The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". He can't never walk again." The company will probably demand a new election. Now and then, there is a neat, new frame house or a Pic and Pay market between scattered tarpaper shacks. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. 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. He says that he will not agree to the Brookside contract applying to "all" of Eastover's operations. It was a nearly decade-long conflict, lasting from 1931 to 1939. . Freda Armes says, "I run him off. 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. . The judge's fines and sentences were appealed. Coal companies refused to back down while the Red Cross refused to give aid . The next morning the toothpicks were still in place, it was said. Available for both RF and RM licensing. The warrant was never served. Its profits in 1973 were $90 million, up 14 percent from the year before. Exist Dates. There are very few vacant houses in the county. The Harlan County Coal Wars lasted from 1931-1939. On May 24, 1931, Sheriff Blair rescinded the miners right to assemble and tear-gassed a union rally. The slab of slate, more than 51 feet long, and 17 feet wide and weighing tons, was dodged by two men. 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. And you wondr why I keep running my mouth . But is it really hurting? Harlan County to unionize miners. Throughout 1931, violence sprouted between miners HARLAN COUNTY COAL OPERATORS ASSOCIATION. One of the better houses is already being demolished. 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. And we're burning up people to make electricity. Mr. 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. If those under them behave in an approved manner then they receive housing, work, food, and other perks of their position. A Committee was formed and conducted by Activist Theodore Dreiser under the auspices of the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP). 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. I currently live in Tennessee but my hope is to one day come back home to live in the beautiful mountains once more. Lois Scott, a woman of about forty-five, begins to speak first. 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. Rev. Here at Kentucky Tennessee Living we fully support the coal miners and their families. Miner Curtis Cress, 34, says towns that . The radical ideology of the union began gaining some ground in the mountains. Faith Primitive Baptist Church. Three Point, Harlan County, Kentucky September 16, 1943 No. She doesn't know where she will go when the camp is closed. Only 23 percent of those in the county over the age of twenty-five have completed high school. 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. Three Harlan County incorporated towns were not owned by the coal mines, they became a sanctuary for the evicted and starving miners. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Which Side are You on? "The danger's just the same," they say. Our delegation arrives on time at the Eastover office in Brookside. 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. I have an Associates Degree from Hazard Community College and Technical School. Apparently, this is one of Eastover's major objections. Brophy's was the last reform insurgency against UMW leadership until Joseph Yablonski's fatal try. The Act was an attempt to restructure the industrial sector of the economy and to alleviate unemployment with a public works program. During the rest of the afternoon, the miners talk about what has happened on the picket line and in the local court. For a time after the hearing, he says, it appeared that Duke had softened. 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. 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. No concessions or deals were made between the two factions and the membership of the United Mine Workers union plummeted. One of the Deputies was Jim Daniels. Jacqueline Brophy asks why public services have broken down. It read: RE-ELECT GAW, JAILER. Eight miners were sentenced to life in prison for the actions that were taken on May 5, 1931. Sheriff Blair was voted out of his office in 1933 and died just a year later. B.W. "I don't know nothing about the electrical part." The SLU was largely seen as serving the interests of the mine owners rather than the workers. 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. And, all around, there are the rolling mountains, covered with second-growth timber. Done Citation. Is the safety provision in the UMW contract the sticking point for Eastover? These guards were legally able to protect these men during their off duty time. Nobody knows how long the UMW can keep paying strike benefits. Pierce mentions the "toothpick incident." Bill Doan says, "When I got hurt, I couldn't find Jim Miller, the man who had charge of the sick fund." No. Segment Synopsis: Lois Scott continues her conversation from her previous interview. National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions Jul 5, 1938. At these locations, the mine wages began to be comparable to other jobs around the nation. We soon get into a discussion about Dreiser's 1931 inquiry. Is that the only objection that is holding up a settlement? Big Boy. 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. (The union has told us that they are quite willing to limit the contract to the Brookside mine.) It took forty-five minutes for someone to come and help get him out, Deaton says. Each of us makes a statement. But relatives did come and take the children. 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. The accident was the second worst mine fatality in the history of Harlan County coal mining, the worst being Harlan Fuel Company . Midway in the trial, Judge Hogg dismissed the jury and directed a verdict of guilty. So we lay down in the road." 4 . 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. 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. He sentenced nine men and seven women to six months in jail and fined them $500 each. 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. Following this episode, the women say, Norman Yarborough asked Judge Hogg to hold the UMW and a number of miners and women in contempt of the Judge's order limiting the number of picketers to six. I've talked to Norman Yarborough, and you ain't bringing no union down here. The miners charge that Eastover has hired what they call "gun thugs." My man was mashed up in the mines. She's been picketing with the other women. Violence erupted that would periodically repeat itself for the next eight years. The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. "You could hunt for one, but there just weren't one there," he says. There is a suit still in litigation. 1931, only $13.5 million. The UMW union called in the National Guard to help them. Five miles north of Harlan, we drive up Inspiration Mountain. We first hear from a number of the striking miners about safety conditions in the Brookside mine. Pic from Harlan County USA of a Coal Camp. Mostly, the miners were fighting for improved working conditions, higher wages, and better housing options for their families. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. I have also attended the University of Pikeville. 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.". Sudie Crusenberg, a plain woman in a cotton dress, gives us some idea of what life is like for a coal-mining family. Miners also wanted the right to organize and have a union. "If we could monitor these inspections, perhaps we could cut down on the fatalities," he says. United States Washington D.C. District of Columbia Washington D.C . I have two children and four grandchildren from a previous marriage. October 31, 2016. While their main objectives were a steady job, a decent wage and a program of safety checks . A federal bankruptcy judge ruled that the company could leave damages to the environment, abandon assets, and not pay the coal miners owed wages. 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. 2012: $1,552,717. 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. 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. "I cain't get a job nowhere in this county. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Does the Association hire for all the mines in the county? The Citizens Inquiry meets in the attractive, river-rock Evarts Community Center, directly across the Clear Fork from the site of the 1931 "Battle of Evarts." Soon enough, most miners had gone on strike out of solidarity. [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%. The miners charge that the Harlan County Coal Operators Association is behind Eastover's refusal to sign a contract. In the year of "the energy crisis," Coal is King again at $30 a ton. "Try walking out of there, carrying a man with a broken back," one of the miners says. 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. Pricing; Switch; Big firm; It is beautiful in Harlan County, as pretty as any place in the world. 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. It is not all Duke's fault by any means. ", What about federal inspection? On May 5, 1931, the Battle of Evarts began. There were ten lodges that were chartered for the National Miners Union. Each contract varied from mine to mine. the foreman would just say, "We gotta run coal. "I don't like to handle that raw juice," he says. Three of the federal reports state that there was no safety committee at Brookside, as required by law. There is a hard edge in her voice, and her blue-gray eyes are flashing. "They don't want miners havin' any say in safety." Pay ranged from $17 to $32 day, the average being $25. That year, annual wages dropped from $1,235 to $749. On May 5, 1931 the pot boiled over; in Harlan County Kentucky, heavily armed deputies and company men, called "gun thugs" by miners, confronted disgruntled union men on a road near Evarts.