The coal companies refused to back down from their positions and change anything. 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. No one knows who fired the first shot but when it was over four were . She speaks in a soft, pleasant voice. I am the only man in the United States who would do that sort of thing.". The judge's fines and sentences were appealed. He hopes the other side will do the same. Why wasn't the fuse replaced at once? Miners also wanted the right to organize and have a union. Pierce has brought the actual Courier-Journal clippings about the Dreiser inquiry and shares them with us. Theoretically, even operators' and owners' children were . 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. Pay ranged from $17 to $32 day, the average being $25. The United Mine Workers of America represented 400,000 miners at that point and promised miners safer work conditions and higher wages. I have an Associates Degree from Hazard Community College and Technical School. It will be a two-hour, winding drive through the Cumberland Mountains to the town of Harlan. Done Citation. "I don't try to blacklist anybody," he says. Unlike the previous Coal Wars that took place in West Virginia with the Paint-Creek Strike of 1912 and Matewan that lasted for a year or two. Typical of counties with low income, counties where the mine companies own everything and pay low taxes, our UMW driver says. 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. At first, there were little battles with gunshots being exchanged between the strikers and the private guards, and the local law enforcement agents. It is home to lawyers, doctors and coal operators; it has a hospital, several banks and a few fast-food . 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." He discusses the formation and activities of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association . These charities began to give aid to blacklisted miners who were unable to find employment as the soup kitchens had closed once the NMU had closed its doors. It is beautiful in Harlan County, as pretty as any place in the world. They're trapped. They had no safety committee, the miners say, and the federal reports bear them out. Over one thousand shots were exchanged during those fifteen minutes. When Barbara finishes her answer, Wirtz raises a clenched fist and says, "Right on!" 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. Harlan County sits in the sweet spot of coal mining in southeastern Kentucky. Interment at Resthaven Cemetery, Keith, Ky. Visitation 6-9 p.m. at the Grays Knob Bible Church. "Then he'd come out looking like a sheep-killing dog and get in his truck and run. I have attended the University of Kentucky. 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. Norman Yarborough, head of Eastover Mining Company, is not coming either. (The union has told us that they are quite willing to limit the contract to the Brookside mine.) But negotiations for a contract with Eastover soon broke down, and on July 30 the miners at Brookside began the strike that now, as we arrive, is in its eighth month. I have two children and four grandchildren from a previous marriage. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Which Side are You on? The distance a miner had to walk and how time was looked at was in 15-minute increments. To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators Association decided to cut all wages by ten percent. We drive to the Evarts Community Center and report to the other members of the Citizens Inquiry. Eight miners were sentenced to life in prison for the actions that were taken on May 5, 1931. It was two o'clock on a Monday morning when the accident occurred, and he'd been in the mine., more than twelve hours. What a marvelous view! We hope that our hearings will help hold down violence. Enforcing the operators' political will, both within and outside the law, was the Harlan County Coal Operators Association. Si sticks a wad of Red Man chewing tobacco in his cheek and begins to fill us in on the background of the Brookside strike. 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. ", Bill McQueen says that when the shuttle's lights and brakes were not working and the inspector was coming, the foreman would say, "Park it." The main problem, he says, is that the company wants a "no-strike" clause, so that the union cannot strike during the contract period. There was no standard contract for the miners. These women have organized a special kind of feminist movement, and the issues to them are life-and-death issues. On one excuse or another, such as not having personnel readily available to accompany the inspector into the mine, the company can delay the inspection. Working barns of gray-black weathered wood. To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association decided to cut all wages by ten . Daniels was one of the most hated deputies in the county due to his anti-union views. On September 4, 1935, Harlan County Attorney Elmon Clay Middleton, age 31, was assassinated by a car bomb containing eighteen sticks of dynamite. 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. ", What about federal inspection? There is one ostentatious feature about him, though: a large, multi-diamond ring on the third finger of his left hand. Yarborough says that he will not agree to the contract applying to Eastover's subcontractors. Project Summary. B.W. Apparently, this is one of Eastover's major objections. There are nearly 40,000 people in the county, a drop of 36 percent since 1960. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. "Yeah," a coal miner says, "but the land's so poor, you can't hardly raise an umbrella on it.". Partial Transcript: August 27, '86. Nannie Rainey says, "I told him if he got my children, he was gonna haveta take me too." This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. "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. Duke went into the coal business directly in 1970 when it organized Eastover Mining Company as a wholly owned subsidiary and, through it, bought several mines in eastern Kentucky, including the one at Brookside. It is also women's day before the Citizens In-quiry. I have been married to David W. Sergent since May 4, 2013. Unemployment in 2017 was 9.4 percent, far above the national average. Pricing; Switch; Big firm; "Dreiser, Woman Indicted," one headline reads. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. We return to our series on the Coal Wars of the United States with Bloody Harlan and the Battle for Evarts. Lifelong resident of Harlan. Office files covering topics such as "accounts receivable," "baseball club," "coal production," "garnishment orders," "Harlan Coal Operator's Association," "labor conditions," "medical conditions . Three Harlan County incorporated towns were not owned by the coal mines, they became a sanctuary for the evicted and starving miners. I've talked to Norman Yarborough, and you ain't bringing no union down here. "In Harlan County, U.S.A., sound anchors, explains, and makes 'authentic' visual imagery compromised by the long history of documentary work in Appalachia.". The median family income is $4600 a year. "Boss walks up and says, 'We've got to make this mine look good now, boys; the inspector's comin','" Jerry Johnson says. One night, they saw a secretary for the Dreiser group enter Dreiser's hotel room, and they placed toothpicks against the door to determine whether she ever came back out during the night. By 1908 the union had . They range in age from about twenty-one to seventy. those in the Harlan County Coal Operators . The UMW union called in the National Guard to help them. Why is garbage left on the roadway? Documentary of mining practices in Hazard County, Kentucky. "They didn't say nothin'; all they want's coal.' Nannie Rainey takes us into her four-room house where she and her husband and five children live. The Act was an attempt to restructure the industrial sector of the economy and to alleviate unemployment with a public works program. 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.". Some seventy-five state policemen were on hand as the crowd gathered. 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. One of the Deputies was Jim Daniels. During the big coal boom in the early 1900s, Harlan County was amongst the largest contributors. 1938) Copy Citation . And you wondr why I keep running my mouth . Betty Eldridge is a mildmannered, well-dressed woman of about forty. (This . When fuses blow, they are not immediately replaced; the cable is spliced or "hot-wired" around the fuse. Most of the land is owned by the mining companies. These disputes were still brewing when on December 8, 1934, the United Mine Workers Union was threatened by deputies and mine bosses. Finally, in 1939, the coal companies agreed to allow unions in their coal mine operations. During the rest of the afternoon, the miners talk about what has happened on the picket line and in the local court. They say no action has been taken on this report. One of the better houses is already being demolished. "They sent me to 'Waterhole No. Her daughter, Bessie Cornett, an attractive young brunette, says, "I'm not in jail today because you people are here." 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." And, even so, it usually takes forty-five minutes to an hour for the inspector to get from mine entrance to the face of the coal. Up at seven on a Monday morning, I walk out onto the balcony of my motel room. There had been several clashes with the "scabs," the mine guards, and the state police, Kahn says. McDonald's. Find the perfect harlan county coal stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. 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. Source Citation [ }] Descriptive Note Contributors from initial SNAC EAC-CPF ingest. Killed - 12. Depression-era Harlan County, Kentucky, was the site of one of the most bitter and protracted labor disputes in American history. In the bloody 1930s coal wars, miners known to be union members were fired and evicted from company-owned homes. Our delegation arrives on time at the Eastover office in Brookside. Established in 1916, its membership consisted of nearly all the large mining companies, and it represented the major political force in the county. "They don't want miners havin' any say in safety." Talking to Aaronson, I am reminded of an old tin sign I saw tacked on a tree along the highway as I left Harlan. 8 N.L.R.B. . They are demanding the standard UMW provision requiring the company to pay a royalty of seventy-five cents a ton on mined coal into the UMW Welfare & Retirement Fund. 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. An organic shape, small and shiny and pinkish white, sits . "But if they call me and ask if a man works for me, I simply say yes or no.". Jacqueline Brophy asks why public services have broken down. . "Why couldn't the original thirteen colonies live with the same British policy that applied to all other British colonies?" He speaks of "my people" and "my men." So we lay down in the road." Other clippings detail the earlier bloodshed and misery in Harlan County. We agree that most of us lean toward the miners, but we think we can be fair in trying to learn the facts. J. D. Skidmore says, "I have no chance of getting a job in Harlan County if this strike is not settled." Captain James Cromer of the state police later tells news reporters, "The women are a problem. 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 It read: RE-ELECT GAW, JAILER. The officials were listed were the "veteran safety director of the Harlan Coal Operators Association, and Rufus Bailey and H. Hamlin, state . Freda Armes says, "I take a cloth and strain the water to cook with. A young woman from the Associated Press asks me, aren't we getting only one side of the story? Wanted to be able to spend their money at a store of their choice besides the Black Mountain Coal Company store. 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. As in Germany, the AFSC used need alone to determine who got fed. Harlan, city, seat of Harlan county, southeastern Kentucky, U.S., in the Cumberland Mountains, on the Clover Fork Cumberland River. Only three of the families in the camp have indoor toilets. The miners charge that Eastover has hired what they call "gun thugs." On February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association reduced wages for miners in that part of eastern Kentucky by 10 percent. Harlan County. No wonder R C Cola has so many signs everywhere. The miners and the coal owners were still having disputes. "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." 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. Here, too, are some of the richest natural resources in the countryand some of the poorest people. On February 16, 1931, in order to prevent operating at a loss, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association cut miners' wages by 10%. With this Supreme Court ruling, all but one of the open shops in Harlan County went back to the previous mine operations. "I've got so many duns from the hospital that I just quit lookin' at them. HARLAN COUNTYHarlan County, Kentucky, is a rural county located in a major coal-mining region in the Appalachian Mountains. 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. (There is such a provision in the standard UMW contract.). A Committee was formed and conducted by Activist Theodore Dreiser under the auspices of the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP). The unrest continues in Harlan and surrounding counties as there have been many strikes. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. ("Tony") Boyle for the national presidency of the UMW in 1972 in an election closely supervised by the federal government. 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. Sadly, the state and federal troops would occupy the county several times. After the railroad arrived in 1911 . With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners' sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and company thugs. 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. Violence erupted that would periodically repeat itself for the next eight years. (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.) Three of our Inquiry members plan to talk with the president of Duke Power Company. 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. 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 . We huddle before breaking up.
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