One of the towns that were a refuge was Evarts, Kentucky. 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. Harlan County to unionize miners. But I ain't leaving because this is my home.". If any attractive woman became interested in me, I'd think it was a very lovely thing. Whitfield's family was from Alabama where his father had been in the coal business. "They didn't say nothin'; all they want's coal.' The slab of slate, more than 51 feet long, and 17 feet wide and weighing tons, was dodged by two men. Even though things were doing better for the unions in Harlan County, there was still civil unrest. Copy with citation. ", 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." Interview Summary. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". On February 16, 1931, in order to prevent operating at a loss, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association cut miners' wages by 10%. Seen 'em carried out on a stretcher," she says. With this Supreme Court ruling, all but one of the open shops in Harlan County went back to the previous mine operations. James Willard Pope officiating. 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. The Harlan County coal miners campaigned and fought to organize their workplaces and better their wages and working conditions. You just don't hit a woman in Harlan County." Big Boy. ~~ David Sergent. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. 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." Bill Doan says, "When I got hurt, I couldn't find Jim Miller, the man who had charge of the sick fund." Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. He run all the way down the stairs and out of the jail." "Yeah," a coal miner says, "but the land's so poor, you can't hardly raise an umbrella on it.". The miners express extreme dissatisfaction with Eastover's medical and retirement benefits. Partial Transcript: August 27, '86. Enforcing the operators' political will, both within and outside the law, was the Harlan County Coal Operators Association. She pays $10 a month for rent and $10 a month for electricity. They are demanding the standard UMW provision requiring the company to pay a royalty of seventy-five cents a ton on mined coal into the UMW Welfare & Retirement Fund. After this, the first strike occurred, in which only about 13% of strikers showed up to work. Office files covering topics such as "accounts receivable," "baseball club," "coal production," "garnishment orders," "Harlan Coal Operator's Association," "labor conditions," "medical conditions . 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. 1938) Copy Citation . During the rest of the afternoon, the miners talk about what has happened on the picket line and in the local court. There were ten lodges that were chartered for the National Miners Union. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. I glance at the new Piedmont magazine, Pace. It doesn't seem like enough. As the motorcade approached a single shot rang out in the air. 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. Carl Horn of Duke Power and Arnold Miller of the UMW had talked, and negotiations had been resumed. Jacqueline Brophy asks why public services have broken down. Now and then, there is a neat, new frame house or a Pic and Pay market between scattered tarpaper shacks. "Yarborough says he just don't want nobody tellin' him how to run his mine," Deaton says. 8 N.L.R.B. There was no functioning safety committee Medical and retirement benefits were minimal and unreliable. A shoulder blade and five of his ribs were broken. The unrest continues in Harlan and surrounding counties as there have been many strikes. 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. 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 decrease in wages, unemployment, and irregular employment caused "poverty, hunger, and disease.". I look at the government statistics once more. Here, too, are some of the richest natural resources in the countryand some of the poorest people. Most of the land is owned by the mining companies. To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators Association decided to cut all wages by ten percent. Sheriff Blair was voted out of his office in 1933 and died just a year later. 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. Pierce has brought the actual Courier-Journal clippings about the Dreiser inquiry and shares them with us. But will Norman Yarborough ever agree to recognize the UMW? On February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association reduced wages for miners in that part of eastern Kentucky by 10 percent. In Harlan County, Kentucky, the 1931 Battle of Evarts ended in four deaths. I'm standing at 2800 feet above sea level. Lois Scott explains that during the first confrontation at the mine, she saw a pistol in the front seat of every "scab" car she looked into and that a company "gun thug" pointed a submachine gun at the women from the porch of the Eastover office. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. There are nearly 40,000 people in the county, a drop of 36 percent since 1960. . However, they did make a greater effort than the United Mine Workers with relief as they opened soup kitchens around the county. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Pay ranged from $17 to $32 day, the average being $25. I have been married to David W. Sergent since May 4, 2013. Prior to the strike, the pay of the Brookside miners started and stopped at the face of coal. They are merely a service organization, Yarborough says. On Friday, March 25, a continuous mining machine operator was killed by a wall collapse at the Huff Creek No. The most memorable of those are 1964, 1966, 1969 (The West Virginia Black Lung strike that the miners won) 1971, and the 1974 Strikes. It is too early for dolor. He is a sturdily built, self-assured man of about fifty, with a strong, square jaw and a rough, weathered face. He was transferred to a worse section, he says. We look back on the film, which screens this Sunday, February . A rural county of 27,000, Harlan County's average household income is about $29,000. Finally, in 1939, the coal companies agreed to allow unions in their coal mine operations. 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. There is a suit still in litigation. October 31, 2016. Herndon J. Evans, the editor of the Pineville Sun, argued, The troubles of the coal industry had their inception in war times. 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 feel that we have provided a national forum for the miners to tell their story. "I've had the foreman to tell me to set timbers or something until the inspector got gone. 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. He fined the UMW $20,000. Garbage along the roadside. "In Harlan County, U.S.A., sound anchors, explains, and makes 'authentic' visual imagery compromised by the long history of documentary work in Appalachia.". On the way back to the Mount Aire at the end of the day, we pass back through Brookside with its deteriorating mining-camp houses along the stinking Clear Fork River. Hennen attributes this abandonment to the increasingly conservative John L. Lewis, the longtime and powerful president of the UMWA, who feared . The main problem, he says, is that the company wants a "no-strike" clause, so that the union cannot strike during the contract period. Several folk singers and other artists toured the United States to raise money during the strikes. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. . (The union has told us that they are quite willing to limit the contract to the Brookside mine.) Its profits in 1973 were $90 million, up 14 percent from the year before. The decision caused unrest in the county among the miners. 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. The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! 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. 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. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. "I've seen some hurt and some killed. 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. 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. We gather back in Evarts and announce that our report will be ready in two or three weeks. Duke Power Company of North Carolina, he says, is the sixth largest utility company in the world. Genders. The Sheriff reportedly got rich on payoffs from the companies, and he used 181 mine company gunmen as special deputies. If you protested this safety violation, he says, "the boss would just say, 'Run it.'" 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. Working barns of gray-black weathered wood. The UMW had made written proposals for compromising these issues a little. A young woman from the Associated Press asks me, aren't we getting only one side of the story? There was an addition to where miners could choose their own representation for these negotiations. The coal miners, lean and tough from Kentucky mountain life, knew how to fight back. Mr. Blanton explained the reasoning behind coal camps. There were constant beatings of the miners by the Sheriffs deputies. 5355, atEvarts . Segment Synopsis: Lois Scott continues her conversation from her previous interview. Eastover agreed to sign the 1971 wage pact of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association which is in force at 1,200 mines. That year, annual wages dropped from $1,235 to $749. "Roof falls are a constant hazard, but the bosses just keep on rushin'.". From July 30, 2019, through September 28, 2019, coal miners and their families have blocked roads and railways demanding their payment. 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. There had been several clashes with the "scabs," the mine guards, and the state police, Kahn says. And always there is a murky roadside stream, beech and sycamore trees lining its banks. 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. No. "I cain't get a job nowhere in this county. The latest unrest in Harlan County came when in July of 2019, Black jewel LLC filed for bankruptcy and liquidation. He'd worked seventy-eight hours straight the preceding week. The men and women were released on good behavior. ", What about federal inspection? 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. Paternalism is the practice of people who have a business or other authority to restrict the freedoms of those who are subordinate to them. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Featuring a haunting soundtrack-with legendary country . 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 . ", What about the Southern Labor Union? Dixon and union leaders worry that the union's disappearance in Kentucky has opened the door for coal operators to . But relatives did come and take the children. Is the safety provision in the UMW contract the sticking point for Eastover? Freda Armes says, "I run him off. 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. Done Citation. "Boss walks up and says, 'We've got to make this mine look good now, boys; the inspector's comin','" Jerry Johnson says. (That is a tough point.) He says that, standing. Here at Kentucky Tennessee Living we fully support the coal miners and their families. Since the county began mining, over one billion tons of coal have Under this Act, the right to organize in ones workplace was granted as well as it outlawed any discrimination whether employed or seeking employment based on union membership. Harlan County U.S.A. by Felicia Elliott, August 2, 2016. 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 . He then answers a question he wasn't asked. Violence erupted that would periodically repeat itself for the next eight years. 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%. "This troubles me; I don't sleep," Yarborough says. Source for information on Harlan County: Encyclopedia of the Great Depression dictionary. Among coal miners, Harlan County, Kentucky, is known as "Bloody Harlan." This active organization is made up of those who represent the leader in the mining industry. The bosses wouldn't go in, but I've. [6] Nearly four thousand miners working and living in Harlan County, Kentucky lost their jobs in the Great Depression. Yarborough replies. It is also women's day before the Citizens In-quiry. The women spent the night. Soon enough, most miners had gone on strike out of solidarity. When Barbara finishes her answer, Wirtz raises a clenched fist and says, "Right on!" "We run because we wanted to testify, and if we hadn't run, he woulda had us in jail." Don Dalton, UMW Safety Director for Region Six, explains this. But what of the people of Harlan County? Some of the women cut switches and joined the picketers. It seems that unfriendly local law enforcement officials kept a constant surveillance on Dreiser, hoping to catch him in something that would justify a criminal charge against him. Harlan Fuel Co. Download PDF. A thousand feet below me lies a small, green valley, partly shrouded by the morning mist. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Which Side are You on? The warrant was never served. National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions Jul 5, 1938. (Eastover offered fifty cents a ton.) The miners charge that the Harlan County Coal Operators Association is behind Eastover's refusal to sign a contract. 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." Miners also wanted the right to organize and have a union. The radical ideology of the union began gaining some ground in the mountains. These disputes were still brewing when on December 8, 1934, the United Mine Workers Union was threatened by deputies and mine bosses. 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. Those with running water rent for around $20 a month, plus electricity. "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. Abstract. A federal bankruptcy judge ruled that the company could leave damages to the environment, abandon assets, and not pay the coal miners owed wages. These guards were legally able to protect these men during their off duty time. And, all around, there are the rolling mountains, covered with second-growth timber. Leroy Helton says he still owes a lot of bills that should have been paid by SLU. 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. This was thirteen percent of the workers showing up for their scheduled work times. As part of his New Deal, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented and had passed the National Industrial Act. These interviews with major coal operators document their personal histories and the history of the coal industry in eastern Kentucky during the twentieth century. Typical of counties with low income, counties where the mine companies own everything and pay low taxes, our UMW driver says. 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.". 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. The trees are barely beginning to bud in the early March warmth. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Only 23 percent of those in the county over the age of twenty-five have completed high school. 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. Overturned car bodies everywhere. ", Bill Doan says that he was hurt in a rockfall at 7:15 one morning and that he didn't get out of the mine until nine o'clock. Louis Stacy that he has several times been running a defective roofbolting machine when word came that inspector was on his way. They exercised their powers with impunity and operated under Sheriff J.H. On May 24, 1931, Sheriff Blair rescinded the miners right to assemble and tear-gassed a union rally. 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. The Red Cross eventually became involved in the county along with several local charities. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to . Grover Jennings says that six months ago he applied for a job at the Mary Helen mine and was apparently accepted, but that when he went back for his physical, Clyde Goitis, an official at the mine, said, "Buddy, there just ain't no way I can do anything for you. Done. 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. 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 SLU was largely seen as serving the interests of the mine owners rather than the workers. "The personal is political" was a rallying cry of second wave feminism. 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. Theoretically, even operators' and owners' children were . 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. Barbara Kopple 's Academy Award-winning Harlan County USA unflinchingly documents a grueling coal miners' strike in a small Kentucky town. The company also agreed to abide by any agreement reached between the . Sudie Crusenberg, a plain woman in a cotton dress, gives us some idea of what life is like for a coal-mining family. The group publishes policy papers on the benefits of coal for Kentucky and sponsors the "Friends of Coal" initiative. In America, the word describes a region, including Harlan County, Kentucky, between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic coast. What did the foremen say on those occasions? The coal companies refused to back down from their positions and change anything. 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. Miners laid in an ambush on the day of May 5, 1931, near the Evarts railroad crossing. 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. 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. On September 4, 1935, Harlan County Attorney Elmon Clay Middleton, age 31, was assassinated by a car bomb containing eighteen sticks of dynamite. 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. They are neatly and attractively dressed. Mostly, the miners were fighting for improved working conditions, higher wages, and better housing options for their families. Miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, have drawn national attention with their direct action occupying a railroad track to halt a coal train . I've read that in its heyday, the Blackjoe coal camp consisted of 60 or so houses. "They don't want miners havin' any say in safety." The most shocking moment in Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) looks at first like an abstract painting. Dan Pollitt reads a letter from Carl Horn, Jr., president of Duke Power Company, respectfully declining our invitation. When McQueen was hurt, his foreman drove him to the hospital and left him there, and he was two hours hitchhiking home. All during the day they worked in shifts, trying to penetrate to the point where the explosion occurred. When they went to jail, they say, some of the women took their children with them. those in the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association, were run as open shops from October 27, 1933 - March 31, 1935. 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. The next morning the toothpicks were still in place, it was said. When fuses blow, they are not immediately replaced; the cable is spliced or "hot-wired" around the fuse. Eight miners were sentenced to life in prison for the actions that were taken on May 5, 1931. Make your practice more effective and efficient with Casetext's legal research suite. An organic shape, small and shiny and pinkish white, sits . After the railroad arrived in 1911 . The Price of Coal, Part II. 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. Documentary of mining practices in Hazard County, Kentucky.