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Partial Transcript: August 27, '86. 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. He says that, standing. Pricing; Switch; Big firm; 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." 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. It does not store any personal data. The Sheriff reportedly got rich on payoffs from the companies, and he used 181 mine company gunmen as special deputies. They want the terms of the standard UMW contract or better. 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). Why is garbage left on the roadway? There were only three cars in the motorcade each of which contained a sheriffs deputy. An investigation was conducted on Terrorism in the Kentucky Coal Fields. Sadly, the state and federal troops would occupy the county several times. (The union has told us that they are quite willing to limit the contract to the Brookside mine.) On September 9, 1935, for the first time since the beginning of the war, troops were dispatched to Harlan County on behalf of the miners by the Governor of the State of Kentucky. They tell of two night incidents when rifle shots were fired at the picketers by unidentified persons. National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions Jul 5, 1938. There was an addition to where miners could choose their own representation for these negotiations. Most of the land is owned by the mining companies. The prospects for settlement do not look good unless Duke begins to feel public pressure. She doesn't know where she will go when the camp is closed. Lois Scott, a woman of about forty-five, begins to speak first. "The way I figured it, they done that because it was just a faster, way of getting coal." Yarborough is tough and unyielding. ~~ David Sergent. ("Tony") Boyle for the national presidency of the UMW in 1972 in an election closely supervised by the federal government. For a time after the hearing, he says, it appeared that Duke had softened. Unemployment in 2017 was 9.4 percent, far above the national average. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. 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. Nonunion workers were attempting to leave the mine. Dixon and union leaders worry that the union's disappearance in Kentucky has opened the door for coal operators to . Blaine Sergent, coal leader, putting up his check at the end of a workday in Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1946. 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). On Friday, October 3, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt called a precedent-shattering meeting at the temporary White House at 22 Lafayette Place, Washington, D.C. A . Nevertheless, as the county seat, the city of Harlan has resources much of the county lacks. At Washington's National Airport, I board Piedmont Airline's fat little silver jet on a Sunday afternoon in early March. Some of the miners also claim that the state police have tried to intimidate them. Nannie Rainey takes us into her four-room house where she and her husband and five children live. Done. Mr. Harry Simms, who was a Young Communist League organizer was killed in Harlan. 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. I have taken several classes in Journalism as well as in the Appalachian History, Literature, and Sociology during my time at those schools. James Sizemore says that frequently float dust, which is dangerously explosive, would get too heavy in the mine, and he would complain, but that. 9:03 PM. 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. 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. This action did not go unnoticed by the labor unions and the United Mine Workers union decided to attempt to organize the already-impoverished labor force of the area. Eastover agreed to sign the 1971 wage pact of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association which is in force at 1,200 mines. Horn's letter questions the fair-mindedness of the inquiry members. Harlan, district mine inspector of the State Department of Mines and Minerals, and James Bryson, safety director, Harlan County Coal Operators Association. 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. While it succeeded in organizing thousands of miners, it failed to complete a bargaining agreement with Harlan County's coal operators. Genders. Up at seven on a Monday morning, I walk out onto the balcony of my motel room. When a miner complains, Jerry Johnson says, the foreman says, "If you don't like it, you can always get your bucket," meaning pick up your lunch bucket and get out. 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. Barbara Kopple 's Academy Award-winning Harlan County USA unflinchingly documents a grueling coal miners' strike in a small Kentucky town. We gather back in Evarts and announce that our report will be ready in two or three weeks. Throughout 1931, violence sprouted between miners Harlan County sits in the sweet spot of coal mining in southeastern Kentucky. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. My brother died at the age of forty. 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. 8 N.L.R.B. 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. B.W. All during the day they worked in shifts, trying to penetrate to the point where the explosion occurred. "I don't know nothing about the electrical part." "I don't try to blacklist anybody," he says. 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. (Brookside) were the only two mines of the Harlan County owner/operators association who rejected a 10% pay increase in 1933. Five men and their titles are listed and all are doing all they can.. But relatives did come and take the children. It is not all Duke's fault by any means. And, all around, there are the rolling mountains, covered with second-growth timber. They have done this only since the Brookside strike. The miners and the coal owners were still having disputes. Strike benefits are $100 weekly for a family, $90 for a couple, and $80 for a single man. "This whole country is like a layer cake," Si Kahn says, "a layer cake of shale, coal, and sandstone. 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. 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. However, the battle continues to this day. Afterwards, they gathered near the picket line at the Eastover property in Brookside. But is it really hurting? "We could lay down, fight the police, or let them scabs go to work. There is a hard edge in her voice, and her blue-gray eyes are flashing. She's been picketing with the other women. Jacqueline Brophy asks why public services have broken down. We agree that most of us lean toward the miners, but we think we can be fair in trying to learn the facts. 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. Tuesday morning: Norman Yarborough has agreed to meet some of our group. : The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! 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. [videorecording] Contributor(s): Kopple, Barbara; First-Run Features (Firm) Cabin Creek Films; Publication details: New York : First Run Features, 1976. . They file with us copies of specific federal safety violation reports, and they say that nothing was ever done to correct these violations. But will Norman Yarborough ever agree to recognize the UMW? 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. [ 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%. Burger Chef. 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." October 31, 2016. It was the most violent attack of the Harlan County Coal wars and the most violence would only last fifteen minutes in total but would forever change the name to Bloody Harlan. 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. Faith Primitive Baptist Church. Strikebreakers were often beaten. Eight miners were sentenced to life in prison for the actions that were taken on May 5, 1931. 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. Captain James Cromer of the state police later tells news reporters, "The women are a problem. 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. He sentenced nine men and seven women to six months in jail and fined them $500 each. 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. With the added protection for workers and the addition of collective bargaining between the workers and their employers. Copy as parenthetical citation. Those with running water rent for around $20 a month, plus electricity. Or all you're gonna get's a chunk of Harlan County coal. The transcript will be published as a book. Big Boy. 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 . There was no functioning safety committee Medical and retirement benefits were minimal and unreliable. At first, there were little battles with gunshots being exchanged between the strikers and the private guards, and the local law enforcement agents. That's an old term in Harlan County, used to describe special, plain-clothed guards. 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 . Many of the houses have no running water, and these families have to carry all their water from a common outdoor spigot. They range in age from about twenty-one to seventy. Its profits in 1973 were $90 million, up 14 percent from the year before. He was transferred to a worse section, he says. Forty percent of the county's dwellings lack some or all of plumbing, water, or toilet facilities. Another press member criticizes Barbara Bode for having raised a clenched fist during the women's testimony. Willard Wirtz asks how it will all come out, how the strike will end. "This troubles me; I don't sleep," Yarborough says. The miners express extreme dissatisfaction with Eastover's medical and retirement benefits. It is beautiful in Harlan County, as pretty as any place in the world. 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. More than twenty-four babies out of a thousand die before they are one year old, and the expenditure per child in the public schools is one-half the national average. We look back on the film, which screens this Sunday, February . The miners charge that Eastover has hired what they call "gun thugs." This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Killed - 12. The Price of Coal, Part II. 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. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. My man was mashed up in the mines. Conflict broke out again the 1970s in what was known as the Brookside strike. "We run because we wanted to testify, and if we hadn't run, he woulda had us in jail." A thousand feet below me lies a small, green valley, partly shrouded by the morning mist. On May 5, 1931, the Battle of Evarts began. Norman Yarborough, head of Eastover Mining Company, is not coming either. Coal employment in Harlan county dropped 53.7% in the second quarter of this year compared with last year, driven by Blackjewel's bankruptcy. Find the perfect harlan county coal stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. I don't like- workin' in them kind of conditions." The group included John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and a number of other writers and artists. KCA traces its origin to a statewide association of coal operators who united their efforts in 1942. He hopes the other side will do the same. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". "Yeah," a coal miner says, "but the land's so poor, you can't hardly raise an umbrella on it.". An organic shape, small and shiny and pinkish white, sits . Based on this new Act, from October 27, 1933, to March 31, 1935, the mines ran as open shops. The aftermath of this battle led to wider strikes in the Harlan County area. In Harlan County, Kentucky, are some of our country's richest natural resourcesand some of its poorest people. We are told that Eastover has announced its intention to tear down the mining-camp houses and move the striking miners out. "They don't want miners havin' any say in safety." The Brookside mine is capable of producing only about a half-million tons of the 15 million tons of coal Duke uses each year. Kentucky communities discussed include Artemus, Burdine, Jenkins, Jellico, Van Lear, and Wheelwright; and Kentucky counties include Bell, Clay, Floyd, Harlan . In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. 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.". 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. He tells me that the miners plan to picket on Wall Street, hoping to give Duke problems with its stock. 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. Miners also wanted the right to organize and have a union. They say no action has been taken on this report. Exist Dates. There is no water in the house. There were constant beatings of the miners by the Sheriffs deputies. Why haven't the car bodies been removed from the highway and the streets? The union abandoned its efforts after less than a year. The officials were listed were the "veteran safety director of the Harlan Coal Operators Association, and Rufus Bailey and H. Hamlin, state . "Dreiser, Woman Indicted," one headline reads. As part of his New Deal, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented and had passed the National Industrial Act.