harlan county coal operators association harlan county coal operators association

4 . 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. Norman Yarborough, head of Eastover Mining Company, is not coming either. 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." 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. I say that the issue is whether or not the men will be allowed to have their own union to protect their safety and secure and maintain decent wages and benefits, that if enough pressure is put on Duke Power Company, maybe something will give. And, all around, there are the rolling mountains, covered with second-growth timber. Cite. Make your practice more effective and efficient with Casetext's legal research suite. "They sent me to 'Waterhole No. Sheriff T. R. Middleton replaced Blair under the pro-union campaign platform. Betty Eldridge is a mildmannered, well-dressed woman of about forty. 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. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Exist Dates. He run all the way down the stairs and out of the jail." There were only nine hundred miners working and 5,800 miners were idle and striking during the first strike. 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. How does the Harlan County Coal Operators Association fit into the picture? However, after the dust was clear, the anti-labor coal country would end up being represented by unions. Here, too, are some of the richest natural resources in the countryand some of the poorest people. Pierce has brought the actual Courier-Journal clippings about the Dreiser inquiry and shares them with us. Done. [ 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%. 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. 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. The judge's fines and sentences were appealed. The National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP) was of the American Communist Party. J. D. Skidmore says, "I have no chance of getting a job in Harlan County if this strike is not settled." This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. When filmmaker Barbara Kopple traveled to Harlan County, Kentucky, the resulting Academy award-winning documentary, Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) captured a historic story. That year, annual wages dropped from $1,235 to $749. 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. "Why couldn't the original thirteen colonies live with the same British policy that applied to all other British colonies?" 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. It has assets worth $2.5 billion. There was no functioning safety committee Medical and retirement benefits were minimal and unreliable. Tuesday morning: Norman Yarborough has agreed to meet some of our group. Coal employment in Harlan county dropped 53.7% in the second quarter of this year compared with last year, driven by Blackjewel's bankruptcy. (That is a tough point.) She talks about the women being armed with sticks, mace . Source Citation [ }] Descriptive Note Contributors from initial SNAC EAC-CPF ingest. United States Washington D.C. District of Columbia Washington D.C . "They don't want miners havin' any say in safety." Killed - 12. The miners express extreme dissatisfaction with Eastover's medical and retirement benefits. Duke went into the coal business directly in 1970 when it organized Eastover Mining Company as a wholly owned subsidiary and, through it, bought several mines in eastern Kentucky, including the one at Brookside. While their main objectives were a steady job, a decent wage and a program of safety checks . 5355 after Local Union 4495 at Black Mountain folded up. "If we could monitor these inspections, perhaps we could cut down on the fatalities," he says. She's been picketing with the other women. Some of the women went to jail with the men, and some took their children with them. Unlike the previous Coal Wars that took place in West Virginia with the Paint-Creek Strike of 1912 and Matewan that lasted for a year or two. ", 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." Biographical History . Willard Wirtz asks how it will all come out, how the strike will end. It is a warm night and at every bend in the asphalt road we hear a chorus of croaking frogs. 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 . Unemployment in 2017 was 9.4 percent, far above the national average. There are nearly 40,000 people in the county, a drop of 36 percent since 1960. 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. The Act was an attempt to restructure the industrial sector of the economy and to alleviate unemployment with a public works program. Some of the miners also claim that the state police have tried to intimidate them. 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 does say, I think primarily for the record, that he would like to see negotiations begin again. The company also agreed to abide by any agreement reached between the . 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. 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. I remind her that Duke and Eastover executives were invited, and have refused to appear before us. When McQueen was hurt, his foreman drove him to the hospital and left him there, and he was two hours hitchhiking home. Whitfield's family was from Alabama where his father had been in the coal business. Dan Pollitt reads a letter from Carl Horn, Jr., president of Duke Power Company, respectfully declining our invitation. The magazine presents a different picture of the people and conditions in the Piedmont region than the one I am to see in Harlan County, Kentucky. On September 4, 1935, Harlan County Attorney Elmon Clay Middleton, age 31, was assassinated by a car bomb containing eighteen sticks of dynamite. The most memorable of those are 1964, 1966, 1969 (The West Virginia Black Lung strike that the miners won) 1971, and the 1974 Strikes. "Try walking out of there, carrying a man with a broken back," one of the miners says. Sheriff Blair was voted out of his office in 1933 and died just a year later. We're all involved. Captain James Cromer of the state police later tells news reporters, "The women are a problem. Others claim that his death was caused by an election concerning slot machines into the county. 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. The distance a miner had to walk and how time was looked at was in 15-minute increments. They file with us copies of specific federal safety violation reports, and they say that nothing was ever done to correct these violations. 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. California labor activist Caroline Decker also raised money for the relief of the striking miner efforts. corporateBody associatedWith : Heyl & Patterson, Inc . The aftermath of this battle led to wider strikes in the Harlan County area. Mr. Nolan, a resident of Cawood, is survived by his wife, Mrs. Stella Nolan . The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. There was a scuffle when a state police captain tried to remove one of the women, she says, adding, "Captain Cromer did get hit several times; I hit him with a stick myself." All during the day they worked in shifts, trying to penetrate to the point where the explosion occurred. The mining company had ordered a motorcade to deliver food and supplies to the strikebreakers known as Scabs. Miner Curtis Cress, 34, says towns that . Three Harlan County incorporated towns were not owned by the coal mines, they became a sanctuary for the evicted and starving miners. 5355, atEvarts . Harlan County, Kentucky is known for two things: bituminous coal and Bloody Harlan. You just don't hit a woman in Harlan County." But what of the people of Harlan County? The women spent the night. A Brief History of Harlan County, USA. 1938) Copy Citation . Bright yellow forsythia has begun to bloom in the yards of Harlan and Brookside and Evarts. 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. 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 . I have also attended the University of Pikeville. 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. It is clear that these women have been a main factor in keeping the mine shut down. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". 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 . Available for both RF and RM licensing. The Red Cross eventually became involved in the county along with several local charities. These battles will end the Coal Wars proper. Others say they intend to speak and write about what they have heard. With the passage of these acts, there was unrest in Harlan County. Our driver points out Norman Yarborough's two-story frame house, across the highway from the camp and up out of the river bottom. 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.". Established in 1916, its membership consisted of nearly all the large mining companies, and it represented the major political force in the county. "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. [6] Nearly four thousand miners working and living in Harlan County, Kentucky lost their jobs in the Great Depression. I have attended the University of Kentucky. Mine operators formed the 1 Harlan County Coal Operators Association and through this organization made collective decisions concerning the mines. 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. He said that when the coal industry was at its height in 1928, the peak of . Get a Demo. 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. 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. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. If you wouldn't do it, they'd just say, 'Get your bucket.' Daniels was one of the most hated deputies in the county due to his anti-union views. When Barbara finishes her answer, Wirtz raises a clenched fist and says, "Right on!" The coal companies refused to back down from their positions and change anything. Abstract. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. The United Mine Workers union also cited that they did not have the resources to help in the battle. At first, there were little battles with gunshots being exchanged between the strikers and the private guards, and the local law enforcement agents. It was [and still is] used to signify that what happened in the realm of politics, a field largely controlled by men, affect women's everyday lives. James Sizemore says that frequently float dust, which is dangerously explosive, would get too heavy in the mine, and he would complain, but that. 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. 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. What a marvelous view! Toilets are built out over the river, and the water has obviously been much higher in the recent past. 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. Another press member criticizes Barbara Bode for having raised a clenched fist during the women's testimony. On top of that, we learn later, the union is spending $108,000 a year for medical and hospital coverage for the striking miners and their families. He was transferred to a worse section, he says. : The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! 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%. You come out of there lookin' like a hog that's been rootin' in the mud.' I have an Associates Degree from Hazard Community College and Technical School. The money was . Thirty percent of the families lack automobiles. The women are nervous about testifying, afraid of retaliation. The miners could be fired if they refused to spend their paychecks only in the store. As discussed in a previous video. Documentary of mining practices in Hazard County, Kentucky. "I don't know nothing about the electrical part." It read: RE-ELECT GAW, JAILER. 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. 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. There had been several clashes with the "scabs," the mine guards, and the state police, Kahn says. Strike benefits are $100 weekly for a family, $90 for a couple, and $80 for a single man. A shoulder blade and five of his ribs were broken. Past that, the other undulating ridges are blue and hazy. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. That means, among other things, an average daily wage of $45. After breakfast, we travel fifteen miles east to Evarts. 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. Here at Kentucky Tennessee Living we fully support the coal miners and their families. Bill McQueen says that the shuttle car into the mine usually has no brakes, and that it can only be stopped by putting it in reverse. The unrest continues in Harlan and surrounding counties as there have been many strikes. I've read that in its heyday, the Blackjoe coal camp consisted of 60 or so houses. Yarborough is tough and unyielding. In Harlan County, Kentucky, the 1931 Battle of Evarts ended in four deaths. Their foothold there ultimately ended because the local clergy who were the labor organizers found out that the union was communist in nature and held animosity toward religion. 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. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. The decision caused unrest in the county among the miners. Five miles north of Harlan, we drive up Inspiration Mountain. Big Boy. Bill Doan says, "When I got hurt, I couldn't find Jim Miller, the man who had charge of the sick fund." Violence erupted that would periodically repeat itself for the next eight years. Each contract varied from mine to mine. Harlan Fuel Co. Download PDF. It is home to lawyers, doctors and coal operators; it has a hospital, several banks and a few fast-food . With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners' sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and company thugs. Si has signed on as head of the staff for the Citizens Inquiry, which is funded with a five-thousanddollar grant from the Field Foundation. They were convicted on charges of conspiracy to murder. The group publishes policy papers on the benefits of coal for Kentucky and sponsors the "Friends of Coal" initiative. the meeting room. 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. Dixon and union leaders worry that the union's disappearance in Kentucky has opened the door for coal operators to . 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. My man was mashed up in the mines. He decided to make Harlan County a test case in the UMW's new, more aggressive organizing efforts. Is the safety provision in the UMW contract the sticking point for Eastover? Other clippings detail the earlier bloodshed and misery in Harlan County. From July 30, 2019, through September 28, 2019, coal miners and their families have blocked roads and railways demanding their payment. During the big coal boom in the early 1900s, Harlan County was amongst the largest contributors. "My daddy's a retired coal miner, and he's got the black lung. I was born in Florida and grew up in Burdine, Kentucky. 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. Mr. (Brookside) were the only two mines of the Harlan County owner/operators association who rejected a 10% pay increase in 1933. At Brookside, this would amount to $400,000 a year. Project Summary. There was an addition to where miners could choose their own representation for these negotiations. The miners charge that the Harlan County Coal Operators Association is behind Eastover's refusal to sign a contract. Overturned car bodies everywhere. A thousand feet below me lies a small, green valley, partly shrouded by the morning mist. I'm standing at 2800 feet above sea level. . Carl Horn of Duke Power and Arnold Miller of the UMW had talked, and negotiations had been resumed. USBM Final Investigation Report (1.7 Mb) Successful Rescue . Drift mines back into the mountains follow the seam of coal wherever it goes." The miners speak of other dissatisfactions with Eastover and the old Southern Labor Union contract. Lifelong resident of Harlan. 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. Crossing the Clinch River, we turn onto Highway 421 and leave the modern world. It is beautiful in Harlan County, as pretty as any place in the world. With this Supreme Court ruling, all but one of the open shops in Harlan County went back to the previous mine operations. We hope that you have enjoyed our stop in Bloody Harlan and the history of the longest and still ongoing coal struggles of the United States. KCA traces its origin to a statewide association of coal operators who united their efforts in 1942. But relatives did come and take the children. Troops had to be called into the county three times to maintain order. (Eastover, to repeat, now pays portal-to-portal wages for inside workers in its other mines and has raised the wages of nonstrikers to the UMW level.) He says that, standing. . . We come into Harlan County at dusk. An open shop is where union membership is allowed but not mandated to work at that location. HARLAN COUNTYHarlan County, Kentucky, is a rural county located in a major coal-mining region in the Appalachian Mountains. Segment Synopsis: Lois Scott continues her conversation from her previous interview. Herndon J. Evans, the editor of the Pineville Sun, argued, The troubles of the coal industry had their inception in war times. National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions Jul 5, 1938. Find the perfect harlan county coal stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. Isolated trailer houses. The remaining workforce then went on strike as a sign of solidarity with those that were fired from their jobs. Depression-era Harlan County, Kentucky, was the site of one of the most bitter and protracted labor disputes in American history. As the motorcade approached a single shot rang out in the air. 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.