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For a time after the hearing, he says, it appeared that Duke had softened. It will be a two-hour, winding drive through the Cumberland Mountains to the town of Harlan. The miners speak of other dissatisfactions with Eastover and the old Southern Labor Union contract. The coal miners, lean and tough from Kentucky mountain life, knew how to fight back. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The Federal Government, with the Commissioner of Labor in a fact finding role, acted as a 'neutral' for the first time in contributing to settlement of the bitter coal strike. We return to our series on the Coal Wars of the United States with Bloody Harlan and the Battle for Evarts. 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. "Yarborough says he just don't want nobody tellin' him how to run his mine," Deaton says. No wonder R C Cola has so many signs everywhere. Midway in the trial, Judge Hogg dismissed the jury and directed a verdict of guilty. ", What about the Southern Labor Union? Find the perfect harlan county coal stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. "Not at all," Yarborough says. As the motorcade approached a single shot rang out in the air. He fined the UMW $20,000. Even pop culture cannot ignore its impact with such shows as Justified. "Then he'd come out looking like a sheep-killing dog and get in his truck and run. With the opening left by the United Mine Workers union the openly Communist (NMU) National Miners Union tried to help the miners to organize. Duke Power Company of North Carolina, he says, is the sixth largest utility company in the world. Lifelong resident of Harlan. I have been married to David W. Sergent since May 4, 2013. "Boss walks up and says, 'We've got to make this mine look good now, boys; the inspector's comin','" Jerry Johnson says. 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. 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. 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. The sign man for R C Cola has worked this territory well. Nobody knows how long the UMW can keep paying strike benefits. Harlan County U.S.A. by Felicia Elliott, August 2, 2016. 5355 after Local Union 4495 at Black Mountain folded up. Our delegation arrives on time at the Eastover office in Brookside. Herndon J. Evans, the editor of the Pineville Sun, argued, The troubles of the coal industry had their inception in war times. In Harlan County, Kentucky, are some of our country's richest natural resourcesand some of its poorest people. Harlan County in eastern Kentucky, which has been brought out into the spotlight this summer by the violence with which the local Coal Operators' Association has carried on this attack, is, as far as I can find out, a pretty good medium exhibit of the entire industry: living conditions are better than in Alabama and perhaps a little worse . That commitment has never waivered, and has grown . 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. Done Citation. Working barns of gray-black weathered wood. We feel that we have provided a national forum for the miners to tell their story. "This troubles me; I don't sleep," Yarborough says. She's been picketing with the other women. 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. "I don't know nothing about the electrical part." The Brookside mine is capable of producing only about a half-million tons of the 15 million tons of coal Duke uses each year. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. After nearly 40 years of working in coalmines, David . Miners also wanted the right to organize and have a union. the meeting room. 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. The miners say that they often have to stand knee-deep in water while handling 440-volt electrical cables. The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. The nearest ridge is green with spruce and pine. (This . Perched atop Inspiration Mountain is the modern Mount Aire Motel. They made several attempts at holding strikes against the coal companies, but these failed in Harlan County. . Barbara Kopple 's Academy Award-winning Harlan County USA unflinchingly documents a grueling coal miners' strike in a small Kentucky town. Sudie Crusenberg, a plain woman in a cotton dress, gives us some idea of what life is like for a coal-mining family. (There is such a provision in the standard UMW contract.). There were shots exchanged and all three deputies and one striker were killed. They were convicted on charges of conspiracy to murder. 2011: $1,161,330. It doesn't seem like enough. But mostly the scenery is depressingly bleak. Big Boy. It was two o'clock on a Monday morning when the accident occurred, and he'd been in the mine., more than twelve hours. No concessions or deals were made between the two factions and the membership of the United Mine Workers union plummeted. All during the day they worked in shifts, trying to penetrate to the point where the explosion occurred. Harlan Fuel Co. Download PDF. "Why couldn't the original thirteen colonies live with the same British policy that applied to all other British colonies?" Others say they intend to speak and write about what they have heard. However, after the dust was clear, the anti-labor coal country would end up being represented by unions. . Someone had planted dynamite in his automobile and when he started it up the car blew up. Lois Scott, a woman of about forty-five, begins to speak first. by Ron Soodalter. "They don't want miners havin' any say in safety." (Fifty million tons of union coal are mined in western Kentucky; only 6.5 million tons of union coal are mined in eastern Kentucky.) Documentary of mining practices in Hazard County, Kentucky. Word precedes him. 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. It took forty-five minutes for someone to come and help get him out, Deaton says. Whitfield's family was from Alabama where his father had been in the coal business. Duke Power Company appears to be the key to breaking the deadlock in negotiations. We never would find out what happened. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". 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. We gather back in Evarts and announce that our report will be ready in two or three weeks. But I ain't leaving because this is my home.". The county was once part of Knox County, only becoming official in 1819. The group included John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and a number of other writers and artists. 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. 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. Daniels was one of the most hated deputies in the county due to his anti-union views. Arnold Miller, who was an active coal miner until three years ago and is now the reform-minded president of the United Mine Workers, has asked me to serve as a member of a "Citizens Public Inquiry into the Brookside Strike.". Name Entry; Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. (That is a tough point.) Harlan County sits in the sweet spot of coal mining in southeastern Kentucky. . Wirtz says that his arbitration experience tells him that if Eastover really wants to negotiate in good faith, the remaining issues, tough as they are, can probably be worked out. Sheriff Blair was voted out of his office in 1933 and died just a year later. Unemployment in 2017 was 9.4 percent, far above the national average. 4 . These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. "They sent me to 'Waterhole No. ~~ David Sergent. Harlan County. Hennen attributes this abandonment to the increasingly conservative John L. Lewis, the longtime and powerful president of the UMWA, who feared . Enforcing the operators' political will, both within and outside the law, was the Harlan County Coal Operators Association. 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. 5355, atEvarts . In response, the United Mine Workers of America attempted to organize the miners. Copy with citation. 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. Only three of the families in the camp have indoor toilets. Horn's letter questions the fair-mindedness of the inquiry members. A month later, back in Washington, I meet with Bernie Aaronson at UMW headquarters. 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. "Roof falls are a constant hazard, but the bosses just keep on rushin'.". 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. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Which Side are You on? "The danger's just the same," they say. It does not store any personal data. Eight miners were sentenced to life in prison for the actions that were taken on May 5, 1931. Garbage along the roadside. James Sizemore says that frequently float dust, which is dangerously explosive, would get too heavy in the mine, and he would complain, but that. 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. Three Point, Harlan County, Kentucky September 16, 1943 No. Established in 1916, its membership consisted of nearly all the large mining companies, and it represented the major political force in the county. Our drive takes us upstream along the yellow-brown Clear Fork River. 1938) Copy Citation . Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. There is one ostentatious feature about him, though: a large, multi-diamond ring on the third finger of his left hand. (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.) Bobby's wife, Becky, who died in 2013, was a lifelong advocate for the people of Harlan County. No, Yarborough says; it just serves as a central clearing house, so that job applicants won't have to go around and apply at each of the mines separately. With this Supreme Court ruling, all but one of the open shops in Harlan County went back to the previous mine operations. 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. Up at seven on a Monday morning, I walk out onto the balcony of my motel room. The next morning the toothpicks were still in place, it was said. The name comes from a series of United Mine Workers strikes and labor-management battles which ended in a gunfight between deputized mine guards and miners on May 4, 1931, in the tiny community of Evarts. The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! The AFSC fed almost 1500 children in Harlan by the end of the 1931-2 schoolyear, as well as about a hundred nursing and expectant mothers. Former Director of Harlan County Coal Operators Association. Their activities began with a demonstration and march in Harlan on September 27, 1973. He does say, I think primarily for the record, that he would like to see negotiations begin again. We first hear from a number of the striking miners about safety conditions in the Brookside mine. Harlan County, Kentucky is known for two things: bituminous coal and Bloody Harlan. Is that the only objection that is holding up a settlement? Freda Armes says, "I run him off. My brother died at the age of forty. That's an old term in Harlan County, used to describe special, plain-clothed guards. A shoulder blade and five of his ribs were broken. The accident was the second worst mine fatality in the history of Harlan County coal mining, the worst being Harlan Fuel Company . 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. Exist Dates. [Verse 2] I got 27 peopl coming over to this house. Done. 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. Pierce has brought the actual Courier-Journal clippings about the Dreiser inquiry and shares them with us. "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. Make your practice more effective and efficient with Casetext's legal research suite. Breaks in the cable, they say, are often just wrapped with mask-ing tape and exposed again to the water. Copy as parenthetical citation. 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. 1 mine in Evarts, in Harlan County, Kentucky. Toilet paper clings to the bushes and tree limbs five or six feet up from the rushing stream. Each contract varied from mine to mine. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. 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. Tuesday morning: Norman Yarborough has agreed to meet some of our group. It is the second coal mining fatality in . Harlan Daily Enterprise, September 17, 1943. But is it really hurting? It is clear that these women have been a main factor in keeping the mine shut down. Or all you're gonna get's a chunk of Harlan County coal. Mr. Nolan, a resident of Cawood, is survived by his wife, Mrs. Stella Nolan . If any attractive woman became interested in me, I'd think it was a very lovely thing. The women furnish the panel with a copy of a report from the Harlan County Health Department, dated October 12, 1973, which states that the drinking water in the Eastover mining camp, where approximately thirty of the striking Brookside families live, is "highly contaminated" with fecal bacteria. Louis Stacy that he has several times been running a defective roofbolting machine when word came that inspector was on his way. The Citizens Inquiry meets in the attractive, river-rock Evarts Community Center, directly across the Clear Fork from the site of the 1931 "Battle of Evarts." Nevertheless, as the county seat, the city of Harlan has resources much of the county lacks. The unrest continues in Harlan and surrounding counties as there have been many strikes. "I've seen some hurt and some killed. After the Battle of Evarts, the Red Cross and the United Mine Workers Union refused to help the striking men on the basis that it was now an industrial conflict that needed to be resolved internally. To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association decided to cut all wages by ten . The Price of Coal, Part II. 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. It is not all Duke's fault by any means. A young woman from the Associated Press asks me, aren't we getting only one side of the story? 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. 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. An organic shape, small and shiny and pinkish white, sits . He says that he will not agree to the Brookside contract applying to "all" of Eastover's operations. [6] Nearly four thousand miners working and living in Harlan County, Kentucky lost their jobs in the Great Depression. Wanted to be able to spend their money at a store of their choice besides the Black Mountain Coal Company store. It was Miller who defeated W. A. The trees are barely beginning to bud in the early March warmth. They say no action has been taken on this report. 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 most memorable of those are 1964, 1966, 1969 (The West Virginia Black Lung strike that the miners won) 1971, and the 1974 Strikes. 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. Why is garbage left on the roadway? How does the Harlan County Coal Operators Association fit into the picture? And lastly, the Harlan Fox Mining Co - presumably derived from the Harlan Fox Coal Co - was in operation from 1925-1932. 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. 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. . The slab of slate, more than 51 feet long, and 17 feet wide and weighing tons, was dodged by two men. As in Germany, the AFSC used need alone to determine who got fed. After breakfast, we travel fifteen miles east to Evarts. On May 5, 1931, the Battle of Evarts began. (The union has told us that they are quite willing to limit the contract to the Brookside mine.) 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. Did she find the stick on the ground? 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. 3.' The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. 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 . The aftermath of this battle led to wider strikes in the Harlan County area. Si says Harlan is a dry countyno legal liquor and no beer. On February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association reduced wages for miners in that part of eastern Kentucky by 10 percent. [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%. Here at Kentucky Tennessee Living we fully support the coal miners and their families. Miners die, and last year was the deadliest in American coal mines in more than a decade. "We could lay down, fight the police, or let them scabs go to work. Some of the women say they haven't had a drink of water since moving to the Brookside camp. Prior to Miller's election, the union had become corrupt, dictatorial, and a frequent collaborator with the mine owners. In the bloody 1930s coal wars, miners known to be union members were fired and evicted from company-owned homes. But what of the people of Harlan County? Pierce mentions the "toothpick incident." 2012: $1,552,717. I've got five living children and four dead. While their main objectives were a steady job, a decent wage and a program of safety checks . There are very few vacant houses in Harlan County and virtually no available land to build on. Eastover agreed to sign the 1971 wage pact of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association which is in force at 1,200 mines. Whitfield recalls working in his father's coal mines during the first years of commercial mining in Harlan County, and he describes the conditions. One of the Deputies was Jim Daniels. McDonald's. 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.". He tells me that the miners plan to picket on Wall Street, hoping to give Duke problems with its stock. Willard Wirtz asks how it will all come out, how the strike will end. 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. 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. Over one thousand shots were exchanged during those fifteen minutes. "In Harlan County, U.S.A., sound anchors, explains, and makes 'authentic' visual imagery compromised by the long history of documentary work in Appalachia.". Rev. The warrant was never served. 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. Harry Caudill, attorney and author of Night Comes to the Cumberlands, will not be able to join us in Harlan because of legal business. They range in age from about twenty-one to seventy. Many of the houses have no running water, and these families have to carry all their water from a common outdoor spigot. 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. Pricing; Switch; Big firm; There were ten lodges that were chartered for the National Miners Union. We look back on the film, which screens this Sunday, February . B.W. 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. Nonunion workers were attempting to leave the mine. The UMW union called in the National Guard to help them. 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, 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. 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. 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. There are nearly 40,000 people in the county, a drop of 36 percent since 1960. Darrell Deaton says there is a direct telephone line to Washington for safety complaints, "but if you identify yourself; you're gonna be out of a job.". Their General Secretary recently released some facts which help to illustrate the reason for much of the unemployment in the county. 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. 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. They are neatly and attractively dressed. The judge's fines and sentences were appealed. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. An open shop is where union membership is allowed but not mandated to work at that location. There had been several clashes with the "scabs," the mine guards, and the state police, Kahn says. During the rest of the afternoon, the miners talk about what has happened on the picket line and in the local court. Bill Doan says that the roof bolts often didn't have enough torque on them, sometimes causing roof falls as high as thirty-five feet above the regular ceiling, and that once he complained about this to the visiting inspector in the presence of his foreman. The Harlan County Coal War is one of the . In the face of what promised to be a lengthy struggle for the Harlan County coal miners of 1931, their wildcat strike had left thousands jobless and many homeless as well. 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. If those under them behave in an approved manner then they receive housing, work, food, and other perks of their position. These interviews with major coal operators document their personal histories and the history of the coal industry in eastern Kentucky during the twentieth century. Three of our Inquiry members plan to talk with the president of Duke Power Company. This was thirteen percent of the workers showing up for their scheduled work times. With the added protection for workers and the addition of collective bargaining between the workers and their employers. 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. 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. "Try walking out of there, carrying a man with a broken back," one of the miners says. The Wagner Act of 1935 (National Labor Relations Act or NLRA) guaranteed the rights of workers to choose to organize.