It does not store any personal data. Yarborough is tough and unyielding. 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. Blair. To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators Association decided to cut all wages by ten percent. "They didn't say nothin'; all they want's coal.' A month later, back in Washington, I meet with Bernie Aaronson at UMW headquarters. 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. McDonald's. A Brief History of Harlan County, USA. We huddle before breaking up. . The county was once part of Knox County, only becoming official in 1819. Blaine Sergent, coal leader, putting up his check at the end of a workday in Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1946. It was Miller who defeated W. A. Coal companies refused to back down while the Red Cross refused to give aid . Destitute miners were in no position to take a 2 wage cut; yet, in February of 1931 the newest in a long series of wage cuts occurred, reducing miners' weekly pay by 10 percent. (That is a tough point.) Harlan Daily Enterprise, September 17, 1943. "This troubles me; I don't sleep," Yarborough says. So we lay down in the road." 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. My brother died at the age of forty. There was no standard contract for the miners. A historical marker says we are near the Little Shepherd Trail, the setting for the novel Shepherd of the Hills. Interview Summary. The Harlan County coal miners campaigned and fought to organize their workplaces and better their wages and working conditions. It is a warm night and at every bend in the asphalt road we hear a chorus of croaking frogs. "Boss walks up and says, 'We've got to make this mine look good now, boys; the inspector's comin','" Jerry Johnson says. Our drive takes us upstream along the yellow-brown Clear Fork River. On May 5, 1931, the Battle of Evarts began. There were only three cars in the motorcade each of which contained a sheriffs deputy. These disputes were still brewing when on December 8, 1934, the United Mine Workers Union was threatened by deputies and mine bosses. The AFSC fed almost 1500 children in Harlan by the end of the 1931-2 schoolyear, as well as about a hundred nursing and expectant mothers. The Price of Coal, Part II. Harlan County sits in the sweet spot of coal mining in southeastern Kentucky. (There is such a provision in the standard UMW contract.). There is no water in the house. 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. If any attractive woman became interested in me, I'd think it was a very lovely thing. The median family income is $4600 a year. 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. Almost immediately after the explosion became known rescue teams, under the direction of J. F. Bryson, safety director of the Harlan County Coal Operators association, started into the entry. He hopes the other side will do the same. (This . Conflict broke out again the 1970s in what was known as the Brookside strike. 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. They had no safety committee, the miners say, and the federal reports bear them out. corporateBody associatedWith : Heyl & Patterson, Inc . But will Norman Yarborough ever agree to recognize the UMW? Yarborough replies. The company will probably demand a new election. The miners charge that Eastover has hired what they call "gun thugs." Thirty percent of the families lack automobiles. The Harlan County Coal War is one of the . Ky., told the Senate Civil Liberties Committee as it resumed its investigation of alleged terrorism in connection with Harlan County Coal Operators' efforts to resist union organization drives. 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. Sometimes, they'll be a black scum on the rag." They have done this only since the Brookside strike. Get a Demo. or smaller. As the motorcade approached a single shot rang out in the air. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. (Eastover offered fifty cents a ton.) We are joined by Bernie Aaronson, the young public relations director of the UMW, and John Ed Pierce, a reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal. 25 (N.L.R.B. Bill Doan says, "When I got hurt, I couldn't find Jim Miller, the man who had charge of the sick fund." 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. Nevertheless, as the county seat, the city of Harlan has resources much of the county lacks. Nannie Rainey takes us into her four-room house where she and her husband and five children live. Now and then, there is a neat, new frame house or a Pic and Pay market between scattered tarpaper shacks. I glance at the new Piedmont magazine, Pace. 2012: $1,552,717. 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. The coal companies refused to back down from their positions and change anything. We look back on the film, which screens this Sunday, February . [6] Nearly four thousand miners working and living in Harlan County, Kentucky lost their jobs in the Great Depression. 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." Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Daniels was one of the most hated deputies in the county due to his anti-union views. Why haven't the car bodies been removed from the highway and the streets? It is clear that these women have been a main factor in keeping the mine shut down. Source Citation [ }] Descriptive Note Contributors from initial SNAC EAC-CPF ingest. Here, too, are some of the richest natural resources in the countryand some of the poorest people. In June of 1973, workers at the Brookside coal mine in Harlan County, Kentucky voted 113-55 to replace their membership in the Southern Labor Union (SLU) and join the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) union. 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. Soon enough, most miners had gone on strike out of solidarity. Back in my motel room, a gathering place, Bernie Aaronson of UMW says that the union is paying strike benefits and medical bills for the 160 strikers. The accident was the second worst mine fatality in the history of Harlan County coal mining, the worst being Harlan Fuel Company . Enforcing the operators' political will, both within and outside the law, was the Harlan County Coal Operators Association. 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. We come into Harlan County at dusk. 8 N.L.R.B. Kentucky communities discussed include Artemus, Burdine, Jenkins, Jellico, Van Lear, and Wheelwright; and Kentucky counties include Bell, Clay, Floyd, Harlan . They are merely a service organization, Yarborough says. California labor activist Caroline Decker also raised money for the relief of the striking miner efforts. The Harlan Daily Enterprise story of September 16, 1943 is serious and straightforward: 17 miners are trapped a mile underground and help is on the way.. Much of the story is about help. by Ron Soodalter. Mostly, the miners were fighting for improved working conditions, higher wages, and better housing options for their families. In Harlan County, Kentucky, the 1931 Battle of Evarts ended in four deaths. Three of the federal reports state that there was no safety committee at Brookside, as required by law. The Wagner Act of 1935 (National Labor Relations Act or NLRA) guaranteed the rights of workers to choose to organize. It is the second coal mining fatality in . This caused the clergy to denounce the union. They want the terms of the standard UMW contract or better. 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.". Each of us makes a statement. But what of the people of Harlan County? Before this war was over it is not known exactly how many miners, coal operators, deputies, and bosses would be killed. 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." 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. Outlining the legal framework for labor unions and management relations to improve the working conditions for workers. 9:03 PM. They just laughed about it, and we kept on cuttin' coal. During the rest of the afternoon, the miners talk about what has happened on the picket line and in the local court. In one of these, the septic tank has been out of order for several months. The miners say that all of the strikers have been blacklisted by the Association. Source for information on Harlan County: Encyclopedia of the Great Depression dictionary. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Depression-era Harlan County, Kentucky, was the site of one of the most bitter and protracted labor disputes in American history. With the added protection for workers and the addition of collective bargaining between the workers and their employers. We agree that most of us lean toward the miners, but we think we can be fair in trying to learn the facts. Eight miners were sentenced to life in prison for the actions that were taken on May 5, 1931. All during the day they worked in shifts, trying to penetrate to the point where the explosion occurred. With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners' sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and company thugs. Tuesday morning: Norman Yarborough has agreed to meet some of our group. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. 1938) Copy Citation . 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. With this Supreme Court ruling, all but one of the open shops in Harlan County went back to the previous mine operations. Chicago citation style: Harris & Ewing, photographer. These interviews with major coal operators document their personal histories and the history of the coal industry in eastern Kentucky during the twentieth century. On Friday, March 25, a continuous mining machine operator was killed by a wall collapse at the Huff Creek No. "I don't like to handle that raw juice," he says. Established in 1916, its membership consisted of nearly all the large mining companies, and it represented the major political force in the county. It is beautiful in Harlan County, as pretty as any place in the world. There are nearly 40,000 people in the county, a drop of 36 percent since 1960. Several folk singers and other artists toured the United States to raise money during the strikes. After nearly 40 years of working in coalmines, David . Troops had to be called into the county three times to maintain order. They have probably helped keep their own men from exploding too. A rural county of 27,000, Harlan County's average household income is about $29,000. (Brookside) were the only two mines of the Harlan County owner/operators association who rejected a 10% pay increase in 1933. 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. These women have organized a special kind of feminist movement, and the issues to them are life-and-death issues. 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. 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. This active organization is made up of those who represent the leader in the mining industry. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. 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. Sadly, the state and federal troops would occupy the county several times. Three Point, Harlan County, Kentucky September 16, 1943 No. When McQueen was hurt, his foreman drove him to the hospital and left him there, and he was two hours hitchhiking home. Harlan County to unionize miners. One of the Deputies was Jim Daniels. ", What about federal inspection? They are demanding the standard UMW provision requiring the company to pay a royalty of seventy-five cents a ton on mined coal into the UMW Welfare & Retirement Fund. The Sheriff reportedly got rich on payoffs from the companies, and he used 181 mine company gunmen as special deputies. The company also agreed to abide by any agreement reached between the . Whitfield's family was from Alabama where his father had been in the coal business. Perched atop Inspiration Mountain is the modern Mount Aire Motel. Is the safety provision in the UMW contract the sticking point for Eastover? Miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, have drawn national attention with their direct action occupying a railroad track to halt a coal train . Why is garbage left on the roadway? Miner Curtis Cress, 34, says towns that . 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. On February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association reduced wages for miners in that part of eastern Kentucky by 10 percent. Altogether, it is a heavy financial burden for the UMW. They want portal-to-portal pay from the time they enter the mine until they leave it. Mine operators formed the 1 Harlan County Coal Operators Association and through this organization made collective decisions concerning the mines. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. As part of his New Deal, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented and had passed the National Industrial Act. Freda Armes says, "I take a cloth and strain the water to cook with. What did the foremen say on those occasions? 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. He then answers a question he wasn't asked. Here at Kentucky Tennessee Living we fully support the coal miners and their families. Only to be escorted to the county line and told not to return. The slab of slate, more than 51 feet long, and 17 feet wide and weighing tons, was dodged by two men. He said that when the coal industry was at its height in 1928, the peak of . "I've got so many duns from the hospital that I just quit lookin' at them. 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 . 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. That means, among other things, an average daily wage of $45. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. 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. Soon after the "Battle of Evarts," novelist Theodore Dreiser led a citizens' group to Harlan County to find and publicize the bloody facts. There are still ongoing strikes today and the violence in Harlan County Continues. If those under them behave in an approved manner then they receive housing, work, food, and other perks of their position. 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. However, the battle continues to this day. The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. 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%. Word precedes him. 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. Faith Primitive Baptist Church. It took forty-five minutes for someone to come and help get him out, Deaton says. Name Entry; Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. With the opening left by the United Mine Workers union the openly Communist (NMU) National Miners Union tried to help the miners to organize. The roof is approximately forty-eight inches high in the mine. Sheriff T. R. Middleton replaced Blair under the pro-union campaign platform. Strike benefits are $100 weekly for a family, $90 for a couple, and $80 for a single man. 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. "The danger's just the same," they say. America in the Harlan County Mine Wars, 1931-1939 Carletta A. Bush Early accounts of the Harlan County mine wars place the inability of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) to establish a permanent foothold in the county, first at the feet of of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association (HCCOA) and secondly at Pic from Harlan County USA of a Coal Camp. Segment Synopsis: Lois Scott continues her conversation from her previous interview. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The miners and the coal owners were still having disputes. "You could hunt for one, but there just weren't one there," he says. And we're burning up people to make electricity. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. Free shipping for many products! "We run because we wanted to testify, and if we hadn't run, he woulda had us in jail." Done Citation. 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 United Mine Workers union also cited that they did not have the resources to help in the battle. It is home to lawyers, doctors and coal operators; it has a hospital, several banks and a few fast-food . After breakfast, we travel fifteen miles east to Evarts. those in the Harlan County Coal Operators . There are very few vacant houses in Harlan County and virtually no available land to build on. Theoretically, even operators' and owners' children were . It read: RE-ELECT GAW, JAILER. The Red Cross eventually became involved in the county along with several local charities. The most memorable of those are 1964, 1966, 1969 (The West Virginia Black Lung strike that the miners won) 1971, and the 1974 Strikes.