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The company will probably demand a new election. The Harlan County coal miners campaigned and fought to organize their workplaces and better their wages and working conditions. Three of the federal reports state that there was no safety committee at Brookside, as required by law. We agree that most of us lean toward the miners, but we think we can be fair in trying to learn the facts. 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. Conflict broke out again the 1970s in what was known as the Brookside strike. At Brookside, this would amount to $400,000 a year. As correspondent Bob Simon reports, 47 miners died, six of them from just one county in eastern Kentucky . There were only nine hundred miners working and 5,800 miners were idle and striking during the first strike. The judge's fines and sentences were appealed. Figure 2: Harlan County Coal Mine Employment, 2000-2016, (KYEEC, 2017) In 1942, shortly after Harlan County experienced record high coal mine employment, the county experienced is highest production levels with 15.6 million tons of coal being produced in this year (KYEEC, 2017). (Fifty million tons of union coal are mined in western Kentucky; only 6.5 million tons of union coal are mined in eastern Kentucky.) 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. "Yeah," a coal miner says, "but the land's so poor, you can't hardly raise an umbrella on it.". 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 . In the year of "the energy crisis," Coal is King again at $30 a ton. 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. The county was once part of Knox County, only becoming official in 1819. 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. In the bloody 1930s coal wars, miners known to be union members were fired and evicted from company-owned homes. In 1981, he traded coal mining for gold mining as one of the founders of the current . Some seventy-five state policemen were on hand as the crowd gathered. There is one ostentatious feature about him, though: a large, multi-diamond ring on the third finger of his left hand. The women say they then organized a "sunrise worship service" to begin at 4:30 on the morning of October 23, on the railroad tracks across the highway from the picket line. Each of us makes a statement. J. D. Skidmore says, "I have no chance of getting a job in Harlan County if this strike is not settled." Whitfield recalls working in his father's coal mines during the first years of commercial mining in Harlan County, and he describes the conditions. Mostly, the miners were fighting for improved working conditions, higher wages, and better housing options for their families. Isolated trailer houses. The nearest ridge is green with spruce and pine. These disputes were still brewing when on December 8, 1934, the United Mine Workers Union was threatened by deputies and mine bosses. Apparently, this is one of Eastover's major objections. No one knows who fired the first shot but when it was over four were . "Dreiser, Woman Indicted," one headline reads. Sheriff Blair was voted out of his office in 1933 and died just a year later. 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. They're trapped. Only 23 percent of those in the county over the age of twenty-five have completed high school. After the railroad arrived in 1911 . There is a hard edge in her voice, and her blue-gray eyes are flashing. He run all the way down the stairs and out of the jail." Another press member criticizes Barbara Bode for having raised a clenched fist during the women's testimony. (The union has told us that they are quite willing to limit the contract to the Brookside mine.) Her daughter, Bessie Cornett, an attractive young brunette, says, "I'm not in jail today because you people are here." We feel that we have provided a national forum for the miners to tell their story. 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. I've read that in its heyday, the Blackjoe coal camp consisted of 60 or so houses. The Harlan Daily Enterprise story of September 16, 1943 is serious and straightforward: 17 miners are trapped a mile underground and help is on the way.. Much of the story is about help. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. 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. 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. We are told that Eastover has announced its intention to tear down the mining-camp houses and move the striking miners out. The money was . . Our driver points out Norman Yarborough's two-story frame house, across the highway from the camp and up out of the river bottom. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. 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. 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). "If we could monitor these inspections, perhaps we could cut down on the fatalities," he says. Miner Curtis Cress, 34, says towns that . 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. Blaine Sergent, coal leader, putting up his check at the end of a workday in Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1946. Kentucky communities discussed include Artemus, Burdine, Jenkins, Jellico, Van Lear, and Wheelwright; and Kentucky counties include Bell, Clay, Floyd, Harlan . The UMW union called in the National Guard to help them. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. The decision caused unrest in the county among the miners. 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. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. 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.". California labor activist Caroline Decker also raised money for the relief of the striking miner efforts. 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. It will be a two-hour, winding drive through the Cumberland Mountains to the town of Harlan. 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. Done. On February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association reduced wages for miners in that part of eastern Kentucky by 10 percent. A thousand feet below me lies a small, green valley, partly shrouded by the morning mist. Pay ranged from $17 to $32 day, the average being $25. With the added protection for workers and the addition of collective bargaining between the workers and their employers. Here and there, we also see white-blossoming pear and dogwood trees. Since the county began mining, over one billion tons of coal have Bright yellow forsythia has begun to bloom in the yards of Harlan and Brookside and Evarts. (There is such a provision in the standard UMW contract.). We never would find out what happened. "Not at all," Yarborough says. Five miles north of Harlan, we drive up Inspiration Mountain. No wonder R C Cola has so many signs everywhere. Strike benefits are $100 weekly for a family, $90 for a couple, and $80 for a single man. 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 . To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators Association decided to cut all wages by ten percent. Paternalism is the practice of people who have a business or other authority to restrict the freedoms of those who are subordinate to them. With the passage of these acts, there was unrest in Harlan County. 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 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. He tells me that the miners plan to picket on Wall Street, hoping to give Duke problems with its stock. Other clippings detail the earlier bloodshed and misery in Harlan County. Willard Wirtz says that it is important to remember that one side of the dispute felt confident enough about their case to arrange to spread it before the widest possible audience. Tuesday morning: Norman Yarborough has agreed to meet some of our group. And, all around, there are the rolling mountains, covered with second-growth timber. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". The bosses wouldn't go in, but I've. Whitfield's family was from Alabama where his father had been in the coal business. the meeting room. 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. 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. Harlan County to unionize miners. One of the better houses is already being demolished. 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.". The miners speak of other dissatisfactions with Eastover and the old Southern Labor Union contract. 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. 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. Pic from Harlan County USA of a Coal Camp. On February 16, 1931, in order to prevent operating at a loss, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association cut miners' wages by 10%. The most shocking moment in Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) looks at first like an abstract painting. But relatives did come and take the children. The coal miners, lean and tough from Kentucky mountain life, knew how to fight back. The next morning the toothpicks were still in place, it was said. He said that when the coal industry was at its height in 1928, the peak of . Make your practice more effective and efficient with Casetext's legal research suite. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. "They didn't say nothin'; all they want's coal.' Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The Harlan County Coal War is one of the . Many of the houses have no running water, and these families have to carry all their water from a common outdoor spigot. There are very few vacant houses in Harlan County and virtually no available land to build on. In Harlan County, Kentucky, the 1931 Battle of Evarts ended in four deaths. When filmmaker Barbara Kopple traveled to Harlan County, Kentucky, the resulting Academy award-winning documentary, Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) captured a historic story. When drafting these articles, I found that many things have not been taught to the future generations about the struggles for coal miner rights have been in the Appalachian Mountains. 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." It was a nearly decade-long conflict, lasting from 1931 to 1939. . Freda Armes says, "I run him off. Thirty percent of the families lack automobiles. Strikebreakers were often beaten. 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." The sign man for R C Cola has worked this territory well. 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. The miners say that all of the strikers have been blacklisted by the Association. Interment at Resthaven Cemetery, Keith, Ky. Visitation 6-9 p.m. at the Grays Knob Bible Church. 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. corporateBody associatedWith : Heyl & Patterson, Inc . 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. The miners charge that Eastover has hired what they call "gun thugs." Midway in the trial, Judge Hogg dismissed the jury and directed a verdict of guilty. What did the foremen say on those occasions? Typical of counties with low income, counties where the mine companies own everything and pay low taxes, our UMW driver says. Daniels was one of the most hated deputies in the county due to his anti-union views. How does the Harlan County Coal Operators Association fit into the picture? ", Bill McQueen says that when the shuttle's lights and brakes were not working and the inspector was coming, the foreman would say, "Park it." 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. "We run because we wanted to testify, and if we hadn't run, he woulda had us in jail." That commitment has never waivered, and has grown . She talks about the women being armed with sticks, mace . Captain James Cromer of the state police later tells news reporters, "The women are a problem. Biographical History . "We want safety all the time, not just when the inspector comes," Jerry Johnson says. "I've got so many duns from the hospital that I just quit lookin' at them. Visit us and take a step back in time to learn more about how Harlan County helped build a nation at Portal 31 Exhibition Mine tour or come experience the delight of . Enforcing the operators' political will, both within and outside the law, was the Harlan County Coal Operators Association. Three Point, Harlan County, Kentucky September 16, 1943 No. While it succeeded in organizing thousands of miners, it failed to complete a bargaining agreement with Harlan County's coal operators. A Brief History of Harlan County, USA. 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. During the big coal boom in the early 1900s, Harlan County was amongst the largest contributors. [6] Nearly four thousand miners working and living in Harlan County, Kentucky lost their jobs in the Great Depression. The Act was an attempt to restructure the industrial sector of the economy and to alleviate unemployment with a public works program. 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. Segment Synopsis: Lois Scott continues her conversation from her previous interview. These guards were legally able to protect these men during their off duty time. Did she find the stick on the ground? There was an addition to where miners could choose their own representation for these negotiations. 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. Most of the land is owned by the mining companies. We return to our series on the Coal Wars of the United States with Bloody Harlan and the Battle for Evarts. It is home to lawyers, doctors and coal operators; it has a hospital, several banks and a few fast-food . Lois Scott, a woman of about forty-five, begins to speak first. America in the Harlan County Mine Wars, 1931-1939 Carletta A. Bush 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 of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association (HCCOA) and secondly at He can't never walk again." This series of skirmishes and strikes, lasting from early 1931 into 1939, began because of the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association's (HCCOA) decision to cut miners' wages by 10%. Toilets are built out over the river, and the water has obviously been much higher in the recent past. Louis Stacy that he has several times been running a defective roofbolting machine when word came that inspector was on his way. On May 5, 1931 the pot boiled over; in Harlan County Kentucky, heavily armed deputies and company men, called "gun thugs" by miners, confronted disgruntled union men on a road near Evarts. You come out of there lookin' like a hog that's been rootin' in the mud.' 8 N.L.R.B. Pierce has brought the actual Courier-Journal clippings about the Dreiser inquiry and shares them with us. Lifelong resident of Harlan. My brother died at the age of forty. [videorecording] Contributor(s): Kopple, Barbara; First-Run Features (Firm) Cabin Creek Films; Publication details: New York : First Run Features, 1976. . CBS is represented by a camera crew, and there are a number of national reporters. In June of 1973, in a National Labor Relations Board election, the miners at Brookside voted 113 to 55 to affiliate with the United Mine Workers.