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. Lois Scott, a woman of about forty-five, begins to speak first. Harlan County. ~~ David Sergent. The roof is approximately forty-eight inches high in the mine. Cite. I remind her that Duke and Eastover executives were invited, and have refused to appear before us. Interment at Resthaven Cemetery, Keith, Ky. Visitation 6-9 p.m. at the Grays Knob Bible Church. That year, annual wages dropped from $1,235 to $749. 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. . Copy with citation. She speaks in a soft, pleasant voice. 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. Three of our Inquiry members plan to talk with the president of Duke Power Company. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Which Side are You on? Some of the miners also claim that the state police have tried to intimidate them. With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners' sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and company thugs. Is the safety provision in the UMW contract the sticking point for Eastover? Thirty percent of the families lack automobiles. "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. Miners also wanted the right to organize and have a union. "We took the sticks with us," she says. The strikebreakers were under the protection of private mine guards. Toilets are built out over the river, and the water has obviously been much higher in the recent past. Now, forty-three years later, Harlan County is again gripped in a UMW strike, this time at the Brookside mine of the Eastover Mining Company, and another citizens' group has been formed. I have also attended the University of Pikeville. We hope that you have enjoyed our stop in Bloody Harlan and the history of the longest and still ongoing coal struggles of the United States. Harlan County U.S.A. by Felicia Elliott, August 2, 2016. Some of the women cut switches and joined the picketers. Another press member criticizes Barbara Bode for having raised a clenched fist during the women's testimony. After this, the first strike occurred, in which only about 13% of strikers showed up to work. There were only nine hundred miners working and 5,800 miners were idle and striking during the first strike. In the bloody 1930s coal wars, miners known to be union members were fired and evicted from company-owned homes. 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. I have attended the University of Kentucky. When this strike was broken in1924, none of the non-union mines in Harlan County, all of which were members ofthe Harlan County Coal Operators Association, would employ a man from BlackMountain."Many of the men who worked at Black Mountain transferred to LocalUnion No. Done. Miners laid in an ambush on the day of May 5, 1931, near the Evarts railroad crossing. They fed strikers' children as well as the employed, blacks as well as whites. No one knows who fired the first shot but when it was over four were . 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. One of the better houses is already being demolished. "If we could monitor these inspections, perhaps we could cut down on the fatalities," he says. The mining company had ordered a motorcade to deliver food and supplies to the strikebreakers known as Scabs. In Harlan County on July 7, 1935, during a celebration of the Wagner Act, a group of disgruntled deputies severely beat up several miners and dispersed the crowd. James Willard Pope officiating. A Brief History of Harlan County, USA. While their main objectives were a steady job, a decent wage and a program of safety checks . And I can't get you off of that couch. If you wouldn't do it, they'd just say, 'Get your bucket.' 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. He is a sturdily built, self-assured man of about fifty, with a strong, square jaw and a rough, weathered face. 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. Sheriff T. R. Middleton replaced Blair under the pro-union campaign platform. Pay ranged from $17 to $32 day, the average being $25. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. 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. The UMW union called in the National Guard to help them. It was settled in 1819 by Virginians led by Samuel Howard and was known as Mount Pleasant until renamed in 1912 for Major Silas Harlan, who was killed during the American Revolution at the Battle of Blue Licks (August 19, 1782). Kentucky communities discussed include Artemus, Burdine, Jenkins, Jellico, Van Lear, and Wheelwright; and Kentucky counties include Bell, Clay, Floyd, Harlan . She talks about the women being armed with sticks, mace . Burger Chef. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. 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. It is unclear who fired that shot but both sides claim that the other side did it. This was not just a flashy slogan, and the truth of it is . : The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! With this Supreme Court ruling, all but one of the open shops in Harlan County went back to the previous mine operations. Barbara Kopple 's Academy Award-winning Harlan County USA unflinchingly documents a grueling coal miners' strike in a small Kentucky town. Project Summary. . On Friday, March 25, a continuous mining machine operator was killed by a wall collapse at the Huff Creek No. A reporter asks us again how we can expect to make an unbiased report when we've heard only one side. "I've seen some hurt and some killed. 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. The trees are barely beginning to bud in the early March warmth. Altogether, it is a heavy financial burden for the UMW. The transcript will be published as a book. To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association decided to cut all wages by ten . In the year of "the energy crisis," Coal is King again at $30 a ton. those in the Harlan County Coal Operators . Interview Summary. With the opening left by the United Mine Workers union the openly Communist (NMU) National Miners Union tried to help the miners to organize. Other clippings detail the earlier bloodshed and misery in Harlan County. It is an area of Kentucky that you only go to if you are intentionally going to the county. Others say they intend to speak and write about what they have heard. But you must remember I am an immoral man. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Leroy Helton says he still owes a lot of bills that should have been paid by SLU. It is thought that Middleton was assassinated for backing troops who were present in the County to protect the miners. 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. Office files covering topics such as "accounts receivable," "baseball club," "coal production," "garnishment orders," "Harlan Coal Operator's Association," "labor conditions," "medical conditions . I glance at the new Piedmont magazine, Pace. He says that they do not need the UMW to look after them; he will do that. 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. Two hundred people crowd. The Sheriff reportedly got rich on payoffs from the companies, and he used 181 mine company gunmen as special deputies. The group publishes policy papers on the benefits of coal for Kentucky and sponsors the "Friends of Coal" initiative. "I've got so many duns from the hospital that I just quit lookin' at them. "Dreiser, Woman Indicted," one headline reads. Wanted to be able to spend their money at a store of their choice besides the Black Mountain Coal Company store. Past that, the other undulating ridges are blue and hazy. You just don't hit a woman in Harlan County." It was Miller who defeated W. A. The motorcade stopped and the deputies got out of their cars to return fire. 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. Done Citation. There is no water in the house. "My daddy's a retired coal miner, and he's got the black lung. A rural county of 27,000, Harlan County's average household income is about $29,000. Harlan County Coal Miners Deaths 1940-1949 1940 1940 Hayes, Petry - Harlan Central Coal Company Totz No. Duke Power Company appears to be the key to breaking the deadlock in negotiations. We come into Harlan County at dusk. Harlan, city, seat of Harlan county, southeastern Kentucky, U.S., in the Cumberland Mountains, on the Clover Fork Cumberland River. 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. They exercised their powers with impunity and operated under Sheriff J.H. During the rest of the afternoon, the miners talk about what has happened on the picket line and in the local court. 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. He speaks of "my people" and "my men." 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. The officials were listed were the "veteran safety director of the Harlan Coal Operators Association, and Rufus Bailey and H. Hamlin, state . From July 30, 2019, through September 28, 2019, coal miners and their families have blocked roads and railways demanding their payment. Their General Secretary recently released some facts which help to illustrate the reason for much of the unemployment in the county. The Act also made a provision for a National Labor-Relations Board to designate a legal structure for the workers to conduct fair and legal elections of their officers and representatives. I've got five living children and four dead. A historical marker says we are near the Little Shepherd Trail, the setting for the novel Shepherd of the Hills. 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. 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. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Garbage along the roadside. . Harlan County to unionize miners. 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. The distance a miner had to walk and how time was looked at was in 15-minute increments. USBM Final Investigation Report (1.7 Mb) Successful Rescue . . As the motorcade approached a single shot rang out in the air. 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. When fuses blow, they are not immediately replaced; the cable is spliced or "hot-wired" around the fuse. Louis Stacy that he has several times been running a defective roofbolting machine when word came that inspector was on his way. We gather back in Evarts and announce that our report will be ready in two or three weeks. Our driver points out Norman Yarborough's two-story frame house, across the highway from the camp and up out of the river bottom. 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 coal companies refused to back down from their positions and change anything. Pierce has brought the actual Courier-Journal clippings about the Dreiser inquiry and shares them with us. The SLU was largely seen as serving the interests of the mine owners rather than the workers. Our drive takes us upstream along the yellow-brown Clear Fork River. had them make me go in and pin it because it wasn't done right the first time. 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. "I cain't get a job nowhere in this county. No wonder R C Cola has so many signs everywhere. Most of the land is owned by the mining companies. Among coal miners, Harlan County, Kentucky, is known as "Bloody Harlan." Perched atop Inspiration Mountain is the modern Mount Aire Motel. They range in age from about twenty-one to seventy. The money was . Daniels was one of the most hated deputies in the county due to his anti-union views. "Not at all," Yarborough says. It comes to a bill of about $20,000 a week for the national union. The kind of house she would like, if she could find one, would rent for about $50 a month, but she and her husband cannot pay that much. Troops had to be called into the county three times to maintain order. We never would find out what happened. "We could lay down, fight the police, or let them scabs go to work. One of the Deputies was Jim Daniels. A third generation coal operator, he served as President of the Harlan County Coal Operators and the Harlan Mining Institute, as Vice President of the Kentucky Coal Association and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Associated Industries of Kentucky. Abstract. 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." He'd worked seventy-eight hours straight the preceding week. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". 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. But will Norman Yarborough ever agree to recognize the UMW? A young woman from the Associated Press asks me, aren't we getting only one side of the story? Get a Demo. After the railroad arrived in 1911 . Sheriff Blair was voted out of his office in 1933 and died just a year later. 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 miners could be fired if they refused to spend their paychecks only in the store. 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. That means, among other things, an average daily wage of $45. There are very few vacant houses in the county. We are joined by Bernie Aaronson, the young public relations director of the UMW, and John Ed Pierce, a reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal. 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. 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. And we're burning up people to make electricity. They had no safety committee, the miners say, and the federal reports bear them out. Even though things were doing better for the unions in Harlan County, there was still civil unrest. Now and then, there is a neat, new frame house or a Pic and Pay market between scattered tarpaper shacks. 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. 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. Coal companies refused to back down while the Red Cross refused to give aid . Other times, he says, "Roof was workin', rock was a-hangin', and it sounded like thunder. The committee has invited owners as well as workers to participate in the hearings, but the impression we get is that management will not appear. Each contract varied from mine to mine. The miners speak of other dissatisfactions with Eastover and the old Southern Labor Union contract. Mrs. Herschel Gaw, wife of the ailing jailer, locked them all up. 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. The issues had been narrowed down to Eastover's demand for a "no-strike clause" and a limit on the power of the safety committee. In one of these, the septic tank has been out of order for several months.
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