harlan county coal operators association

The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Make your practice more effective and efficient with Casetext's legal research suite. Mine operators viciously opposed miners' efforts to unionize, particularly in Harlan County. Three Harlan County incorporated towns were not owned by the coal mines, they became a sanctuary for the evicted and starving miners. 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. . However, after the dust was clear, the anti-labor coal country would end up being represented by unions. No, Yarborough says; it just serves as a central clearing house, so that job applicants won't have to go around and apply at each of the mines separately. He does say, I think primarily for the record, that he would like to see negotiations begin again. Now and then, there is a neat, new frame house or a Pic and Pay market between scattered tarpaper shacks. These interviews with major coal operators document their personal histories and the history of the coal industry in eastern Kentucky during the twentieth century. Someone had planted dynamite in his automobile and when he started it up the car blew up. The main problem, he says, is that the company wants a "no-strike" clause, so that the union cannot strike during the contract period. Get a Demo. There are still ongoing strikes today and the violence in Harlan County Continues. Kahn says that the miners were encouraged by Eastover's management, headed by Norman Yarborough, to join a small "company union," the Southern Labor Union. My brother died at the age of forty. But relatives did come and take the children. We drive to the Evarts Community Center and report to the other members of the Citizens Inquiry. Hennen attributes this abandonment to the increasingly conservative John L. Lewis, the longtime and powerful president of the UMWA, who feared . The money was . Pricing; Switch; Big firm; Past that, the other undulating ridges are blue and hazy. The sign man for R C Cola has worked this territory well. After breakfast, we travel fifteen miles east to Evarts. 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. 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. 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. Those with running water rent for around $20 a month, plus electricity. Nevertheless, as the county seat, the city of Harlan has resources much of the county lacks. Harlan County, Kentucky is known for two things: bituminous coal and Bloody Harlan. We first hear from a number of the striking miners about safety conditions in the Brookside mine. 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. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". Why haven't the car bodies been removed from the highway and the streets? Coal employment in Harlan county dropped 53.7% in the second quarter of this year compared with last year, driven by Blackjewel's bankruptcy. the foreman would just say, "We gotta run coal. Up at seven on a Monday morning, I walk out onto the balcony of my motel room. "Boss walks up and says, 'We've got to make this mine look good now, boys; the inspector's comin','" Jerry Johnson says. The radical ideology of the union began gaining some ground in the mountains. 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. Did she find the stick on the ground? Mostly, the miners were fighting for improved working conditions, higher wages, and better housing options for their families. The trees are barely beginning to bud in the early March warmth. 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. 9:03 PM. 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. 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." He is a sturdily built, self-assured man of about fifty, with a strong, square jaw and a rough, weathered face. 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. By 1908 the union had . In Harlan County, Kentucky, are some of our country's richest natural resourcesand some of its poorest people. Harlan County in eastern Kentucky, which has been brought out into the spotlight this summer by the violence with which the local Coal Operators' Association has carried on this attack, is, as far as I can find out, a pretty good medium exhibit of the entire industry: living conditions are better than in Alabama and perhaps a little worse . 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. Nannie Rainey takes us into her four-room house where she and her husband and five children live. "We want safety all the time, not just when the inspector comes," Jerry Johnson says. 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 meeting room. I remind her that Duke and Eastover executives were invited, and have refused to appear before us. He run all the way down the stairs and out of the jail." Based on this new Act, from October 27, 1933, to March 31, 1935, the mines ran as open shops. As correspondent Bob Simon reports, 47 miners died, six of them from just one county in eastern Kentucky . Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. "We took the sticks with us," she says. 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. ", We break for lunch, prepared by the women of the Evarts Community Center. Harlan County U.S.A. by Felicia Elliott, August 2, 2016. We agree that most of us lean toward the miners, but we think we can be fair in trying to learn the facts. The remaining workforce then went on strike as a sign of solidarity with those that were fired from their jobs. J. D. Skidmore says, "I have no chance of getting a job in Harlan County if this strike is not settled." Captain James Cromer of the state police later tells news reporters, "The women are a problem. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. 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. 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. It does not store any personal data. Genders. He discusses the formation and activities of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association . The final straw was when the Harlan County Coal Operators Association cut miners' wages by 10%. No. The National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP) was of the American Communist Party. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. Why are people allowed to dump raw sewage in the streams? Dalton points out that there were 132 mine fatalities in the United States in 1973, only seventeen of them in UMW mines. Some of the women went to jail with the men, and some took their children with them. USBM Final Investigation Report (1.7 Mb) Successful Rescue . The Price of Coal, Part II. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. 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. In one of these, the septic tank has been out of order for several months. "They sent me to 'Waterhole No. An open shop is where union membership is allowed but not mandated to work at that location. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to . 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. In 1981, he traded coal mining for gold mining as one of the founders of the current . 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. It is unclear who fired that shot but both sides claim that the other side did it. A thousand feet below me lies a small, green valley, partly shrouded by the morning mist. The miners say that they often have to stand knee-deep in water while handling 440-volt electrical cables. He says that, standing. The UMW union called in the National Guard to help them. Expand. "A gun thug pulled a gun on us, and I broke a switch over his head, and the little gun thug pulled out," Lois Scott says matter-of-factly. 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 They want portal-to-portal pay from the time they enter the mine until they leave it. The miners and the coal owners were still having disputes. No wonder R C Cola has so many signs everywhere. Grace Elizabeth Hale. There's water in the mine because the pumps often won't work. The three houses with baths rent for $24 a month, plus $14 a month for electricity. Ky., told the Senate Civil Liberties Committee as it resumed its investigation of alleged terrorism in connection with Harlan County Coal Operators' efforts to resist union organization drives. 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. When Barbara finishes her answer, Wirtz raises a clenched fist and says, "Right on!" 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. Paternalism is the practice of people who have a business or other authority to restrict the freedoms of those who are subordinate to them. The Red Cross eventually became involved in the county along with several local charities. There is a hard edge in her voice, and her blue-gray eyes are flashing. Two hundred people crowd. "This troubles me; I don't sleep," Yarborough says. United States Washington D.C. District of Columbia Washington D.C . Before this war was over it is not known exactly how many miners, coal operators, deputies, and bosses would be killed. Talking to Aaronson, I am reminded of an old tin sign I saw tacked on a tree along the highway as I left Harlan. But mostly the scenery is depressingly bleak. The miners, impoverished due to their already low pay (this coming in the form of company scrip, room, and board), decided enough was enough, and some of them . This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Daniels was one of the most hated deputies in the county due to his anti-union views. Documentary of mining practices in Hazard County, Kentucky. Theoretically, even operators' and owners' children were . We never would find out what happened. We come into Harlan County at dusk. She's been picketing with the other women. Our drive takes us upstream along the yellow-brown Clear Fork River. Afterwards, they gathered near the picket line at the Eastover property in Brookside. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The union abandoned its efforts after less than a year. The accident was investigated by Rufus Bailey, Harlan, district mine inspector of the State Department of Mines and Minerals, and James Bryson, safety director, Harlan County Coal Operators Association. Here and there, we also see white-blossoming pear and dogwood trees. They just laughed about it, and we kept on cuttin' coal. 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. There is one ostentatious feature about him, though: a large, multi-diamond ring on the third finger of his left hand. What a marvelous view! Tuesday morning: Norman Yarborough has agreed to meet some of our group. We huddle before breaking up. The Wagner Act of 1935 (National Labor Relations Act or NLRA) guaranteed the rights of workers to choose to organize. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. Word precedes him. Kentucky communities discussed include Artemus, Burdine, Jenkins, Jellico, Van Lear, and Wheelwright; and Kentucky counties include Bell, Clay, Floyd, Harlan . You just don't hit a woman in Harlan County." Bobby's wife, Becky, who died in 2013, was a lifelong advocate for the people of Harlan County. Prior to the strike, the pay of the Brookside miners started and stopped at the face of coal. 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. The warrant was never served. What did the foremen say on those occasions? 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. It is an area of Kentucky that you only go to if you are intentionally going to the county. Pierce has brought the actual Courier-Journal clippings about the Dreiser inquiry and shares them with us. Big Boy. The UMW had made written proposals for compromising these issues a little. James Sizemore says that frequently float dust, which is dangerously explosive, would get too heavy in the mine, and he would complain, but that. 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. We soon get into a discussion about Dreiser's 1931 inquiry. 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. Nobody knows how long the UMW can keep paying strike benefits. Prior to Miller's election, the union had become corrupt, dictatorial, and a frequent collaborator with the mine owners. The prospects for settlement do not look good unless Duke begins to feel public pressure. Pic from Harlan County USA of a Coal Camp. I have taken several classes in Journalism as well as in the Appalachian History, Literature, and Sociology during my time at those schools. "Yeah," a coal miner says, "but the land's so poor, you can't hardly raise an umbrella on it.". KCA traces its origin to a statewide association of coal operators who united their efforts in 1942. While it succeeded in organizing thousands of miners, it failed to complete a bargaining agreement with Harlan County's coal operators. Looking for protection by the Kentucky National Guard, many were surprised to find that they broke the picket lines instead. Another press member criticizes Barbara Bode for having raised a clenched fist during the women's testimony. There are very few vacant houses in Harlan County and virtually no available land to build on. Don Dalton, UMW Safety Director for Region Six, explains this. The county was once part of Knox County, only becoming official in 1819. They have done this only since the Brookside strike. 5355 after Local Union 4495 at Black Mountain folded up. 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. The mining company had ordered a motorcade to deliver food and supplies to the strikebreakers known as Scabs. The company will probably demand a new election. Neither will Dr. Robert Coles, psychiatrist and author of Children of Crisis. Sheriff T. R. Middleton replaced Blair under the pro-union campaign platform. But what of the people of Harlan County? And you wondr why I keep running my mouth . We drive through the streets of the town of Harlan, past the stores and houses, past the Harlan Baptist Church with a sign out front which reads: "If you are unkind, you are the wrong kind." They have probably helped keep their own men from exploding too. I can see twenty-five miles to the southeast, five ridges. Yarborough is tough and unyielding. They range in age from about twenty-one to seventy. Harry Simms, who was a Young Communist League organizer was killed in Harlan. 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 said that when the coal industry was at its height in 1928, the peak of . 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 . We stop for fish and chips at a chain-operated Long John Silver's Sea Food Shoppe, as out of place in the Cumberlands as a clam in a spruce tree. Our delegation arrives on time at the Eastover office in Brookside. 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. 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. Mine operators formed the 1 Harlan County Coal Operators Association and through this organization made collective decisions concerning the mines. "We could lay down, fight the police, or let them scabs go to work. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Why is garbage left on the roadway? Miners laid in an ambush on the day of May 5, 1931, near the Evarts railroad crossing. . "Then he'd come out looking like a sheep-killing dog and get in his truck and run. Nonunion workers were attempting to leave the mine. He says that they do not need the UMW to look after them; he will do that. 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. Frame houses with rusty tin roofs. Interment at Resthaven Cemetery, Keith, Ky. Visitation 6-9 p.m. at the Grays Knob Bible Church. The officials were listed were the "veteran safety director of the Harlan Coal Operators Association, and Rufus Bailey and H. Hamlin, state . Coal companies refused to back down while the Red Cross refused to give aid . The bosses wouldn't go in, but I've. The women are nervous about testifying, afraid of retaliation. Free shipping for many products! Yarborough says that he will not agree to the contract applying to Eastover's subcontractors. I've read that in its heyday, the Blackjoe coal camp consisted of 60 or so houses. The transcript will be published as a book. In response, the United Mine Workers of America attempted to organize the miners. 1938) Copy Citation . Yarborough tells us that the company does not now object to paying the miners for portal-to-portal time for inside mine work, but that the union wants comparability for outside workers too, in effect requiring the company to pay outside workers overtime for all work in excess of a seven and-a-quarter-hour regular day. It doesn't seem like enough. I have been married to David W. Sergent since May 4, 2013. The miners could be fired if they refused to spend their paychecks only in the store. Abstract. The coal miners, lean and tough from Kentucky mountain life, knew how to fight back. But you must remember I am an immoral man. [ 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%. There had been several clashes with the "scabs," the mine guards, and the state police, Kahn says. He says that he will not agree to the Brookside contract applying to "all" of Eastover's operations. 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. Interview Summary. The men's life depended on my job, but I knowed if I protested I'd a got fired. The miners express extreme dissatisfaction with Eastover's medical and retirement benefits. A reporter asks us again how we can expect to make an unbiased report when we've heard only one side. Harlan County to unionize miners. Over one thousand shots were exchanged during those fifteen minutes. Trailer parks called Walnut Grove, Mobile Manor, and Mesa Village Mobile Manor. Some seventy-five state policemen were on hand as the crowd gathered. I was born in Florida and grew up in Burdine, Kentucky. Find the perfect harlan county coal stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. 2012: $1,552,717. The median family income is $4600 a year. Or all you're gonna get's a chunk of Harlan County coal. In Harlan County, Kentucky, the 1931 Battle of Evarts ended in four deaths. 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 . If any attractive woman became interested in me, I'd think it was a very lovely thing. Harlan County sits in the sweet spot of coal mining in southeastern Kentucky. I've talked to Norman Yarborough, and you ain't bringing no union down here. Soon after the "Battle of Evarts," novelist Theodore Dreiser led a citizens' group to Harlan County to find and publicize the bloody facts. He sentenced nine men and seven women to six months in jail and fined them $500 each. Troops had to be called into the county three times to maintain order. 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. 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. When they went to jail, they say, some of the women took their children with them. Established in 1916, its membership consisted of nearly all the large mining companies, and it represented the major political force in the county. 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. There were only nine hundred miners working and 5,800 miners were idle and striking during the first strike. Segment Synopsis: Lois Scott continues her conversation from her previous interview. The next morning the toothpicks were still in place, it was said. Is that the only objection that is holding up a settlement? Some of the women cut switches and joined the picketers. 1931, only $13.5 million. The miners charge that Eastover has hired what they call "gun thugs." Yarborough comes out of a staff meeting and ushers us hack to a large, paneled meeting room with folding tables and chairs. 4 . It is also women's day before the Citizens In-quiry. safety director for the Harlan County Coal Operators Association; Moss Paterson, chief of the State Bureau of Mines and Minerals, and State and Federal mine inspectors. 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.