploding too. The miners and the coal owners were still having disputes. Word precedes him. "I don't know nothing about the electrical part." "With all those state police, we knew we had three choices," she says. United States Washington D.C. District of Columbia Washington D.C . Mr. Blanton explained the reasoning behind coal camps. Norman Yarborough, head of Eastover Mining Company, is not coming either. 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 . It doesn't seem like enough. He hopes the other side will do the same. 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." Up at seven on a Monday morning, I walk out onto the balcony of my motel room.
Bosley Locations In Florida,
Parable Of The Talents Verse,
Benjamin Green Kettering,
Can We Wear Taweez During Periods,
Articles H
