8 N.L.R.B. It was Miller who defeated W. A. "Not at all," Yarborough says. 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. I have two children and four grandchildren from a previous marriage. Prior to the strike, the pay of the Brookside miners started and stopped at the face of coal. The decision caused unrest in the county among the miners. 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. Those with running water rent for around $20 a month, plus electricity. There were only three cars in the motorcade each of which contained a sheriffs deputy. Five miles north of Harlan, we drive up Inspiration Mountain. Coal employment in Harlan county dropped 53.7% in the second quarter of this year compared with last year, driven by Blackjewel's bankruptcy. When Barbara finishes her answer, Wirtz raises a clenched fist and says, "Right on!" The radical ideology of the union began gaining some ground in the mountains. They want portal-to-portal pay from the time they enter the mine until they leave it. The United Mine Workers union also cited that they did not have the resources to help in the battle. If those under them behave in an approved manner then they receive housing, work, food, and other perks of their position. The women are nervous about testifying, afraid of retaliation. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. We agree that most of us lean toward the miners, but we think we can be fair in trying to learn the facts. B.W. Harlan County. Eastover agreed to sign the 1971 wage pact of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association which is in force at 1,200 mines. 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 . It has assets worth $2.5 billion. Exist Dates. The county was once part of Knox County, only becoming official in 1819. I have an Associates Degree from Hazard Community College and Technical School. There were constant beatings of the miners by the Sheriffs deputies. 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. On Friday, October 3, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt called a precedent-shattering meeting at the temporary White House at 22 Lafayette Place, Washington, D.C. A . Bill Doan says, "When I got hurt, I couldn't find Jim Miller, the man who had charge of the sick fund." He hopes the other side will do the same. The remaining workforce then went on strike as a sign of solidarity with those that were fired from their jobs. But you must remember I am an immoral man. "I've seen some hurt and some killed. She speaks in a soft, pleasant voice. The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. 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. I look at the government statistics once more. How does the Harlan County Coal Operators Association fit into the picture? By 1908 the union had . 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. Why couldn't Eastover live with the same national UMW contract that so many other companies have accepted? The union abandoned its efforts after less than a year. A rural county of 27,000, Harlan County's average household income is about $29,000. 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. Three of the federal reports state that there was no safety committee at Brookside, as required by law. 5355, atEvarts . 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. ", What about federal inspection? No help came to those that were in starving situations due to no money to spend on food and no admittance to the company store unless they were gainfully employed by the coal mine. The slab of slate, more than 51 feet long, and 17 feet wide and weighing tons, was dodged by two men. The Harlan County Coal Wars lasted from 1931-1939. 5355 after Local Union 4495 at Black Mountain folded up. Before this war was over it is not known exactly how many miners, coal operators, deputies, and bosses would be killed. And we're burning up people to make electricity. Up at seven on a Monday morning, I walk out onto the balcony of my motel room. 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. . After the railroad arrived in 1911 . He is dressed more like a miner than a mining executive. 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. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". "Yeah," a coal miner says, "but the land's so poor, you can't hardly raise an umbrella on it.". At first, heading northwest on modern Route 23, through Kingsport, Tennessee, Weber City, Virginia, and Gate City, Virginia, the sights are the same as almost everywhere else in America today. They exercised their powers with impunity and operated under Sheriff J.H. Four men were arrested in connection with this murder. Mr. Crossing the Clinch River, we turn onto Highway 421 and leave the modern world. However, after the dust was clear, the anti-labor coal country would end up being represented by unions. An organic shape, small and shiny and pinkish white, sits . I was born in Florida and grew up in Burdine, Kentucky. I have attended the University of Kentucky. These women have organized a special kind of feminist movement, and the issues to them are life-and-death issues. 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. 9:03 PM. 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. This active organization is made up of those who represent the leader in the mining industry. Nobody knows how long the UMW can keep paying strike benefits. They were convicted on charges of conspiracy to murder. Dixon and union leaders worry that the union's disappearance in Kentucky has opened the door for coal operators to . Conflict broke out again the 1970s in what was known as the Brookside strike. Trailer parks called Walnut Grove, Mobile Manor, and Mesa Village Mobile Manor. The strikebreakers were under the protection of private mine guards. 1 mine in Evarts, in Harlan County, Kentucky. Though the union had made substantial inroads into the Central Appalachian coalfields by 1930, when miners in Bell and Harlan Counties went out on strike in early May, 1931, the UMWA removed its support. The motorcade stopped and the deputies got out of their cars to return fire. There is a hard edge in her voice, and her blue-gray eyes are flashing. 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. 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.". Evarts welcomed the miners because it was filled with spurned politicians and business owners who wished to see the company stores and company men in political positions vanish. Find the perfect harlan county coal stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. "Why couldn't the original thirteen colonies live with the same British policy that applied to all other British colonies?" To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators Association decided to cut all wages by ten percent. Harry Simms, who was a Young Communist League organizer was killed in Harlan. If you protested this safety violation, he says, "the boss would just say, 'Run it.'" It was a nearly decade-long conflict, lasting from 1931 to 1939. . The UMW union called in the National Guard to help them. Why is garbage left on the roadway? They range in age from about twenty-one to seventy. In response, the United Mine Workers of America attempted to organize the miners. Grace Elizabeth Hale. Make your practice more effective and efficient with Casetext's legal research suite. The miners say that, somehow, management always knows when the government inspectors are coming. They are merely a service organization, Yarborough says. I can see twenty-five miles to the southeast, five ridges. She's been picketing with the other women. No concessions or deals were made between the two factions and the membership of the United Mine Workers union plummeted. A historical marker says we are near the Little Shepherd Trail, the setting for the novel Shepherd of the Hills. He discusses the formation and activities of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association . Harlan County, Kentucky is known for two things: bituminous coal and Bloody Harlan. The Price of Coal, Part II. Strikebreakers were often beaten. There are very few vacant houses in the county. In 1981, he traded coal mining for gold mining as one of the founders of the current . 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. More than twenty-four babies out of a thousand die before they are one year old, and the expenditure per child in the public schools is one-half the national average. As in Germany, the AFSC used need alone to determine who got fed. After this, the first strike occurred, in which only about 13% of strikers showed up to work. A shoulder blade and five of his ribs were broken. It is home to lawyers, doctors and coal operators; it has a hospital, several banks and a few fast-food . [6] Nearly four thousand miners working and living in Harlan County, Kentucky lost their jobs in the Great Depression. Miner Curtis Cress, 34, says towns that . 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. And always there is a murky roadside stream, beech and sycamore trees lining its banks. He is a sturdily built, self-assured man of about fifty, with a strong, square jaw and a rough, weathered face. Dan Pollitt reads a letter from Carl Horn, Jr., president of Duke Power Company, respectfully declining our invitation. They had no safety committee, the miners say, and the federal reports bear them out. 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. One of the Deputies was Jim Daniels. 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. "Then he'd come out looking like a sheep-killing dog and get in his truck and run. Source for information on Harlan County: Encyclopedia of the Great Depression dictionary. 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. "This troubles me; I don't sleep," Yarborough says. A month later, back in Washington, I meet with Bernie Aaronson at UMW headquarters. Drift mines back into the mountains follow the seam of coal wherever it goes." "You could hunt for one, but there just weren't one there," he says. Frame houses with rusty tin roofs. 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 . Forty percent of the county's dwellings lack some or all of plumbing, water, or toilet facilities. Abstract. 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. I've got five living children and four dead. It doesn't seem like enough. It is not all Duke's fault by any means. 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. Toilet paper clings to the bushes and tree limbs five or six feet up from the rushing stream. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. 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. Pricing; Switch; Big firm; Lois Scott explains that during the first confrontation at the mine, she saw a pistol in the front seat of every "scab" car she looked into and that a company "gun thug" pointed a submachine gun at the women from the porch of the Eastover office. We look back on the film, which screens this Sunday, February . HARLAN COUNTY COAL OPERATORS ASSOCIATION. Some of the women say they haven't had a drink of water since moving to the Brookside camp. It comes to a bill of about $20,000 a week for the national union. Overturned car bodies everywhere. Freda Armes says, "I take a cloth and strain the water to cook with. The company also agreed to abide by any agreement reached between the . 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. He decided to make Harlan County a test case in the UMW's new, more aggressive organizing efforts. Toilets are built out over the river, and the water has obviously been much higher in the recent past. He can't never walk again." My man was mashed up in the mines. Paternalism is the practice of people who have a business or other authority to restrict the freedoms of those who are subordinate to them. 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. June 17th of that same year, the first strike was over as the last miner had returned to work. 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. 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. 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. The money was . The most shocking moment in Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) looks at first like an abstract painting. Finally, in 1939, the coal companies agreed to allow unions in their coal mine operations. What a marvelous view! 4 . Capitalizing on the general . Done Citation. Mine operators formed the 1 Harlan County Coal Operators Association and through this organization made collective decisions concerning the mines. It is also women's day before the Citizens In-quiry. October 31, 2016. USBM Final Investigation Report (1.7 Mb) Successful Rescue . However, the battle continues to this day. That year, annual wages dropped from $1,235 to $749. 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. It does not store any personal data. 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. Nonunion workers were attempting to leave the mine. . Typical of counties with low income, counties where the mine companies own everything and pay low taxes, our UMW driver says. Miners die, and last year was the deadliest in American coal mines in more than a decade. 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. McDonald's. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. He was transferred to a worse section, he says. Is that the only objection that is holding up a settlement? "I cain't get a job nowhere in this county. 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. They're trapped. Yarborough says that he will not agree to the contract applying to Eastover's subcontractors. The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! That commitment has never waivered, and has grown . Some of the women cut switches and joined the picketers. Project Summary. "We run because we wanted to testify, and if we hadn't run, he woulda had us in jail." He run all the way down the stairs and out of the jail." safety director for the Harlan County Coal Operators Association; Moss Paterson, chief of the State Bureau of Mines and Minerals, and State and Federal mine inspectors. knee-deep in water, he has experienced many electrical shocks. Steeped in Appalachian culture and surrounded by the influence of coal, Harlan County has amassed an interesting reputation and national attention with rest of the world. That means, among other things, an average daily wage of $45. 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. "The way I figured it, they done that because it was just a faster, way of getting coal." 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. The Wagner Act of 1935 (National Labor Relations Act or NLRA) guaranteed the rights of workers to choose to organize. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Yarborough tells us that the company does not now object to paying the miners for portal-to-portal time for inside mine work, but that the union wants comparability for outside workers too, in effect requiring the company to pay outside workers overtime for all work in excess of a seven and-a-quarter-hour regular day. It reports that "Piedmont" is an adjective derived.from Italian words that literally mean "formed at the foot of the mountains." Here at Kentucky Tennessee Living we fully support the coal miners and their families. Some of the women went to jail with the men, and some took their children with them. Midway in the trial, Judge Hogg dismissed the jury and directed a verdict of guilty. With this Supreme Court ruling, all but one of the open shops in Harlan County went back to the previous mine operations. The next morning the toothpicks were still in place, it was said. One of the better houses is already being demolished. The Kentucky Coal Association is an IRS designated 501 (c) (6) nonprofit organization that aims to educate its members and the public of coal production and safety in the state of Kentucky. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. "I've had the foreman to tell me to set timbers or something until the inspector got gone. Duke Power Company of North Carolina, he says, is the sixth largest utility company in the world. Our drive takes us upstream along the yellow-brown Clear Fork River. He says that he will not agree to the Brookside contract applying to "all" of Eastover's operations. Each contract varied from mine to mine. Lifelong resident of Harlan. Harlan Daily Enterprise, September 17, 1943. They are neatly and attractively dressed. He says that they do not need the UMW to look after them; he will do that. Interview Summary. When McQueen was hurt, his foreman drove him to the hospital and left him there, and he was two hours hitchhiking home. Unemployment in 2017 was 9.4 percent, far above the national average. They tell of two night incidents when rifle shots were fired at the picketers by unidentified persons. Enforcing the operators' political will, both within and outside the law, was the Harlan County Coal Operators Association. Miners also wanted the right to organize and have a union. A Brief History of Harlan County, USA. The bosses wouldn't go in, but I've. A reporter asks us again how we can expect to make an unbiased report when we've heard only one side. California labor activist Caroline Decker also raised money for the relief of the striking miner efforts. There was no standard contract for the miners. An investigation was conducted on Terrorism in the Kentucky Coal Fields. (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.) In one of these, the septic tank has been out of order for several months. But mostly the scenery is depressingly bleak. "I don't like to handle that raw juice," he says. Nevertheless, as the county seat, the city of Harlan has resources much of the county lacks. Soon enough, most miners had gone on strike out of solidarity. And, all around, there are the rolling mountains, covered with second-growth timber. . Si says Harlan is a dry countyno legal liquor and no beer. No wonder R C Cola has so many signs everywhere. "In Harlan County, U.S.A., sound anchors, explains, and makes 'authentic' visual imagery compromised by the long history of documentary work in Appalachia.". Outlining the legal framework for labor unions and management relations to improve the working conditions for workers. Or all you're gonna get's a chunk of Harlan County coal. Battle of Evartshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Evarts, National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/new-deal/national-industrial-recovery-act-of-1933/, Battle of Evartshttps://pipiwiki.com/wiki/Battle_of_Evarts, Battle of Evartshttps://wiki2.org/en/Battle_of_Evarts, Harlan County Warhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_County_War, A Brief History of Harlan County, USAhttps://labornotes.org/blogs/2019/08/brief-history-harlan-county-usa, Harlan County Warhttps://everipedia.org/Harlan_County_War, https://appalachiancenter.as.uky.edu/coal-strike/background-coal-strike, https://appalachiancenter.as.uky.edu/coal-strike/local-elite, https://appalachiancenter.as.uky.edu/coal-strike/new-york-writers, https://appalachiancenter.as.uky.edu/coal-strike/national-miners-union-and-other-radical-groups, The Wagner Act of 1935 (National Labor Relations Act)https://www.thebalancecareers.com/the-wagner-act-of-1935-national-labor-relations-act-2060509#:~:text=%20The%20Wagner%20Act%20defines%20and%20prohibits%20five,or%20administration%20of%20a%20labor%20organization.%20More%20, BOMB IN AUTO KILLS KENTUCKY OFFICIAL; Harlan County Attorney Predicted Assassination for Backing Troops in Election.https://www.nytimes.com/1935/09/05/archives/bomb-in-auto-kills-kentucky-official-harlan-county-attorney.html#:~:text=HARLAN%2C%20Ky.%2C%20Sept.%204%20%28AP%29.%20%20The%20death,his%20automobile.%20View%20Full%20Article%20in%20Timesmachine%20%C2%BB, Elmon Clay Middleton https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70804679/elmon-clay-middleton, KENTUCKY HOLDS FOUR IN AUTO BOMB KILLING; Harlan Prosecutors Death Is Laid to His Fight Against Slot Machines.https://www.nytimes.com/1935/09/06/archives/kentucky-holds-four-in-auto-bomb-killing-harlan-prosecutors-death.html, Blackjewel Bankruptcy Leaves Damaged Lands and Miners Compensation in Limbo, https://ohiovalleyresource.org/2021/03/22/blackjewel-bankruptcy-finalized/, This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/?fbclid=IwAR21nYphw4Dul-_EwuAmSWgzsvPLNwsMM0FtV75j0y-mGUHq-lCZjJxZot8, For more about us, you can visit our Facebook at:https://www.facebook.com/kytnliving, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs0oV5gFzIS2JdMJ3HvTOgA, When we forget our past and who we are as a people, then we become who they say we are.
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