Miners also wanted the right to organize and have a union. For a time after the hearing, he says, it appeared that Duke had softened. Why couldn't Eastover live with the same national UMW contract that so many other companies have accepted? The Seco Train Accident September 20, 1917, New Bank in the Coal Country Installed in 1911, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Evarts, https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/new-deal/national-industrial-recovery-act-of-1933/, https://pipiwiki.com/wiki/Battle_of_Evarts, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_County_War, https://labornotes.org/blogs/2019/08/brief-history-harlan-county-usa, https://www.thebalancecareers.com/the-wagner-act-of-1935-national-labor-relations-act-2060509#:~:text=%20The%20Wagner%20Act%20defines%20and%20prohibits%20five,or%20administration%20of%20a%20labor%20organization.%20More%20, https://www.nytimes.com/1935/09/05/archives/bomb-in-auto-kills-kentucky-official-harlan-county-attorney.html#:~:text=HARLAN%2C%20Ky.%2C%20Sept.%204%20%28AP%29.%20%20The%20death,his%20automobile.%20View%20Full%20Article%20in%20Timesmachine%20%C2%BB, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70804679/elmon-clay-middleton, https://www.nytimes.com/1935/09/06/archives/kentucky-holds-four-in-auto-bomb-killing-harlan-prosecutors-death.html, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/?fbclid=IwAR21nYphw4Dul-_EwuAmSWgzsvPLNwsMM0FtV75j0y-mGUHq-lCZjJxZot8, The Flatwoods Monster: Weird Appalachia Cases, Rotherwood Mansion: Weird Appalachia Cases, The Brown Mountain Ghostly Lights: Weird Appalachia Cases. [videorecording] Contributor(s): Kopple, Barbara; First-Run Features (Firm) Cabin Creek Films; Publication details: New York : First Run Features, 1976. . Since the county began mining, over one billion tons of coal have It comes to a bill of about $20,000 a week for the national union. The company will probably demand a new election. corporateBody associatedWith : Heyl & Patterson, Inc . McDonald's. Dalton points out that there were 132 mine fatalities in the United States in 1973, only seventeen of them in UMW mines. The sign man for R C Cola has worked this territory well. We return to our series on the Coal Wars of the United States with Bloody Harlan and the Battle for Evarts. 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. With this Supreme Court ruling, all but one of the open shops in Harlan County went back to the previous mine operations. It was a nearly decade-long conflict, lasting from 1931 to 1939. . Three of our Inquiry members plan to talk with the president of Duke Power Company. Other times, he says, "Roof was workin', rock was a-hangin', and it sounded like thunder. You just don't hit a woman in Harlan County." If any attractive woman became interested in me, I'd think it was a very lovely thing. "I've seen some hurt and some killed. In 1970, Joseph Yablonski had led a rank-and-file revolt against Boyle, and Yablonski and his wife and daughter had been brutally murdered by killers hired with union funds. He hopes the other side will do the same. I have taken several classes in Journalism as well as in the Appalachian History, Literature, and Sociology during my time at those schools. New subdivisions named Tall Oaks and Colonial Heights. 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. It is the second coal mining fatality in . One of the better houses is already being demolished. On Friday, March 25, a continuous mining machine operator was killed by a wall collapse at the Huff Creek No. 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. Each contract varied from mine to mine. The United Mine Workers union also cited that they did not have the resources to help in the battle. In 1981, he traded coal mining for gold mining as one of the founders of the current . 5355, atEvarts . June 17th of that same year, the first strike was over as the last miner had returned to work. 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. "I don't like to handle that raw juice," he says. "I cain't get a job nowhere in this county. 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. Burger Chef. This active organization is made up of those who represent the leader in the mining industry. Garbage along the roadside. At first, there were little battles with gunshots being exchanged between the strikers and the private guards, and the local law enforcement agents. 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. 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. Even pop culture cannot ignore its impact with such shows as Justified. I currently live in Tennessee but my hope is to one day come back home to live in the beautiful mountains once more. ", What about federal inspection? After the railroad arrived in 1911 . There were only nine hundred miners working and 5,800 miners were idle and striking during the first strike. As discussed in a previous video. 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 Prior to Miller's election, the union had become corrupt, dictatorial, and a frequent collaborator with the mine owners. Bill Doan says, "When I got hurt, I couldn't find Jim Miller, the man who had charge of the sick fund." Horn's letter questions the fair-mindedness of the inquiry members. What will happen now that the first full year after the union election is ending? The men's life depended on my job, but I knowed if I protested I'd a got fired. Carl Horn of Duke Power and Arnold Miller of the UMW had talked, and negotiations had been resumed. It seems to me that for a great many people in Harlan County-for poor people and a lot of coal miners the whole county is a jail. As in Germany, the AFSC used need alone to determine who got fed. One of the Deputies was Jim Daniels. Looking for protection by the Kentucky National Guard, many were surprised to find that they broke the picket lines instead. "They didn't say nothin'; all they want's coal.' McQueen says that in late 1972 he burned his fingers to the bone on a switchbox where a blown fuse had been hot-wired. But, I say, even without further investigation of each of the complaints, it is possible to conclude that fear is an everyday part of the miners' lives. I've read that in its heyday, the Blackjoe coal camp consisted of 60 or so houses. "We could lay down, fight the police, or let them scabs go to work. Three Harlan County incorporated towns were not owned by the coal mines, they became a sanctuary for the evicted and starving miners. 2011: $1,161,330. 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. She speaks in a soft, pleasant voice. Name Entry; Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. Grace Elizabeth Hale. Her daughter, Bessie Cornett, an attractive young brunette, says, "I'm not in jail today because you people are here." 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. Lois Scott says that the women organized the Brookside Women's Club and got involved in the strike "because we knew that if the women didn't come in there would be violence." This was thirteen percent of the workers showing up for their scheduled work times. 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. 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. Funeral Wednesday March 1 at 11 a.m. at Grays Knob Bible Church. "They don't want miners havin' any say in safety." Don Dalton, UMW Safety Director for Region Six, explains this. 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. Copy as parenthetical citation. The prospects for settlement do not look good unless Duke begins to feel public pressure. 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. Before this war was over it is not known exactly how many miners, coal operators, deputies, and bosses would be killed. 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. The most memorable of those are 1964, 1966, 1969 (The West Virginia Black Lung strike that the miners won) 1971, and the 1974 Strikes. Sheriff T. R. Middleton replaced Blair under the pro-union campaign platform. The Citizens Inquiry meets in the attractive, river-rock Evarts Community Center, directly across the Clear Fork from the site of the 1931 "Battle of Evarts." These guards were legally able to protect these men during their off duty time. Mine operators viciously opposed miners' efforts to unionize, particularly in Harlan County. The motorcade stopped and the deputies got out of their cars to return fire. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. "I don't try to blacklist anybody," he says. In the bloody 1930s coal wars, miners known to be union members were fired and evicted from company-owned homes. Someone had planted dynamite in his automobile and when he started it up the car blew up. 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." 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. But what of the people of Harlan County? 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%. I have an Associates Degree from Hazard Community College and Technical School. Eastover agreed to sign the 1971 wage pact of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association which is in force at 1,200 mines. 2012: $1,552,717. Biographical History . the meeting room. Breaks in the cable, they say, are often just wrapped with mask-ing tape and exposed again to the water. "I don't know nothing about the electrical part." My brother died at the age of forty. October 31, 2016. 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. He decided to make Harlan County a test case in the UMW's new, more aggressive organizing efforts. 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. That commitment has never waivered, and has grown . Documents the 1973 Kentucky coal miners' strike against the operators of the Brookside mine and the Duke Power Company, which resulted from the company's refusal to honor the . 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. or smaller. 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. 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. But mostly the scenery is depressingly bleak. 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. The AFSC fed almost 1500 children in Harlan by the end of the 1931-2 schoolyear, as well as about a hundred nursing and expectant mothers. Nannie Rainey says, "I told him if he got my children, he was gonna haveta take me too." There are very few vacant houses in Harlan County and virtually no available land to build on. 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 . Pay ranged from $17 to $32 day, the average being $25. Each of us makes a statement. The women spent the night. Duke Power Company appears to be the key to breaking the deadlock in negotiations. "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." [6] Nearly four thousand miners working and living in Harlan County, Kentucky lost their jobs in the Great Depression. Featuring a haunting soundtrack-with legendary country . These disputes were still brewing when on December 8, 1934, the United Mine Workers Union was threatened by deputies and mine bosses. Leroy Helton says miners often have to splice electrical cable, even though they're not qualified to do so. 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. 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. 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 union has told us that they are quite willing to limit the contract to the Brookside mine.) Blaine Sergent, coal leader, putting up his check at the end of a workday in Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1946. "I've had the foreman to tell me to set timbers or something until the inspector got gone. those in the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association, were run as open shops from October 27, 1933 - March 31, 1935. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. A reporter asks us again how we can expect to make an unbiased report when we've heard only one side. With the opening left by the United Mine Workers union the openly Communist (NMU) National Miners Union tried to help the miners to organize. Former Director of Harlan County Coal Operators Association. Strikebreakers were often beaten. The final straw was when the Harlan County Coal Operators Association cut miners' wages by 10%. Strike benefits are $100 weekly for a family, $90 for a couple, and $80 for a single man. Kentucky communities discussed include Artemus, Burdine, Jenkins, Jellico, Van Lear, and Wheelwright; and Kentucky counties include Bell, Clay, Floyd, Harlan . those in the Harlan County Coal Operators . Trailer parks called Walnut Grove, Mobile Manor, and Mesa Village Mobile Manor. As part of his New Deal, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented and had passed the National Industrial Act. "My daddy's a retired coal miner, and he's got the black lung. ~~ David Sergent. There were only three cars in the motorcade each of which contained a sheriffs deputy. We are picked up at the airport by Si (for Simon) Kahn, a Pennsylvania rabbi's son who graduated from Harvard, came to the Southern mountains as a Vista worker, and remained here, working for local community groups. And we're burning up people to make electricity. (There is such a provision in the standard UMW contract.). 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). 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. Harlan County, Kentucky is known for two things: bituminous coal and Bloody Harlan. The miners speak of other dissatisfactions with Eastover and the old Southern Labor Union contract. He fined the UMW $20,000. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". the foreman would just say, "We gotta run coal. A month later, back in Washington, I meet with Bernie Aaronson at UMW headquarters. Yarborough says that he will not agree to the contract applying to Eastover's subcontractors. 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. It is too early for dolor. He discusses the formation and activities of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association . Pricing; Switch; Big firm; They are neatly and attractively dressed. Source for information on Harlan County: Encyclopedia of the Great Depression dictionary. My man was mashed up in the mines. 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 use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Betty Eldridge is a mildmannered, well-dressed woman of about forty. Most of the land is owned by the mining companies. 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. Pierce has brought the actual Courier-Journal clippings about the Dreiser inquiry and shares them with us. They have done this only since the Brookside strike. This was not just a flashy slogan, and the truth of it is .