harlan county coal operators association

We gather back in Evarts and announce that our report will be ready in two or three weeks. 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. 5355, atEvarts . The Harlan County coal miners campaigned and fought to organize their workplaces and better their wages and working conditions. Pay ranged from $17 to $32 day, the average being $25. We return to our series on the Coal Wars of the United States with Bloody Harlan and the Battle for Evarts. In America, the word describes a region, including Harlan County, Kentucky, between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic coast. Sheriff T. R. Middleton replaced Blair under the pro-union campaign platform. Only 23 percent of those in the county over the age of twenty-five have completed high school. There are nearly 40,000 people in the county, a drop of 36 percent since 1960. As in Germany, the AFSC used need alone to determine who got fed. CBS is represented by a camera crew, and there are a number of national reporters. There was no standard contract for the miners. The name comes from a series of United Mine Workers strikes and labor-management battles which ended in a gunfight between deputized mine guards and miners on May 4, 1931, in the tiny community of Evarts. Theoretically, even operators' and owners' children were . Harlan, district mine inspector of the State Department of Mines and Minerals, and James Bryson, safety director, Harlan County Coal Operators Association. The judge's fines and sentences were appealed. One of the Deputies was Jim Daniels. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. Why is garbage left on the roadway? 4 . . The Wagner Act of 1935 (National Labor Relations Act or NLRA) guaranteed the rights of workers to choose to organize. Each of us makes a statement. And you wondr why I keep running my mouth . In the bloody 1930s coal wars, miners known to be union members were fired and evicted from company-owned homes. Lois Scott explains that during the first confrontation at the mine, she saw a pistol in the front seat of every "scab" car she looked into and that a company "gun thug" pointed a submachine gun at the women from the porch of the Eastover office. Three Harlan County incorporated towns were not owned by the coal mines, they became a sanctuary for the evicted and starving miners. Typical of counties with low income, counties where the mine companies own everything and pay low taxes, our UMW driver says. (There is such a provision in the standard UMW contract.). Harry Caudill, attorney and author of Night Comes to the Cumberlands, will not be able to join us in Harlan because of legal business. They exercised their powers with impunity and operated under Sheriff J.H. The group publishes policy papers on the benefits of coal for Kentucky and sponsors the "Friends of Coal" initiative. 1 mine in Evarts, in Harlan County, Kentucky. While it succeeded in organizing thousands of miners, it failed to complete a bargaining agreement with Harlan County's coal operators. 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. . 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. Done. Toilet paper clings to the bushes and tree limbs five or six feet up from the rushing stream. 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. "But if they call me and ask if a man works for me, I simply say yes or no.". 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. During the rest of the afternoon, the miners talk about what has happened on the picket line and in the local court. All during the day they worked in shifts, trying to penetrate to the point where the explosion occurred. 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. Interment at Resthaven Cemetery, Keith, Ky. Visitation 6-9 p.m. at the Grays Knob Bible Church. Drift mines back into the mountains follow the seam of coal wherever it goes." That's an old term in Harlan County, used to describe special, plain-clothed guards. 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. United States Washington D.C. District of Columbia Washington D.C . 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. Mr. Blanton explained the reasoning behind coal camps. Mr. Nolan, a resident of Cawood, is survived by his wife, Mrs. Stella Nolan . Harlan Daily Enterprise, September 17, 1943. 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". He decided to make Harlan County a test case in the UMW's new, more aggressive organizing efforts. Though the union had made substantial inroads into the Central Appalachian coalfields by 1930, when miners in Bell and Harlan Counties went out on strike in early May, 1931, the UMWA removed its support. ", What about the Southern Labor Union? Willard Wirtz asks how it will all come out, how the strike will end. Is that the only objection that is holding up a settlement? He says that he will not agree to the Brookside contract applying to "all" of Eastover's operations. Chicago citation style: Harris & Ewing, photographer. The company also agreed to abide by any agreement reached between the . Blaine Sergent, coal leader, putting up his check at the end of a workday in Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1946. Herndon J. Evans, the editor of the Pineville Sun, argued, The troubles of the coal industry had their inception in war times. Conflict broke out again the 1970s in what was known as the Brookside strike. 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. Expand. Mine operators formed the 1 Harlan County Coal Operators Association and through this organization made collective decisions concerning the mines. There are very few vacant houses in the county. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. 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. Breaks in the cable, they say, are often just wrapped with mask-ing tape and exposed again to the water. Its profits in 1973 were $90 million, up 14 percent from the year before. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. HARLAN COUNTY COAL OPERATORS ASSOCIATION. Whitfield recalls working in his father's coal mines during the first years of commercial mining in Harlan County, and he describes the conditions. It is also women's day before the Citizens In-quiry. They relate federal mine-safety figures which show that in 1971 the accident rate in the Brookside mine was three times the national average, and in 1972 was twice the national average. These women have organized a special kind of feminist movement, and the issues to them are life-and-death issues. The union abandoned its efforts after less than a year. Capitalizing on the general . Office files covering topics such as "accounts receivable," "baseball club," "coal production," "garnishment orders," "Harlan Coal Operator's Association," "labor conditions," "medical conditions . ~~ David Sergent. To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators Association decided to cut all wages by ten percent. "If we could monitor these inspections, perhaps we could cut down on the fatalities," he says. Its initial land holdings were in the Irwin gas coal basin in Westmoreland County, but as these were exhausted the company purchased 14,000 acres of undeveloped coal land along the border of Boone and Logan Counties in West Virginia in 1923-28. . I have taken several classes in Journalism as well as in the Appalachian History, Literature, and Sociology during my time at those schools. The National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP) was of the American Communist Party. The women furnish the panel with a copy of a report from the Harlan County Health Department, dated October 12, 1973, which states that the drinking water in the Eastover mining camp, where approximately thirty of the striking Brookside families live, is "highly contaminated" with fecal bacteria. Prior to Miller's election, the union had become corrupt, dictatorial, and a frequent collaborator with the mine owners. Strike benefits are $100 weekly for a family, $90 for a couple, and $80 for a single man. They are merely a service organization, Yarborough says. Duke Power Company of North Carolina, he says, is the sixth largest utility company in the world. Make your practice more effective and efficient with Casetext's legal research suite. The unrest continues in Harlan and surrounding counties as there have been many strikes. When this strike was broken in1924, none of the non-union mines in Harlan County, all of which were members ofthe Harlan County Coal Operators Association, would employ a man from BlackMountain."Many of the men who worked at Black Mountain transferred to LocalUnion No. How does the Harlan County Coal Operators Association fit into the picture? On Friday, March 25, a continuous mining machine operator was killed by a wall collapse at the Huff Creek No. "I've seen some hurt and some killed. 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. He says that, standing. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Duke Power Company appears to be the key to breaking the deadlock in negotiations. It took forty-five minutes for someone to come and help get him out, Deaton says. 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. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Only to be escorted to the county line and told not to return. Her daughter, Bessie Cornett, an attractive young brunette, says, "I'm not in jail today because you people are here." Among coal miners, Harlan County, Kentucky, is known as "Bloody Harlan." Figure 2: Harlan County Coal Mine Employment, 2000-2016, (KYEEC, 2017) In 1942, shortly after Harlan County experienced record high coal mine employment, the county experienced is highest production levels with 15.6 million tons of coal being produced in this year (KYEEC, 2017). "In Harlan County, U.S.A., sound anchors, explains, and makes 'authentic' visual imagery compromised by the long history of documentary work in Appalachia.". "I've got so many duns from the hospital that I just quit lookin' at them. Now and then, there is a neat, new frame house or a Pic and Pay market between scattered tarpaper shacks. It is the second coal mining fatality in . It has assets worth $2.5 billion. He speaks of "my people" and "my men." 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. 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 May 24, 1931, Sheriff Blair rescinded the miners right to assemble and tear-gassed a union rally. "I don't know nothing about the electrical part." If you protested this safety violation, he says, "the boss would just say, 'Run it.'" He is a sturdily built, self-assured man of about fifty, with a strong, square jaw and a rough, weathered face. 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. Before the first meeting of the Citizens Inquiry, we sit around and talk with the Inquiry chairman, Daniel Pollitt, a professor of law at the University of North Carolina. 2012: $1,552,717. Copy with citation. The radical ideology of the union began gaining some ground in the mountains. "The danger's just the same," they say. Harlan County. Fifty miners and their wives have at one time or another been held in contempt of this order. Over one thousand shots were exchanged during those fifteen minutes. "I don't like to handle that raw juice," he says. I look at the government statistics once more. This caused the clergy to denounce the union. 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. [ 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%. No, Yarborough says; it just serves as a central clearing house, so that job applicants won't have to go around and apply at each of the mines separately. 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 . Violence erupted that would periodically repeat itself for the next eight years. Pierce has brought the actual Courier-Journal clippings about the Dreiser inquiry and shares them with us. Wanted to be able to spend their money at a store of their choice besides the Black Mountain Coal Company store. And we're burning up people to make electricity. 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. Unemployment in 2017 was 9.4 percent, far above the national average. Rev. 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 Red Cross eventually became involved in the county along with several local charities. 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. Apparently, this is one of Eastover's major objections. The sign man for R C Cola has worked this territory well. Sudie Crusenberg, a plain woman in a cotton dress, gives us some idea of what life is like for a coal-mining family. The slab of slate, more than 51 feet long, and 17 feet wide and weighing tons, was dodged by two men. Most of the land is owned by the mining companies. It will be a two-hour, winding drive through the Cumberland Mountains to the town of Harlan. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. the meeting room. We come into Harlan County at dusk. The aftermath of this battle led to wider strikes in the Harlan County area. They tell of two night incidents when rifle shots were fired at the picketers by unidentified persons. As discussed in a previous video. Nonunion workers were attempting to leave the mine. The latest unrest in Harlan County came when in July of 2019, Black jewel LLC filed for bankruptcy and liquidation. Horn's letter questions the fair-mindedness of the inquiry members. It is home to lawyers, doctors and coal operators; it has a hospital, several banks and a few fast-food . At Brookside, this would amount to $400,000 a year. She says that she and some of the other women hid out last night to avoid being served with a contempt citation from Judge Hogg's court. On February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association reduced wages for miners in that part of eastern Kentucky by 10 percent. Miners die, and last year was the deadliest in American coal mines in more than a decade. That year, annual wages dropped from $1,235 to $749. When Barbara finishes her answer, Wirtz raises a clenched fist and says, "Right on!" 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 . He then answers a question he wasn't asked. 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. She pays $10 a month for rent and $10 a month for electricity. Free shipping for many products! 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.". Harlan Fuel Co. Download PDF. Abstract. ", "They've done discriminated me," Grover Jennings continues. Carl Horn of Duke Power and Arnold Miller of the UMW had talked, and negotiations had been resumed. You just don't hit a woman in Harlan County." It was Miller who defeated W. A. The money was . Dan Pollitt reads a letter from Carl Horn, Jr., president of Duke Power Company, respectfully declining our invitation. No wonder R C Cola has so many signs everywhere. 1938) Copy Citation . 3.' Yarborough is tough and unyielding. Find the perfect harlan county coal stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. I've got five living children and four dead. "Then he'd come out looking like a sheep-killing dog and get in his truck and run. Yarborough says that he will not agree to the contract applying to Eastover's subcontractors. I have an Associates Degree from Hazard Community College and Technical School. 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 . Mine operators viciously opposed miners' efforts to unionize, particularly in Harlan County. The decision caused unrest in the county among the miners. There is no water in the house. They have probably helped keep their own men from exploding too. 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. In the year of "the energy crisis," Coal is King again at $30 a ton. those in the Harlan County Coal Operators . There were only nine hundred miners working and 5,800 miners were idle and striking during the first strike. The remaining workforce then went on strike as a sign of solidarity with those that were fired from their jobs. Is the safety provision in the UMW contract the sticking point for Eastover? Project Summary. A Brief History of Harlan County, USA. Garbage along the roadside. These battles will end the Coal Wars proper. corporateBody associatedWith : Heyl & Patterson, Inc . At these locations, the mine wages began to be comparable to other jobs around the nation. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Which Side are You on? These disputes were still brewing when on December 8, 1934, the United Mine Workers Union was threatened by deputies and mine bosses. Other clippings detail the earlier bloodshed and misery in Harlan 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. That means, among other things, an average daily wage of $45. Whitfield's family was from Alabama where his father had been in the coal business. Frame houses with rusty tin roofs. An open shop is where union membership is allowed but not mandated to work at that location. Killed - 12. Why haven't the car bodies been removed from the highway and the streets? 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. Lois Scott, a woman of about forty-five, begins to speak first. They fed strikers' children as well as the employed, blacks as well as whites. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. It is unclear who fired that shot but both sides claim that the other side did it. The Price of Coal, Part II. These interviews with major coal operators document their personal histories and the history of the coal industry in eastern Kentucky during the twentieth century. 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. "My daddy's a retired coal miner, and he's got the black lung. 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.". 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. (That is a tough point.) Midway in the trial, Judge Hogg dismissed the jury and directed a verdict of guilty. The accident was the second worst mine fatality in the history of Harlan County coal mining, the worst being Harlan Fuel Company . Mr. The most shocking moment in Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) looks at first like an abstract painting. On September 4, 1935, Harlan County Attorney Elmon Clay Middleton, age 31, was assassinated by a car bomb containing eighteen sticks of dynamite. 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. 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. [Verse 2] I got 27 peopl coming over to this house. The Harlan County Coal Wars lasted from 1931-1939. The committee has invited owners as well as workers to participate in the hearings, but the impression we get is that management will not appear. I glance at the new Piedmont magazine, Pace. 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." 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 . 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%. Leroy Helton says miners often have to splice electrical cable, even though they're not qualified to do so. Interview Summary. A historical marker says we are near the Little Shepherd Trail, the setting for the novel Shepherd of the Hills. Did she find the stick on the ground? The miners say that they often have to stand knee-deep in water while handling 440-volt electrical cables. Finally, in 1939, the coal companies agreed to allow unions in their coal mine operations. 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