The Sheriff reportedly got rich on payoffs from the companies, and he used 181 mine company gunmen as special deputies. Copy with citation. To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators Association decided to cut all wages by ten percent. Mr. 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. Pricing; Switch; Big firm; Dan Pollitt reads a letter from Carl Horn, Jr., president of Duke Power Company, respectfully declining our invitation. And you wondr why I keep running my mouth . 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. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. And I can't get you off of that couch. He says that they do not need the UMW to look after them; he will do that. Dalton points out that there were 132 mine fatalities in the United States in 1973, only seventeen of them in UMW mines. Yarborough says that he will not agree to the contract applying to Eastover's subcontractors. [6] Nearly four thousand miners working and living in Harlan County, Kentucky lost their jobs in the Great Depression. The main problem, he says, is that the company wants a "no-strike" clause, so that the union cannot strike during the contract period. He is a sturdily built, self-assured man of about fifty, with a strong, square jaw and a rough, weathered face. "The way I figured it, they done that because it was just a faster, way of getting coal." 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. It is home to lawyers, doctors and coal operators; it has a hospital, several banks and a few fast-food . "The danger's just the same," they say. By 1908 the union had . I look at the government statistics once more. Biographical History . [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%. Lois Scott, a woman of about forty-five, begins to speak first. A Brief History of Harlan County, USA. June 17th of that same year, the first strike was over as the last miner had returned to work. At first, heading northwest on modern Route 23, through Kingsport, Tennessee, Weber City, Virginia, and Gate City, Virginia, the sights are the same as almost everywhere else in America today. "I don't try to blacklist anybody," he says. Other clippings detail the earlier bloodshed and misery in Harlan County. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. Leroy Helton says he still owes a lot of bills that should have been paid by SLU. We soon get into a discussion about Dreiser's 1931 inquiry. There were shots exchanged and all three deputies and one striker were killed. (That is a tough point.) The slab of slate, more than 51 feet long, and 17 feet wide and weighing tons, was dodged by two men. Hennen attributes this abandonment to the increasingly conservative John L. Lewis, the longtime and powerful president of the UMWA, who feared . (There is such a provision in the standard UMW contract.). Cite. Garbage along the roadside. What will happen now that the first full year after the union election is ending? 25 (N.L.R.B. Sometimes, they'll be a black scum on the rag." Office files covering topics such as "accounts receivable," "baseball club," "coal production," "garnishment orders," "Harlan Coal Operator's Association," "labor conditions," "medical conditions . "You could hunt for one, but there just weren't one there," he says. One of the Deputies was Jim Daniels. If those under them behave in an approved manner then they receive housing, work, food, and other perks of their position. Three Harlan County incorporated towns were not owned by the coal mines, they became a sanctuary for the evicted and starving miners. Miners also wanted the right to organize and have a union. 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. 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. It read: RE-ELECT GAW, JAILER. 9:03 PM. Interview Summary. They want portal-to-portal pay from the time they enter the mine until they leave it. Miners laid in an ambush on the day of May 5, 1931, near the Evarts railroad crossing. "Dreiser, Woman Indicted," one headline reads. "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. As the motorcade approached a single shot rang out in the air. After nearly 40 years of working in coalmines, David . Burger Chef. It is clear that these women have been a main factor in keeping the mine shut down. Four men were arrested in connection with this murder. On February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association reduced wages for miners in that part of eastern Kentucky by 10 percent. 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. 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. "They don't want miners havin' any say in safety." A historical marker says we are near the Little Shepherd Trail, the setting for the novel Shepherd of the Hills. The coal miners, lean and tough from Kentucky mountain life, knew how to fight back. 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. "This troubles me; I don't sleep," Yarborough says. CBS is represented by a camera crew, and there are a number of national reporters. Even though things were doing better for the unions in Harlan County, there was still civil unrest. No wonder R C Cola has so many signs everywhere. Bobby's wife, Becky, who died in 2013, was a lifelong advocate for the people of Harlan County. The miners charge that the Harlan County Coal Operators Association is behind Eastover's refusal to sign a contract. He sentenced nine men and seven women to six months in jail and fined them $500 each. Make your practice more effective and efficient with Casetext's legal research suite. Trailer parks called Walnut Grove, Mobile Manor, and Mesa Village Mobile Manor. The Federal Government, with the Commissioner of Labor in a fact finding role, acted as a 'neutral' for the first time in contributing to settlement of the bitter coal strike. Tuesday morning: Norman Yarborough has agreed to meet some of our group. We gather back in Evarts and announce that our report will be ready in two or three weeks. Up at seven on a Monday morning, I walk out onto the balcony of my motel room. (Brookside) were the only two mines of the Harlan County owner/operators association who rejected a 10% pay increase in 1933. 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. . The women are nervous about testifying, afraid of retaliation. There is no water in the house. Is the safety provision in the UMW contract the sticking point for Eastover? Most of the land is owned by the mining companies. It comes to a bill of about $20,000 a week for the national union. 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. I have attended the University of Kentucky. While their main objectives were a steady job, a decent wage and a program of safety checks . The money was . 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. He was transferred to a worse section, he says. But is it really hurting? Throughout 1931, violence sprouted between miners 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. I am the only man in the United States who would do that sort of thing.". 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. Mostly, the miners were fighting for improved working conditions, higher wages, and better housing options for their families. Our drive takes us upstream along the yellow-brown Clear Fork River. Yarborough replies. Forty percent of the county's dwellings lack some or all of plumbing, water, or toilet facilities. [videorecording] Contributor(s): Kopple, Barbara; First-Run Features (Firm) Cabin Creek Films; Publication details: New York : First Run Features, 1976. . On one excuse or another, such as not having personnel readily available to accompany the inspector into the mine, the company can delay the inspection. Some of the women say they haven't had a drink of water since moving to the Brookside camp. They are neatly and attractively dressed. The roof is approximately forty-eight inches high in the mine. With the opening left by the United Mine Workers union the openly Communist (NMU) National Miners Union tried to help the miners to organize. Someone had planted dynamite in his automobile and when he started it up the car blew up. If any attractive woman became interested in me, I'd think it was a very lovely thing. It reports that "Piedmont" is an adjective derived.from Italian words that literally mean "formed at the foot of the mountains." By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. Betty Eldridge is a mildmannered, well-dressed woman of about forty. They tell of two night incidents when rifle shots were fired at the picketers by unidentified persons. We look back on the film, which screens this Sunday, February . Harry Simms, who was a Young Communist League organizer was killed in Harlan. It has assets worth $2.5 billion. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. Crossing the Clinch River, we turn onto Highway 421 and leave the modern world. On September 4, 1935, Harlan County Attorney Elmon Clay Middleton, age 31, was assassinated by a car bomb containing eighteen sticks of dynamite. Sheriff Blair was voted out of his office in 1933 and died just a year later. The UMW union called in the National Guard to help them. What a marvelous view! The three houses with baths rent for $24 a month, plus $14 a month for electricity. A federal bankruptcy judge ruled that the company could leave damages to the environment, abandon assets, and not pay the coal miners owed wages. those in the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association, were run as open shops from October 27, 1933 - March 31, 1935. Yarborough is tough and unyielding. 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. Five men and their titles are listed and all are doing all they can.. KCA traces its origin to a statewide association of coal operators who united their efforts in 1942. Yarborough's affidavit stated that "the group swarmed out into the roads, stopped cars, and forced company employees into coercive conversations and indulged in generally raucous name-calling and abuse." But I ain't leaving because this is my home.". I don't like- workin' in them kind of conditions." ", We break for lunch, prepared by the women of the Evarts Community Center. The miners say that they often have to stand knee-deep in water while handling 440-volt electrical cables. The judge's fines and sentences were appealed. Sadly, the state and federal troops would occupy the county several times. 5355 after Local Union 4495 at Black Mountain folded up. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Which Side are You on? Sudie Crusenberg, a plain woman in a cotton dress, gives us some idea of what life is like for a coal-mining family. "If we could monitor these inspections, perhaps we could cut down on the fatalities," he says. It was two o'clock on a Monday morning when the accident occurred, and he'd been in the mine., more than twelve hours. Willard Wirtz asks how it will all come out, how the strike will end. The Brookside mine is capable of producing only about a half-million tons of the 15 million tons of coal Duke uses each year. It is also women's day before the Citizens In-quiry. Breaks in the cable, they say, are often just wrapped with mask-ing tape and exposed again to the water. Steeped in Appalachian culture and surrounded by the influence of coal, Harlan County has amassed an interesting reputation and national attention with rest of the world. Chicago citation style: Harris & Ewing, photographer. The letter states that Eastover has now raised the wages in their other mines to the UMW scale and is paying the miners for time spent with the mine moving to and from the face of the coal. Miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, have drawn national attention with their direct action occupying a railroad track to halt a coal train . Pic from Harlan County USA of a Coal Camp. "It's one of 'em," Yarborough says. On May 24, 1931, Sheriff Blair rescinded the miners right to assemble and tear-gassed a union rally. Mrs. Herschel Gaw, wife of the ailing jailer, locked them all up. [ 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%. They have done this only since the Brookside strike. He fined the UMW $20,000. They range in age from about twenty-one to seventy. "This whole country is like a layer cake," Si Kahn says, "a layer cake of shale, coal, and sandstone. Exist Dates. KCA's constitution and by-laws were adopted on April 28, 1947, "to promote the best interest of the coal mining industry in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and all those engaged therein". Others say they intend to speak and write about what they have heard. When McQueen was hurt, his foreman drove him to the hospital and left him there, and he was two hours hitchhiking home. The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. "They sent me to 'Waterhole No. Perched atop Inspiration Mountain is the modern Mount Aire Motel. 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's water in the mine because the pumps often won't work. beethoven descendants alive today, kettering crematorium list of funerals today,
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