These guards were legally able to protect these men during their off duty time. 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. "If we could monitor these inspections, perhaps we could cut down on the fatalities," he says. In 1981, he traded coal mining for gold mining as one of the founders of the current . 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.". Others say they intend to speak and write about what they have heard. Hennen attributes this abandonment to the increasingly conservative John L. Lewis, the longtime and powerful president of the UMWA, who feared . 1 mine in Evarts, in Harlan County, Kentucky. That commitment has never waivered, and has grown . 1938) Copy Citation . On Jan. 25, 1890, a new union, the United Mine Workers of America, was formed, and in 1903 its young president, John Mitchell, led the union on a successful 24-week strike. 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. She says that the women decided that they couldn't fight guns with switches and that they had taken sticks with them the next time. 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. knee-deep in water, he has experienced many electrical shocks. I can see twenty-five miles to the southeast, five ridges. (There is such a provision in the standard UMW contract.). 8 N.L.R.B. Daniels was one of the most hated deputies in the county due to his anti-union views. 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. The men's life depended on my job, but I knowed if I protested I'd a got fired. Cite. 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.". HARLAN COUNTY COAL OPERATORS ASSOCIATION. Some of the women say they haven't had a drink of water since moving to the Brookside camp. "They didn't say nothin'; all they want's coal.' Project Summary. Whitfield's family was from Alabama where his father had been in the coal business. 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. Each contract varied from mine to mine. 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 . 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. 3.' Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. Nevertheless, as the county seat, the city of Harlan has resources much of the county lacks. . 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. 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. Sadly, the state and federal troops would occupy the county several times. (Eastover offered fifty cents a ton.) It is too early for dolor. Nonunion workers were attempting to leave the mine. Another press member criticizes Barbara Bode for having raised a clenched fist during the women's testimony. CBS is represented by a camera crew, and there are a number of national reporters. 2012: $1,552,717. Lifelong resident of Harlan. The company also agreed to abide by any agreement reached between the . Harlan Daily Enterprise, September 17, 1943. The United Mine Workers union also cited that they did not have the resources to help in the battle. The sign man for R C Cola has worked this territory well. He does say, I think primarily for the record, that he would like to see negotiations begin again. 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. The Act was an attempt to restructure the industrial sector of the economy and to alleviate unemployment with a public works program. From July 30, 2019, through September 28, 2019, coal miners and their families have blocked roads and railways demanding their payment. We feel that we have provided a national forum for the miners to tell their story. 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). Interment at Resthaven Cemetery, Keith, Ky. Visitation 6-9 p.m. at the Grays Knob Bible Church. There is a suit still in litigation. 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. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. We soon get into a discussion about Dreiser's 1931 inquiry. Yarborough comes out of a staff meeting and ushers us hack to a large, paneled meeting room with folding tables and chairs. She talks about the women being armed with sticks, mace . Why haven't the car bodies been removed from the highway and the streets? ", What about federal inspection? On Friday, March 25, a continuous mining machine operator was killed by a wall collapse at the Huff Creek No. Leroy Helton says miners often have to splice electrical cable, even though they're not qualified to do so. I don't like- workin' in them kind of conditions." . Sometimes, they'll be a black scum on the rag." HARLAN COUNTYHarlan County, Kentucky, is a rural county located in a major coal-mining region in the Appalachian Mountains. It reports that "Piedmont" is an adjective derived.from Italian words that literally mean "formed at the foot of the mountains." The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The slab of slate, more than 51 feet long, and 17 feet wide and weighing tons, was dodged by two men. 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. Strikebreakers were often beaten. The miners say that all of the strikers have been blacklisted by the Association. 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. Most of the land is owned by the mining companies. 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 . Other times, he says, "Roof was workin', rock was a-hangin', and it sounded like thunder. 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. 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. By 1908 the union had . 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. He tells me that the miners plan to picket on Wall Street, hoping to give Duke problems with its stock. "You could hunt for one, but there just weren't one there," he says. Here and there, we also see white-blossoming pear and dogwood trees. [Verse 2] I got 27 peopl coming over to this house. Is the safety provision in the UMW contract the sticking point for Eastover? "The personal is political" was a rallying cry of second wave feminism. In Harlan County, Kentucky, are some of our country's richest natural resourcesand some of its poorest people. They made several attempts at holding strikes against the coal companies, but these failed in Harlan County. Copy with citation. Two hundred people crowd. There are very few vacant houses in Harlan County and virtually no available land to build on. 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. [videorecording] Contributor(s): Kopple, Barbara; First-Run Features (Firm) Cabin Creek Films; Publication details: New York : First Run Features, 1976. . 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. Based on this new Act, from October 27, 1933, to March 31, 1935, the mines ran as open shops. But what of the people of Harlan County? 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. In response to the violence, the Kentucky National Guard was called upon and arrived for the first time in the county to try to stem the violence. ~~ David Sergent. Why wasn't the fuse replaced at once? But Barbara Bode has arranged for eleven of them to come up onto the stage at the same time, and they seem to take strength from their numbers. Partial Transcript: August 27, '86. He can't never walk again." No. It does not store any personal data. James Willard Pope officiating. That means, among other things, an average daily wage of $45. 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. Norman Yarborough, head of Eastover Mining Company, is not coming either. The National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP) was of the American Communist Party. Fifty miners and their wives have at one time or another been held in contempt of this order. The final straw was when the Harlan County Coal Operators Association cut miners' wages by 10%. Free shipping for many products! (This . "I've been juiced a lot, and I've had to just set down thirty-five minutes because it just takes the pep out of you." With the opening left by the United Mine Workers union the openly Communist (NMU) National Miners Union tried to help the miners to organize. Horn's letter questions the fair-mindedness of the inquiry members. Some seventy-five state policemen were on hand as the crowd gathered. Is that the only objection that is holding up a settlement? Kentucky communities discussed include Artemus, Burdine, Jenkins, Jellico, Van Lear, and Wheelwright; and Kentucky counties include Bell, Clay, Floyd, Harlan . The judge's fines and sentences were appealed. The National Industrial Recovery Act only partially succeeded in accomplishing its stated goals when it was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on May 27, 1935, which was three weeks before the Act was set to expire. Others claim that his death was caused by an election concerning slot machines into the county. Theoretically, even operators' and owners' children were . ("Tony") Boyle for the national presidency of the UMW in 1972 in an election closely supervised by the federal government. I was born in Florida and grew up in Burdine, Kentucky. I am the only man in the United States who would do that sort of thing.". Dan Pollitt reads a letter from Carl Horn, Jr., president of Duke Power Company, respectfully declining our invitation. In one of these, the septic tank has been out of order for several months. ", What about the Southern Labor Union? Our delegation arrives on time at the Eastover office in Brookside. Segment Synopsis: Lois Scott continues her conversation from her previous interview. When fuses blow, they are not immediately replaced; the cable is spliced or "hot-wired" around the fuse. To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association decided to cut all wages by ten . The warrant was never served. The miners charge that Eastover has hired what they call "gun thugs." To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators Association decided to cut all wages by ten percent. We 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. Miner Curtis Cress, 34, says towns that . They have done this only since the Brookside strike. They had no safety committee, the miners say, and the federal reports bear them out. 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 median family income is $4600 a year. One of the Deputies was Jim Daniels. 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. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. 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. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Overturned car bodies everywhere. During the rest of the afternoon, the miners talk about what has happened on the picket line and in the local court. 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. We first hear from a number of the striking miners about safety conditions in the Brookside mine. 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. The roof is approximately forty-eight inches high in the mine. But I ain't leaving because this is my home.". He speaks of "my people" and "my men." Why is garbage left on the roadway? Funeral Wednesday March 1 at 11 a.m. at Grays Knob Bible Church. Barbara Kopple 's Academy Award-winning Harlan County USA unflinchingly documents a grueling coal miners' strike in a small Kentucky town. B.W. I currently live in Tennessee but my hope is to one day come back home to live in the beautiful mountains once more. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Duke went into the coal business directly in 1970 when it organized Eastover Mining Company as a wholly owned subsidiary and, through it, bought several mines in eastern Kentucky, including the one at Brookside. 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. Pierce has brought the actual Courier-Journal clippings about the Dreiser inquiry and shares them with us. "I cain't get a job nowhere in this county. Soon enough, most miners had gone on strike out of solidarity. The decrease in wages, unemployment, and irregular employment caused "poverty, hunger, and disease.". 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. "Why couldn't the original thirteen colonies live with the same British policy that applied to all other British colonies?" The Price of Coal, Part II. The decision caused unrest in the county among the miners. Finally, in 1939, the coal companies agreed to allow unions in their coal mine operations. One night, they saw a secretary for the Dreiser group enter Dreiser's hotel room, and they placed toothpicks against the door to determine whether she ever came back out during the night. Yarborough is tough and unyielding. "My daddy's a retired coal miner, and he's got the black lung. In the year of "the energy crisis," Coal is King again at $30 a ton. "The way I figured it, they done that because it was just a faster, way of getting coal." They just laughed about it, and we kept on cuttin' coal. But relatives did come and take the children. Biographical History . After nearly 40 years of working in coalmines, David . Harlan County Coal Miners Deaths 1940-1949 1940 1940 Hayes, Petry - Harlan Central Coal Company Totz No. As the motorcade approached a single shot rang out in the air. He discusses the formation and activities of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association . And lastly, the Harlan Fox Mining Co - presumably derived from the Harlan Fox Coal Co - was in operation from 1925-1932. 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. 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 men and women were released on good behavior. There are very few vacant houses in the county. "Not at all," Yarborough says. 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 Harlan County Coal War is one of the . The United Mine Workers of America represented 400,000 miners at that point and promised miners safer work conditions and higher wages. Rev. It was two o'clock on a Monday morning when the accident occurred, and he'd been in the mine., more than twelve hours. Someone had planted dynamite in his automobile and when he started it up the car blew up. 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. Exist Dates. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. On February 16, 1931, in order to prevent operating at a loss, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association cut miners' wages by 10%. Eastover agreed to sign the 1971 wage pact of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association which is in force at 1,200 mines. Leroy Helton says he still owes a lot of bills that should have been paid by SLU. Altogether, it is a heavy financial burden for the UMW. The latest unrest in Harlan County came when in July of 2019, Black jewel LLC filed for bankruptcy and liquidation. The Wagner Act of 1935 (National Labor Relations Act or NLRA) guaranteed the rights of workers to choose to organize. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The trees are barely beginning to bud in the early March warmth. 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. Garbage along the roadside. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Faith Primitive Baptist Church. New subdivisions named Tall Oaks and Colonial Heights. Midway in the trial, Judge Hogg dismissed the jury and directed a verdict of guilty. In Harlan County, Kentucky, the 1931 Battle of Evarts ended in four deaths. It is clear that these women have been a main factor in keeping the mine shut down. It is home to lawyers, doctors and coal operators; it has a hospital, several banks and a few fast-food . Only three of the families in the camp have indoor toilets. 9:03 PM. October 31, 2016. "Try walking out of there, carrying a man with a broken back," one of the miners says. June 17th of that same year, the first strike was over as the last miner had returned to work. Featuring a haunting soundtrack-with legendary country . "I don't try to blacklist anybody," he says. the foreman would just say, "We gotta run coal. I've talked to Norman Yarborough, and you ain't bringing no union down here. "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. "I've seen some hurt and some killed. The accident was the second worst mine fatality in the history of Harlan County coal mining, the worst being Harlan Fuel Company . They have probably helped keep their own men from exploding too. Blaine Sergent, coal leader, putting up his check at the end of a workday in Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1946. Harlan, city, seat of Harlan county, southeastern Kentucky, U.S., in the Cumberland Mountains, on the Clover Fork Cumberland River. Copy as parenthetical citation. 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. Mostly, the miners were fighting for improved working conditions, higher wages, and better housing options for their families. Among coal miners, Harlan County, Kentucky, is known as "Bloody Harlan." Or all you're gonna get's a chunk of Harlan County coal. The women spent the night. The miners and the coal owners were still having disputes. There was an addition to where miners could choose their own representation for these negotiations. These battles will end the Coal Wars proper. Other clippings detail the earlier bloodshed and misery in Harlan County. 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. Chicago citation style: Harris & Ewing, photographer. While it succeeded in organizing thousands of miners, it failed to complete a bargaining agreement with Harlan County's coal operators. 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. Dalton points out that there were 132 mine fatalities in the United States in 1973, only seventeen of them in UMW mines. "They don't want miners havin' any say in safety." 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.