harlan county coal operators association

He is dressed more like a miner than a mining executive. 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. Mine operators formed the 1 Harlan County Coal Operators Association and through this organization made collective decisions concerning the mines. Our History - Kentucky Coal Association It does not store any personal data. Nevertheless, as the county seat, the city of Harlan has resources much of the county lacks. . By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. Harlan County U.S.A. by Felicia Elliott, August 2, 2016. The United Mine Workers union also cited that they did not have the resources to help in the battle. I currently live in Tennessee but my hope is to one day come back home to live in the beautiful mountains once more. One of the better houses is already being demolished. An organic shape, small and shiny and pinkish white, sits . 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. Bill Doan says, "When I got hurt, I couldn't find Jim Miller, the man who had charge of the sick fund." . [ 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%. There had been several clashes with the "scabs," the mine guards, and the state police, Kahn says. The Brookside labor dispute erupted spontaneously soon after Miller's election. The Kentucky mining camps still had the paternalism idea in their mists and the ever-independent Appalachian people were not having it. "I don't try to blacklist anybody," he says. "They sent me to 'Waterhole No. At Washington's National Airport, I board Piedmont Airline's fat little silver jet on a Sunday afternoon in early March. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. However, they did make a greater effort than the United Mine Workers with relief as they opened soup kitchens around the county. She speaks in a soft, pleasant voice. "We want safety all the time, not just when the inspector comes," Jerry Johnson says. 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. Lifelong resident of Harlan. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to . In America, the word describes a region, including Harlan County, Kentucky, between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic coast. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. - Details - SNAC Biographical History . had them make me go in and pin it because it wasn't done right the first time. 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. The miners say that they often have to stand knee-deep in water while handling 440-volt electrical cables. 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. She's been picketing with the other women. 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.". "If we could monitor these inspections, perhaps we could cut down on the fatalities," he says. Whitfield recalls working in his father's coal mines during the first years of commercial mining in Harlan County, and he describes the conditions. "They didn't say nothin'; all they want's coal.' Crossing the Clinch River, we turn onto Highway 421 and leave the modern world. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". He says that they do not need the UMW to look after them; he will do that. The National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP) was of the American Communist Party. Big Boy. The Brookside Women's Club of Harlan County - New York Women in Film But you must remember I am an immoral man. It is beautiful in Harlan County, as pretty as any place in the world. "We've took about all we can take," he says. Which Side are You On? : The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 ", What about federal inspection? Sadly, the state and federal troops would occupy the county several times. "We took the sticks with us," she says. Office files covering topics such as "accounts receivable," "baseball club," "coal production," "garnishment orders," "Harlan Coal Operator's Association," "labor conditions," "medical conditions . The miners say that, somehow, management always knows when the government inspectors are coming. Willard Wirtz asks how it will all come out, how the strike will end. With this Supreme Court ruling, all but one of the open shops in Harlan County went back to the previous mine operations. We agree that most of us lean toward the miners, but we think we can be fair in trying to learn the facts. The Brookside mine is capable of producing only about a half-million tons of the 15 million tons of coal Duke uses each year. 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. 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. 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. We soon get into a discussion about Dreiser's 1931 inquiry. As discussed in a previous video. He can't never walk again." Harlan County. The median family income is $4600 a year. 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. Hell in Harlan - front page Clyde V Bennett Jr. (1930-2000) - Find a Grave Memorial Isolated trailer houses. Altogether, it is a heavy financial burden for the UMW. Now, Tony Boyle is among those who have been convicted of complicity in the murders, and Arnold Miller is the head of the revamped union. That year, annual wages dropped from $1,235 to $749. He said that when the coal industry was at its height in 1928, the peak of . 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. The mining company had ordered a motorcade to deliver food and supplies to the strikebreakers known as Scabs. [6] Nearly four thousand miners working and living in Harlan County, Kentucky lost their jobs in the Great Depression. Dateline New York City, November 13, 1931: Dreiser again denies the charge and adds, "Even if it were true, I wouldn't give a damn. On May 24, 1931, Sheriff Blair rescinded the miners right to assemble and tear-gassed a union rally. 1938) Copy Citation . The county was once part of Knox County, only becoming official in 1819. He was transferred to a worse section, he says. I'm standing at 2800 feet above sea level. Five men and their titles are listed and all are doing all they can.. . Some of the women went to jail with the men, and some took their children with them. He does say, I think primarily for the record, that he would like to see negotiations begin again. 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 . 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. Make your practice more effective and efficient with Casetext's legal research suite. 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." The officials were listed were the "veteran safety director of the Harlan Coal Operators Association, and Rufus Bailey and H. Hamlin, state . Home - Harlan County Source Citation [ }] Descriptive Note Contributors from initial SNAC EAC-CPF ingest. COMING THE BOYS OF HARLAN - The Washington Post That means, among other things, an average daily wage of $45. 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. (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.) 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. 9:03 PM. He discusses the formation and activities of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association . Outlining the legal framework for labor unions and management relations to improve the working conditions for workers. KCA traces its origin to a statewide association of coal operators who united their efforts in 1942. It reports that "Piedmont" is an adjective derived.from Italian words that literally mean "formed at the foot of the mountains." The accident was the second worst mine fatality in the history of Harlan County coal mining, the worst being Harlan Fuel Company . Pierce mentions the "toothpick incident." Betty Eldridge is a mildmannered, well-dressed woman of about forty. Three of our Inquiry members plan to talk with the president of Duke Power Company. The distance a miner had to walk and how time was looked at was in 15-minute increments. Nannie Rainey takes us into her four-room house where she and her husband and five children live. Three Point Mine Explosion This was thirteen percent of the workers showing up for their scheduled work times. Expand. They have probably helped keep their own men from exploding too. those in the Harlan County Coal Operators . But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. "Yarborough says he just don't want nobody tellin' him how to run his mine," Deaton says. She pays $10 a month for rent and $10 a month for electricity. [Verse 2] I got 27 peopl coming over to this house. Featuring a haunting soundtrack-with legendary country . Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. A Brief History of Harlan County, USA. Past that, the other undulating ridges are blue and hazy. 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. Other times, he says, "Roof was workin', rock was a-hangin', and it sounded like thunder. . Coal Strike May End, But Miners Still Fear Future Another press member criticizes Barbara Bode for having raised a clenched fist during the women's testimony. Inside the Harlan County Coal Miner Protest - Rolling Stone Westmoreland Coal Company - Social Networks and Archival Context - SNAC Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Blair. Quakers and Bloody Harlan - Appalachian History Harlan County Struggle Collection, 1931-1932 - LibraryHost 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. You come out of there lookin' like a hog that's been rootin' in the mud.' Si Kahn says that Eastover tried for a time to operate the mine with "scabs," but that the mine was shut down when the coal miners' wives and other women joined the men on the picket line. 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. When they went to jail, they say, some of the women took their children with them. But Barbara Bode has arranged for eleven of them to come up onto the stage at the same time, and they seem to take strength from their numbers. The Kentucky Coal Association is an IRS designated 501 (c) (6) nonprofit organization that aims to educate its members and the public of coal production and safety in the state of Kentucky. Her daughter, Bessie Cornett, an attractive young brunette, says, "I'm not in jail today because you people are here." How does the Harlan County Coal Operators Association fit into the picture? At these locations, the mine wages began to be comparable to other jobs around the nation. 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. What will happen now that the first full year after the union election is ending? These charities began to give aid to blacklisted miners who were unable to find employment as the soup kitchens had closed once the NMU had closed its doors. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". And you wondr why I keep running my mouth . We huddle before breaking up. It is an area of Kentucky that you only go to if you are intentionally going to the county. Available for both RF and RM licensing. 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? Three of the federal reports state that there was no safety committee at Brookside, as required by law. I look at the government statistics once more. 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 . Now, forty-three years later, Harlan County is again gripped in a UMW strike, this time at the Brookside mine of the Eastover Mining Company, and another citizens' group has been formed. Dalton points out that there were 132 mine fatalities in the United States in 1973, only seventeen of them in UMW mines. McDonald's. 1940-49 Harlan Co Miners Deaths - USGenWeb sites Genders. 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 . Source for information on Harlan County: Encyclopedia of the Great Depression dictionary. Leroy Helton says miners often have to splice electrical cable, even though they're not qualified to do so. Faith, power, and conflict: Miner preachers and the United Mine Workers James Sizemore says that frequently float dust, which is dangerously explosive, would get too heavy in the mine, and he would complain, but that. Chicago citation style: Harris & Ewing, photographer. These battles will end the Coal Wars proper. Enforcing the operators' political will, both within and outside the law, was the Harlan County Coal Operators Association. 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. We are told that Eastover has announced its intention to tear down the mining-camp houses and move the striking miners out. Blaine Sergent, coal leader, putting up his check at the end of a workday in Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1946. knee-deep in water, he has experienced many electrical shocks. "I've seen some hurt and some killed. A thousand feet below me lies a small, green valley, partly shrouded by the morning mist. But will Norman Yarborough ever agree to recognize the UMW? ("Tony") Boyle for the national presidency of the UMW in 1972 in an election closely supervised by the federal government. 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. Midway in the trial, Judge Hogg dismissed the jury and directed a verdict of guilty. (This . Sheriff Blair was voted out of his office in 1933 and died just a year later. Established in 1916, its membership consisted of nearly all the large mining companies, and it represented the major political force in the county. There were constant beatings of the miners by the Sheriffs deputies. And, all around, there are the rolling mountains, covered with second-growth timber. Kentucky communities discussed include Artemus, Burdine, Jenkins, Jellico, Van Lear, and Wheelwright; and Kentucky counties include Bell, Clay, Floyd, Harlan . Why couldn't Eastover live with the same national UMW contract that so many other companies have accepted? The unemployment rate in the county is 7 percent; that doesn't count those who have long since given up looking for the scarce or nonexistent jobs. I've got five living children and four dead. I've talked to Norman Yarborough, and you ain't bringing no union down here. No Neutrals: The Harlan County Miner's Strike of 1931 The trees are barely beginning to bud in the early March warmth. HARLAN COUNTYHarlan County, Kentucky, is a rural county located in a major coal-mining region in the Appalachian Mountains. Burning Up People to Make Electricity - The Atlantic Harlan County, KY, coal miners win affiliation with UMWA union, United . Life After Coal in Harlan County, U.S.A. - In These Times Si says Harlan is a dry countyno legal liquor and no beer. But mostly the scenery is depressingly bleak. "Try walking out of there, carrying a man with a broken back," one of the miners 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. Listen to "Harlan County Coal" from Pistol Annies' album, 'Hell of a Holiday,' out now: https://pa.lnk.to/HOAHAY Chorus:Making decorations out of shotgun she. Mr. Nolan, a resident of Cawood, is survived by his wife, Mrs. Stella Nolan . They are neatly and attractively dressed. The miners say that they want their own safety committee, elected by the miners, as the standard UMW contract provides, with the right to walk out, losing their pay, when there is eminent danger in the mine. They made several attempts at holding strikes against the coal companies, but these failed in Harlan County. Grace Elizabeth Hale. Former Director of Harlan County Coal Operators Association. While it succeeded in organizing thousands of miners, it failed to complete a bargaining agreement with Harlan County's coal operators. The miners and the coal owners were still having disputes. by Ron Soodalter. The strikebreakers were under the protection of private mine guards. 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. 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 . The main problem, he says, is that the company wants a "no-strike" clause, so that the union cannot strike during the contract period. This Day in Labor History: February 16, 1931 "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. I've read that in its heyday, the Blackjoe coal camp consisted of 60 or so houses. Mine operators viciously opposed miners' efforts to unionize, particularly in Harlan County. A month later, back in Washington, I meet with Bernie Aaronson at UMW headquarters. Strikebreakers were often beaten. It is clear that these women have been a main factor in keeping the mine shut down. 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". The decrease in wages, unemployment, and irregular employment caused "poverty, hunger, and disease.". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". There was no functioning safety committee Medical and retirement benefits were minimal and unreliable. They range in age from about twenty-one to seventy. Pistol Annies - Harlan County Coal Lyrics | Genius Lyrics Duke Power Company appears to be the key to breaking the deadlock in negotiations. 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. "This troubles me; I don't sleep," Yarborough says. Three Point Accident | Harlan Coal Scrip Pistol Annies - Harlan County Coal (Audio) - YouTube 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.". It was a nearly decade-long conflict, lasting from 1931 to 1939. . the meeting room. Miners laid in an ambush on the day of May 5, 1931, near the Evarts railroad crossing. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Harlan County, Kentucky is known for two things: bituminous coal and Bloody Harlan. (The union has told us that they are quite willing to limit the contract to the Brookside mine.) 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. [videorecording] Contributor(s): Kopple, Barbara; First-Run Features (Firm) Cabin Creek Films; Publication details: New York : First Run Features, 1976. . The Price of Coal, Part II. Bobby Simpson, 79, has been blind for more than a half-century, but still managed to shovel coal. Barbara Kopple 's Academy Award-winning Harlan County USA unflinchingly documents a grueling coal miners' strike in a small Kentucky town. But, I say, even without further investigation of each of the complaints, it is possible to conclude that fear is an everyday part of the miners' lives.

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