In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. 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. ", What about the Southern Labor Union? There are very few vacant houses in the county. Coal employment in Harlan county dropped 53.7% in the second quarter of this year compared with last year, driven by Blackjewel's bankruptcy. In Harlan County, Kentucky, are some of our country's richest natural resourcesand some of its poorest people. On May 5, 1931, the Battle of Evarts began. Its profits in 1973 were $90 million, up 14 percent from the year before. "We've took about all we can take," he says. (That is a tough point.) He tells me that the miners plan to picket on Wall Street, hoping to give Duke problems with its stock. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Other clippings detail the earlier bloodshed and misery in Harlan County. These women have organized a special kind of feminist movement, and the issues to them are life-and-death issues. Interview Summary. 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. There's water in the mine because the pumps often won't work. That commitment has never waivered, and has grown . The miners and the coal owners were still having disputes. "It's one of 'em," Yarborough says. 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. Segment Synopsis: Lois Scott continues her conversation from her previous interview. 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 . 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. Eastover agreed to sign the 1971 wage pact of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association which is in force at 1,200 mines. Many of the houses have no running water, and these families have to carry all their water from a common outdoor spigot. Coal companies refused to back down while the Red Cross refused to give aid . 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. 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. "Try walking out of there, carrying a man with a broken back," one of the miners says. HARLAN COUNTY COAL OPERATORS ASSOCIATION. "If we could monitor these inspections, perhaps we could cut down on the fatalities," he says. 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. 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. The group publishes policy papers on the benefits of coal for Kentucky and sponsors the "Friends of Coal" initiative. What did the foremen say on those occasions? 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. It was two o'clock on a Monday morning when the accident occurred, and he'd been in the mine., more than twelve hours. Frame houses with rusty tin roofs. 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. Four men were arrested in connection with this murder. Sheriff T. R. Middleton replaced Blair under the pro-union campaign platform. The distance a miner had to walk and how time was looked at was in 15-minute increments. Seen 'em carried out on a stretcher," she says. Copy with citation. Perched atop Inspiration Mountain is the modern Mount Aire Motel. 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." 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. . The men and women were released on good behavior. Harry Simms, who was a Young Communist League organizer was killed in Harlan. There was no functioning safety committee Medical and retirement benefits were minimal and unreliable. . 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. 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. 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. On May 24, 1931, Sheriff Blair rescinded the miners right to assemble and tear-gassed a union rally. 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. 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. These disputes were still brewing when on December 8, 1934, the United Mine Workers Union was threatened by deputies and mine bosses. Daniels was one of the most hated deputies in the county due to his anti-union views. There had been several clashes with the "scabs," the mine guards, and the state police, Kahn says. Two hundred people crowd. Is that the only objection that is holding up a settlement? Some of the women cut switches and joined the picketers. . It is too early for dolor. Louis Stacy that he has several times been running a defective roofbolting machine when word came that inspector was on his way. If any attractive woman became interested in me, I'd think it was a very lovely thing. Among coal miners, Harlan County, Kentucky, is known as "Bloody Harlan." Why are people allowed to dump raw sewage in the streams? He does say, I think primarily for the record, that he would like to see negotiations begin again. Hennen attributes this abandonment to the increasingly conservative John L. Lewis, the longtime and powerful president of the UMWA, who feared . Word precedes him. Five men and their titles are listed and all are doing all they can.. Looking for protection by the Kentucky National Guard, many were surprised to find that they broke the picket lines instead. This active organization is made up of those who represent the leader in the mining industry. Special Judge F. Byrd Hogg, a neighboring county judge who has been assigned to the case, entered an early order limiting the strikers to three pickets at each of two entrances to the Eastover Mining Company property. By 1908 the union had . In "Bloody Harlan" in the 1930s, miners and union organizers faced bayonets and many died fighting the coal bosses, helping to fuel a national wave of organizing. 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. "Roof falls are a constant hazard, but the bosses just keep on rushin'.". These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. McQueen says that in late 1972 he burned his fingers to the bone on a switchbox where a blown fuse had been hot-wired. I have been married to David W. Sergent since May 4, 2013. There was a scuffle when a state police captain tried to remove one of the women, she says, adding, "Captain Cromer did get hit several times; I hit him with a stick myself." Neither will Dr. Robert Coles, psychiatrist and author of Children of Crisis. In the bloody 1930s coal wars, miners known to be union members were fired and evicted from company-owned homes. Burger Chef. He sentenced nine men and seven women to six months in jail and fined them $500 each. "Then he'd come out looking like a sheep-killing dog and get in his truck and run. How does the Harlan County Coal Operators Association fit into the picture? 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. A thousand feet below me lies a small, green valley, partly shrouded by the morning mist. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Harlan County. Partial Transcript: August 27, '86. Duke Power Company appears to be the key to breaking the deadlock in negotiations. "In Harlan County, U.S.A., sound anchors, explains, and makes 'authentic' visual imagery compromised by the long history of documentary work in Appalachia.". He'd worked seventy-eight hours straight the preceding week. 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. New subdivisions named Tall Oaks and Colonial Heights. . The sign man for R C Cola has worked this territory well. Available for both RF and RM licensing. However, after the dust was clear, the anti-labor coal country would end up being represented by unions. Others say they intend to speak and write about what they have heard. 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. Strikebreakers were often beaten. Source for information on Harlan County: Encyclopedia of the Great Depression dictionary. Harlan Daily Enterprise, September 17, 1943. As part of his New Deal, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented and had passed the National Industrial Act. This was not just a flashy slogan, and the truth of it is . 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. Nobody knows how long the UMW can keep paying strike benefits. 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 does not store any personal data. Five miles north of Harlan, we drive up Inspiration Mountain. Whitfield recalls working in his father's coal mines during the first years of commercial mining in Harlan County, and he describes the conditions. He is dressed more like a miner than a mining executive. The United Mine Workers of America represented 400,000 miners at that point and promised miners safer work conditions and higher wages. The strikebreakers were under the protection of private mine guards. McDonald's. National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions Jul 5, 1938. 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. She talks about the women being armed with sticks, mace . 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. 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. On Friday, March 25, a continuous mining machine operator was killed by a wall collapse at the Huff Creek No. Poffitt, Jacqueline Brophy, and I meet the other members of the Citizens Inquiry in a private dining room in the Mount Aire: James David Barber, chairman of the Political Science Department at Duke University and author of The Presidential Character; Monsignor Geno Baroni, president of the National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs, a Catholic priest whose father is a retired Pennsylvania miner with black lung; Barbara Bode, president of the Children's Foundation in Washington; and Dr. Raymond Wheeler of Charlotte, North Carolina, president of the Southern Regional Council. She speaks in a soft, pleasant voice. There was no standard contract for the miners. No wonder R C Cola has so many signs everywhere. While it succeeded in organizing thousands of miners, it failed to complete a bargaining agreement with Harlan County's coal operators. It read: RE-ELECT GAW, JAILER. Mostly, the miners were fighting for improved working conditions, higher wages, and better housing options for their families. 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. Miners also wanted the right to organize and have a union. 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. They had no safety committee, the miners say, and the federal reports bear them out. It was a nearly decade-long conflict, lasting from 1931 to 1939. . We drive to the Evarts Community Center and report to the other members of the Citizens Inquiry. "The personal is political" was a rallying cry of second wave feminism. 5355 after Local Union 4495 at Black Mountain folded up. Abstract. Established in 1916, its membership consisted of nearly all the large mining companies, and it represented the major political force in the county. He can't never walk again." B.W. Carl Horn of Duke Power and Arnold Miller of the UMW had talked, and negotiations had been resumed. [videorecording] Contributor(s): Kopple, Barbara; First-Run Features (Firm) Cabin Creek Films; Publication details: New York : First Run Features, 1976. . 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. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. "Why couldn't the original thirteen colonies live with the same British policy that applied to all other British colonies?" The UMW had made written proposals for compromising these issues a little. We look back on the film, which screens this Sunday, February . No. "But if they call me and ask if a man works for me, I simply say yes or no.". CBS is represented by a camera crew, and there are a number of national reporters. I've talked to Norman Yarborough, and you ain't bringing no union down here. "Boss walks up and says, 'We've got to make this mine look good now, boys; the inspector's comin','" Jerry Johnson says. There were constant beatings of the miners by the Sheriffs deputies. She pays $10 a month for rent and $10 a month for electricity. The final straw was when the Harlan County Coal Operators Association cut miners' wages by 10%. However, the battle continues to this day. (This . The Kentucky mining camps still had the paternalism idea in their mists and the ever-independent Appalachian people were not having it. The decade-long conflict between miners and the coal operators who adamantly resisted unionization has been immortalized in folksong by Florence Reece and Aunt Molly Jackson, contemplated in prose by Theodore Dreiser and Sherwood Anderson, and long been obscured by . We return to our series on the Coal Wars of the United States with Bloody Harlan and the Battle for Evarts. I don't like- workin' in them kind of conditions." Throughout 1931, violence sprouted between miners 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. "They don't want miners havin' any say in safety." Here, too, are some of the richest natural resources in the countryand some of the poorest people. 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. As in Germany, the AFSC used need alone to determine who got fed. One of the better houses is already being demolished. James Willard Pope officiating. Only to be escorted to the county line and told not to return. Si says Harlan is a dry countyno legal liquor and no beer. I look at the government statistics once more. Miner Curtis Cress, 34, says towns that . Typical of counties with low income, counties where the mine companies own everything and pay low taxes, our UMW driver says. There was an addition to where miners could choose their own representation for these negotiations. Former Director of Harlan County Coal Operators Association. Is the safety provision in the UMW contract the sticking point for Eastover? The main problem, he says, is that the company wants a "no-strike" clause, so that the union cannot strike during the contract period. He says that he will not agree to the Brookside contract applying to "all" of Eastover's operations. It is also women's day before the Citizens In-quiry. 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. Some of the women say they haven't had a drink of water since moving to the Brookside camp. Her daughter, Bessie Cornett, an attractive young brunette, says, "I'm not in jail today because you people are here." Nonunion workers were attempting to leave the mine. Blair. We feel that we have provided a national forum for the miners to tell their story. Where will the families go? corporateBody associatedWith : Heyl & Patterson, Inc . 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). These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Prior to the strike, the pay of the Brookside miners started and stopped at the face of coal. She says that she and some of the other women hid out last night to avoid being served with a contempt citation from Judge Hogg's court. But mostly the scenery is depressingly bleak. Cite. When fuses blow, they are not immediately replaced; the cable is spliced or "hot-wired" around the fuse. Three of our Inquiry members plan to talk with the president of Duke Power Company. Over one thousand shots were exchanged during those fifteen minutes. Mrs. Herschel Gaw, wife of the ailing jailer, locked them all up. The money was . It reports that "Piedmont" is an adjective derived.from Italian words that literally mean "formed at the foot of the mountains." The miners charge that Eastover has hired what they call "gun thugs." The Price of Coal, Part II. It is home to lawyers, doctors and coal operators; it has a hospital, several banks and a few fast-food . [Verse 2] I got 27 peopl coming over to this house. 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. On September 4, 1935, Harlan County Attorney Elmon Clay Middleton, age 31, was assassinated by a car bomb containing eighteen sticks of dynamite. Garbage along the roadside. They point out that most of the big coal companies, such as U.S. Steel and others, have signed UMW contracts, but that the smaller companies of eastern Kentucky have held out. What will happen now that the first full year after the union election is ending? Even though things were doing better for the unions in Harlan County, there was still civil unrest. "Yarborough says he just don't want nobody tellin' him how to run his mine," Deaton says. The United Mine Workers union also cited that they did not have the resources to help in the battle. Paternalism is the practice of people who have a business or other authority to restrict the freedoms of those who are subordinate to them. Miners die, and last year was the deadliest in American coal mines in more than a decade. With the opening left by the United Mine Workers union the openly Communist (NMU) National Miners Union tried to help the miners to organize. During the day, a man came and said that if their children weren't out of the jail by night, the welfare people would take them. The decrease in wages, unemployment, and irregular employment caused "poverty, hunger, and disease.". J. D. Skidmore says that, back in the mines, the phones are always out of order, there is no transportation out until the end of the shift, and it's a one-hour walk to daylight. 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. [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%. Betty Eldridge is a mildmannered, well-dressed woman of about forty. "I've had the foreman to tell me to set timbers or something until the inspector got gone. It doesn't seem like enough. 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 can see twenty-five miles to the southeast, five ridges. 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. 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. He decided to make Harlan County a test case in the UMW's new, more aggressive organizing efforts. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Talking to Aaronson, I am reminded of an old tin sign I saw tacked on a tree along the highway as I left Harlan.