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 soon get into a discussion about Dreiser's 1931 inquiry. 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 . "We run because we wanted to testify, and if we hadn't run, he woulda had us in jail." Overturned car bodies everywhere. Theoretically, even operators' and owners' children were . But will Norman Yarborough ever agree to recognize the UMW? 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. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. "I don't know nothing about the electrical part." Miners laid in an ambush on the day of May 5, 1931, near the Evarts railroad crossing. The most memorable of those are 1964, 1966, 1969 (The West Virginia Black Lung strike that the miners won) 1971, and the 1974 Strikes. CBS is represented by a camera crew, and there are a number of national reporters. "We took the sticks with us," she says. A historical marker says we are near the Little Shepherd Trail, the setting for the novel Shepherd of the Hills. 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. Their activities began with a demonstration and march in Harlan on September 27, 1973. The women are nervous about testifying, afraid of retaliation. Only to be escorted to the county line and told not to return. (Fifty million tons of union coal are mined in western Kentucky; only 6.5 million tons of union coal are mined in eastern Kentucky.) Is that the only objection that is holding up a settlement? We never would find out what happened. And always there is a murky roadside stream, beech and sycamore trees lining its banks. Herndon J. Evans, the editor of the Pineville Sun, argued, The troubles of the coal industry had their inception in war times. Bright yellow forsythia has begun to bloom in the yards of Harlan and Brookside and Evarts. He does say, I think primarily for the record, that he would like to see negotiations begin again. Typical of counties with low income, counties where the mine companies own everything and pay low taxes, our UMW driver says. 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. "With all those state police, we knew we had three choices," she says. Willard Wirtz asks how it will all come out, how the strike will end. It is not all Duke's fault by any means. 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." 1931, only $13.5 million. This was thirteen percent of the workers showing up for their scheduled work times. She talks about hiding behind cars on the picket line for protection from the "gun thugs." She talks about a standoff against Basil Collins and the scabs and gun thugs. 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. He then answers a question he wasn't asked. 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. Wanted to be able to spend their money at a store of their choice besides the Black Mountain Coal Company store. Grover Jennings says that six months ago he applied for a job at the Mary Helen mine and was apparently accepted, but that when he went back for his physical, Clyde Goitis, an official at the mine, said, "Buddy, there just ain't no way I can do anything for you. The trees are barely beginning to bud in the early March warmth. Faith Primitive Baptist Church. James Sizemore says that frequently float dust, which is dangerously explosive, would get too heavy in the mine, and he would complain, but that. An investigation was conducted on Terrorism in the Kentucky Coal Fields. You come out of there lookin' like a hog that's been rootin' in the mud.' At these locations, the mine wages began to be comparable to other jobs around the nation. On Friday, March 25, a continuous mining machine operator was killed by a wall collapse at the Huff Creek No. Someone had planted dynamite in his automobile and when he started it up the car blew up. But I ain't leaving because this is my home.". 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. In the year of "the energy crisis," Coal is King again at $30 a ton. The coal miners, lean and tough from Kentucky mountain life, knew how to fight back. The prospects for settlement do not look good unless Duke begins to feel public pressure. Why haven't the car bodies been removed from the highway and the streets? We first hear from a number of the striking miners about safety conditions in the Brookside mine. There's water in the mine because the pumps often won't work. 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. They just laughed about it, and we kept on cuttin' coal. 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. They want the terms of the standard UMW contract or better. Pricing; Switch; Big firm; 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. It does not store any personal data. Yarborough is tough and unyielding. A Committee was formed and conducted by Activist Theodore Dreiser under the auspices of the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP). The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! We are told that Eastover has announced its intention to tear down the mining-camp houses and move the striking miners out. The county was once part of Knox County, only becoming official in 1819. ", What about the Southern Labor Union? Coal companies refused to back down while the Red Cross refused to give aid . With the added protection for workers and the addition of collective bargaining between the workers and their employers. "Yarborough says he just don't want nobody tellin' him how to run his mine," Deaton says. Established in 1916, its membership consisted of nearly all the large mining companies, and it represented the major political force in the county. I currently live in Tennessee but my hope is to one day come back home to live in the beautiful mountains once more. I don't like- workin' in them kind of conditions." "They didn't say nothin'; all they want's coal.' HARLAN COUNTY COAL OPERATORS ASSOCIATION. "They sent me to 'Waterhole No. Lifelong resident of Harlan. Don Dalton, UMW Safety Director for Region Six, explains this. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. There was an addition to where miners could choose their own representation for these negotiations. Three of our Inquiry members plan to talk with the president of Duke Power Company. Jacqueline Brophy is the daughter of Pat Brophy, who went into the mines when he was twelve, and who, in 1926, ran against John L. Lewis and lost. And I can't get you off of that couch. 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. They exercised their powers with impunity and operated under Sheriff J.H. J. D. Skidmore says, "I have no chance of getting a job in Harlan County if this strike is not settled." Crossing the Clinch River, we turn onto Highway 421 and leave the modern world. And you wondr why I keep running my mouth . There were only nine hundred miners working and 5,800 miners were idle and striking during the first strike. 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. Darrell Deaton says there is a direct telephone line to Washington for safety complaints, "but if you identify yourself; you're gonna be out of a job.". By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. The bosses wouldn't go in, but I've. 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. We return to our series on the Coal Wars of the United States with Bloody Harlan and the Battle for Evarts. Talking to Aaronson, I am reminded of an old tin sign I saw tacked on a tree along the highway as I left Harlan. Now and then, there is a neat, new frame house or a Pic and Pay market between scattered tarpaper shacks. Working barns of gray-black weathered wood. Mr. Blanton explained the reasoning behind coal camps. Here and there, we also see white-blossoming pear and dogwood trees. Why is garbage left on the roadway? It reports that "Piedmont" is an adjective derived.from Italian words that literally mean "formed at the foot of the mountains." 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. He discusses the formation and activities of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association . 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. "Dreiser, Woman Indicted," one headline reads. There were shots exchanged and all three deputies and one striker were killed. Burger Chef. Grace Elizabeth Hale. These battles will end the Coal Wars proper. Sudie Crusenberg, a plain woman in a cotton dress, gives us some idea of what life is like for a coal-mining family. If any attractive woman became interested in me, I'd think it was a very lovely thing. The Brookside labor dispute erupted spontaneously soon after Miller's election. As discussed in a previous video. One of the better houses is already being demolished. On May 5, 1931, the Battle of Evarts began. "Then he'd come out looking like a sheep-killing dog and get in his truck and run. The Sheriff reportedly got rich on payoffs from the companies, and he used 181 mine company gunmen as special deputies.
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