The miners could be fired if they refused to spend their paychecks only in the store. Expand. In the year of "the energy crisis," Coal is King again at $30 a ton. Pricing; Switch; Big firm; A reporter asks us again how we can expect to make an unbiased report when we've heard only one side. Two hundred people crowd. Only three of the families in the camp have indoor toilets. 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. Did she find the stick on the ground? 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. Apparently, this is one of Eastover's major objections. Willard Wirtz says he senses that the Harlan County Coal Operators Association is a major factor in the dispute, that it doesn't want a settlement with higher wages and benefits and tough safety provisions to be made by Eastover, because it fears the domino effect of such a settlement on the rest of the companies in the county. National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions Jul 5, 1938. Exist Dates. They fed strikers' children as well as the employed, blacks as well as whites. 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. She pays $10 a month for rent and $10 a month for electricity. Most of the land is owned by the mining companies. The Act also made a provision for a National Labor-Relations Board to designate a legal structure for the workers to conduct fair and legal elections of their officers and representatives. "If we could monitor these inspections, perhaps we could cut down on the fatalities," he says. 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. He said that when the coal industry was at its height in 1928, the peak of . Former Director of Harlan County Coal Operators Association. Strikebreakers were often beaten. Others say they intend to speak and write about what they have heard. 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. Interview Summary. Eight miners were sentenced to life in prison for the actions that were taken on May 5, 1931. They just laughed about it, and we kept on cuttin' coal. 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. "Dreiser, Woman Indicted," one headline reads. Yarborough replies. Only 23 percent of those in the county over the age of twenty-five have completed high school. The miners say that, somehow, management always knows when the government inspectors are coming. Leroy Helton says he still owes a lot of bills that should have been paid by SLU. 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. USBM Final Investigation Report (1.7 Mb) Successful Rescue . "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. Done. 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. 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. Duke Power Company of North Carolina, he says, is the sixth largest utility company in the world. Copy as parenthetical citation. McDonald's. 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. He decided to make Harlan County a test case in the UMW's new, more aggressive organizing efforts. It read: RE-ELECT GAW, JAILER. J. D. Skidmore says, "I have no chance of getting a job in Harlan County if this strike is not settled." These guards were legally able to protect these men during their off duty time. Harlan Daily Enterprise, September 17, 1943. 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. 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. Why couldn't Eastover live with the same national UMW contract that so many other companies have accepted? Si sticks a wad of Red Man chewing tobacco in his cheek and begins to fill us in on the background of the Brookside strike. Filmed during the coal strike of 1974-1975, this documentary does much to capture the tension brought on by the injustice of the coal operators to the coal miners in Harlan County, Kentucky. 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. "I don't know nothing about the electrical part." At these locations, the mine wages began to be comparable to other jobs around the nation. Three of our Inquiry members plan to talk with the president of Duke Power Company. We agree that most of us lean toward the miners, but we think we can be fair in trying to learn the facts. He says that he will not agree to the Brookside contract applying to "all" of Eastover's operations. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Which Side are You on? Battle of Evartshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Evarts, National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/new-deal/national-industrial-recovery-act-of-1933/, Battle of Evartshttps://pipiwiki.com/wiki/Battle_of_Evarts, Battle of Evartshttps://wiki2.org/en/Battle_of_Evarts, Harlan County Warhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_County_War, A Brief History of Harlan County, USAhttps://labornotes.org/blogs/2019/08/brief-history-harlan-county-usa, Harlan County Warhttps://everipedia.org/Harlan_County_War, https://appalachiancenter.as.uky.edu/coal-strike/background-coal-strike, https://appalachiancenter.as.uky.edu/coal-strike/local-elite, https://appalachiancenter.as.uky.edu/coal-strike/new-york-writers, https://appalachiancenter.as.uky.edu/coal-strike/national-miners-union-and-other-radical-groups, The Wagner Act of 1935 (National Labor Relations Act)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, BOMB IN AUTO KILLS KENTUCKY OFFICIAL; Harlan County Attorney Predicted Assassination for Backing Troops in Election.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, Elmon Clay Middleton https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70804679/elmon-clay-middleton, KENTUCKY HOLDS FOUR IN AUTO BOMB KILLING; Harlan Prosecutors Death Is Laid to His Fight Against Slot Machines.https://www.nytimes.com/1935/09/06/archives/kentucky-holds-four-in-auto-bomb-killing-harlan-prosecutors-death.html, Blackjewel Bankruptcy Leaves Damaged Lands and Miners Compensation in Limbo, https://ohiovalleyresource.org/2021/03/22/blackjewel-bankruptcy-finalized/, This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/?fbclid=IwAR21nYphw4Dul-_EwuAmSWgzsvPLNwsMM0FtV75j0y-mGUHq-lCZjJxZot8, For more about us, you can visit our Facebook at:https://www.facebook.com/kytnliving, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs0oV5gFzIS2JdMJ3HvTOgA, When we forget our past and who we are as a people, then we become who they say we are. Word precedes him. Now, along a cloudy green stream, or through deep cuts in the mountains, or high atop a timbered ridge, looking down on green quilt-patch valleys, we wind our way toward Harlan. The nearest ridge is green with spruce and pine. This caused the clergy to denounce the union. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. But I ain't leaving because this is my home.". Among coal miners, Harlan County, Kentucky, is known as "Bloody Harlan." Sudie Crusenberg, a plain woman in a cotton dress, gives us some idea of what life is like for a coal-mining family. Throughout 1931, violence sprouted between miners Their General Secretary recently released some facts which help to illustrate the reason for much of the unemployment in the county. On September 4, 1935, Harlan County Attorney Elmon Clay Middleton, age 31, was assassinated by a car bomb containing eighteen sticks of dynamite. Daniels was one of the most hated deputies in the county due to his anti-union views. Its profits in 1973 were $90 million, up 14 percent from the year before. 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. Partial Transcript: August 27, '86. 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%. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. The slab of slate, more than 51 feet long, and 17 feet wide and weighing tons, was dodged by two men. My brother died at the age of forty. Harlan, district mine inspector of the State Department of Mines and Minerals, and James Bryson, safety director, Harlan County Coal Operators Association. It is clear that these women have been a main factor in keeping the mine shut down. Whitfield's family was from Alabama where his father had been in the coal business. 1 mine in Evarts, in Harlan County, Kentucky. All during the day they worked in shifts, trying to penetrate to the point where the explosion occurred. I've read that in its heyday, the Blackjoe coal camp consisted of 60 or so houses. . The radical ideology of the union began gaining some ground in the mountains. The most memorable of those are 1964, 1966, 1969 (The West Virginia Black Lung strike that the miners won) 1971, and the 1974 Strikes. The next morning the toothpicks were still in place, it was said. However, they did make a greater effort than the United Mine Workers with relief as they opened soup kitchens around the county. 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. ", We break for lunch, prepared by the women of the Evarts Community Center. Lifelong resident of Harlan. 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. Darrell Deaton, president of the Brookside UMW local, says he was caught in a belt line last year because he had to work alone, without a helper. I have taken several classes in Journalism as well as in the Appalachian History, Literature, and Sociology during my time at those schools. Fifty miners and their wives have at one time or another been held in contempt of this order. 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." 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. Don Dalton, UMW Safety Director for Region Six, explains this. Faith Primitive Baptist Church. 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." A shoulder blade and five of his ribs were broken. 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. Pay ranged from $17 to $32 day, the average being $25. Trailer parks called Walnut Grove, Mobile Manor, and Mesa Village Mobile Manor. The UMW union called in the National Guard to help them. Kentucky communities discussed include Artemus, Burdine, Jenkins, Jellico, Van Lear, and Wheelwright; and Kentucky counties include Bell, Clay, Floyd, Harlan . "With all those state police, we knew we had three choices," she says. ", What about federal inspection? And we're burning up people to make electricity. Funeral Wednesday March 1 at 11 a.m. at Grays Knob Bible Church. They file with us copies of specific federal safety violation reports, and they say that nothing was ever done to correct these violations. 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. Paternalism is the practice of people who have a business or other authority to restrict the freedoms of those who are subordinate to them. 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. those in the Harlan County Coal Operators . Five men and their titles are listed and all are doing all they can.. 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. Neither will Dr. Robert Coles, psychiatrist and author of Children of Crisis. Hennen attributes this abandonment to the increasingly conservative John L. Lewis, the longtime and powerful president of the UMWA, who feared . Enforcing the operators' political will, both within and outside the law, was the Harlan County Coal Operators Association. After this, the first strike occurred, in which only about 13% of strikers showed up to work. Freda Armes says, "I take a cloth and strain the water to cook with. They made several attempts at holding strikes against the coal companies, but these failed in Harlan County. The Harlan County coal miners campaigned and fought to organize their workplaces and better their wages and working conditions. Theoretically, even operators' and owners' children were . He is a sturdily built, self-assured man of about fifty, with a strong, square jaw and a rough, weathered face. Prior to Miller's election, the union had become corrupt, dictatorial, and a frequent collaborator with the mine owners. 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 . Since the county began mining, over one billion tons of coal have 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. The strikebreakers were under the protection of private mine guards. Some of the women went to jail with the men, and some took their children with them. So we lay down in the road." 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". Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. The Brookside labor dispute erupted spontaneously soon after Miller's election. McQueen says that in late 1972 he burned his fingers to the bone on a switchbox where a blown fuse had been hot-wired. When Barbara finishes her answer, Wirtz raises a clenched fist and says, "Right on!" Visit us and take a step back in time to learn more about how Harlan County helped build a nation at Portal 31 Exhibition Mine tour or come experience the delight of . The women spent the night. With this Supreme Court ruling, all but one of the open shops in Harlan County went back to the previous mine operations. "Try walking out of there, carrying a man with a broken back," one of the miners says. 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 . In "Bloody Harlan" in the 1930s, miners and union organizers faced bayonets and many died fighting the coal bosses, helping to fuel a national wave of organizing.