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Outlining the legal framework for labor unions and management relations to improve the working conditions for workers. HARLAN COUNTY: Women - The Cinessential Three Point Mine Explosion 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 . Arnold Miller, who was an active coal miner until three years ago and is now the reform-minded president of the United Mine Workers, has asked me to serve as a member of a "Citizens Public Inquiry into the Brookside Strike.". Attempts to organize led to the dismissal of employees who were suspected of having leanings toward the organization and having them evicted from their family homes. Documentary Noise: The Soundscape of Barbara Kopple's Harlan County, U 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. A month later, back in Washington, I meet with Bernie Aaronson at UMW headquarters. They are neatly and attractively dressed. The Harlan County Coal Wars 1931-1939 - Kentucky Tennessee Living ", What about the Southern Labor Union? Segment Synopsis: Lois Scott continues her conversation from her previous interview. Si says Harlan is a dry countyno legal liquor and no beer. . The Price of Coal, Part I - kentuckymonthly.com Pistol Annies - Harlan County Coal Lyrics | Genius Lyrics Forty percent of the county's dwellings lack some or all of plumbing, water, or toilet facilities. He'd worked seventy-eight hours straight the preceding week. Biographical History . They fed strikers' children as well as the employed, blacks as well as whites. There is no water in the house. The group included John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and a number of other writers and artists. We drive to the Evarts Community Center and report to the other members of the Citizens Inquiry. 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. PDF "I Am a Union Woman": Gender, Class, and Folk Music in The Harlan Violence erupted that would periodically repeat itself for the next eight years. The Harlan County Coal War is one of the . Harlan Fuel Co, 8 N.L.R.B. 25 | Casetext Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. A shoulder blade and five of his ribs were broken. We are told that Eastover has announced its intention to tear down the mining-camp houses and move the striking miners out. "Dreiser, Woman Indicted," one headline reads. Harlan County USA Revisited - Medium The National Industrial Recovery Act only partially succeeded in accomplishing its stated goals when it was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on May 27, 1935, which was three weeks before the Act was set to expire. While it succeeded in organizing thousands of miners, it failed to complete a bargaining agreement with Harlan County's coal operators. Betty Eldridge is a mildmannered, well-dressed woman of about forty. "The way I figured it, they done that because it was just a faster, way of getting coal." There were only three cars in the motorcade each of which contained a sheriffs deputy. 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. It doesn't seem like enough. A Brief History of Harlan County, USA | Labor Notes 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. He run all the way down the stairs and out of the jail." I have attended the University of Kentucky. A reporter asks us again how we can expect to make an unbiased report when we've heard only one side. And you wondr why I keep running my mouth . The Act also made a provision for a National Labor-Relations Board to designate a legal structure for the workers to conduct fair and legal elections of their officers and representatives. Leroy Helton says miners often have to splice electrical cable, even though they're not qualified to do so. The trees are barely beginning to bud in the early March warmth. Faith, power, and conflict: Miner preachers and the United Mine Workers Burger Chef. As in Germany, the AFSC used need alone to determine who got fed. Harlan County, KY, coal miners win affiliation with UMWA union, United [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 Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! 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. 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. or smaller. "We took the sticks with us," she says. Which Side are You on?: The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 He says that they do not need the UMW to look after them; he will do that. Jacqueline Brophy asks why public services have broken down. 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. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Is that the only objection that is holding up a settlement? Drift mines back into the mountains follow the seam of coal wherever it goes." You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. "Not at all," Yarborough says. I have an Associates Degree from Hazard Community College and Technical School. Our History - Kentucky Coal Association Hazard County documentary / produced by H. Sinclair. - Internet Archive There were constant beatings of the miners by the Sheriffs deputies. In the bloody 1930s coal wars, miners known to be union members were fired and evicted from company-owned homes. Lifelong resident of Harlan. Troops had to be called into the county three times to maintain order. The Seco Train Accident September 20, 1917, New Bank in the Coal Country Installed in 1911, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Evarts, https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/new-deal/national-industrial-recovery-act-of-1933/, https://pipiwiki.com/wiki/Battle_of_Evarts, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_County_War, https://labornotes.org/blogs/2019/08/brief-history-harlan-county-usa, 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, 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, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70804679/elmon-clay-middleton, https://www.nytimes.com/1935/09/06/archives/kentucky-holds-four-in-auto-bomb-killing-harlan-prosecutors-death.html, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/?fbclid=IwAR21nYphw4Dul-_EwuAmSWgzsvPLNwsMM0FtV75j0y-mGUHq-lCZjJxZot8, The Flatwoods Monster: Weird Appalachia Cases, Rotherwood Mansion: Weird Appalachia Cases, The Brown Mountain Ghostly Lights: Weird Appalachia Cases. Yarborough says that he will not agree to the contract applying to Eastover's subcontractors. The National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP) was of the American Communist Party. I say that the issue is whether or not the men will be allowed to have their own union to protect their safety and secure and maintain decent wages and benefits, that if enough pressure is put on Duke Power Company, maybe something will give. Pistol Annies - Harlan County Coal (Audio) - YouTube The miners express extreme dissatisfaction with Eastover's medical and retirement benefits. 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. (Brookside) were the only two mines of the Harlan County owner/operators association who rejected a 10% pay increase in 1933. The company will probably demand a new election. Appalachia: Coal Operators Oral History Project SPOKEdb The Brookside Women's Club of Harlan County - New York Women in Film On one excuse or another, such as not having personnel readily available to accompany the inspector into the mine, the company can delay the inspection. During the rest of the afternoon, the miners talk about what has happened on the picket line and in the local court. It is the second coal mining fatality in . I have been married to David W. Sergent since May 4, 2013. He says that, standing. knee-deep in water, he has experienced many electrical shocks. No wonder R C Cola has so many signs everywhere. 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. Sudie Crusenberg, a plain woman in a cotton dress, gives us some idea of what life is like for a coal-mining family. 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 meeting room. . Harlan County, Kentucky in a Post-Coal America: A Case Study Former Director of Harlan County Coal Operators Association. However, the battle continues to this day. He discusses the formation and activities of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association . An organic shape, small and shiny and pinkish white, sits . It is home to lawyers, doctors and coal operators; it has a hospital, several banks and a few fast-food . Office files covering topics such as "accounts receivable," "baseball club," "coal production," "garnishment orders," "Harlan Coal Operator's Association," "labor conditions," "medical conditions . Based on this new Act, from October 27, 1933, to March 31, 1935, the mines ran as open shops. She speaks in a soft, pleasant voice. : The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! "They didn't say nothin'; all they want's coal.' (Fifty million tons of union coal are mined in western Kentucky; only 6.5 million tons of union coal are mined in eastern Kentucky.) Toilet paper clings to the bushes and tree limbs five or six feet up from the rushing stream. The county became nationally famous in 1931 and 1932 when it was the site of one of the earliest and bloodiest labor battles of the decade. We're all involved. 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. 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." 1 mine in Evarts, in Harlan County, Kentucky. Interment at Resthaven Cemetery, Keith, Ky. Visitation 6-9 p.m. at the Grays Knob Bible Church. After the railroad arrived in 1911 . Harlan County War History, Impact, The Free Encyclopedia Done. Kentucky Coal Association - Ballotpedia Middleton died on the scene. He speaks of "my people" and "my men." Established in 1916, its membership consisted of nearly all the large mining companies, and it represented the major political force in the county. Willard Wirtz says that it is important to remember that one side of the dispute felt confident enough about their case to arrange to spread it before the widest possible audience. But mostly the scenery is depressingly bleak. Clyde V Bennett Jr. (1930-2000) - Find a Grave Memorial 9:03 PM. corporateBody associatedWith : Heyl & Patterson, Inc . They say no action has been taken on this report. They are merely a service organization, Yarborough says. That commitment has never waivered, and has grown . Home - Harlan County When they went to jail, they say, some of the women took their children with them. 1931, only $13.5 million. 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". Background to the 1931-32 Strike - University of Kentucky Here at Kentucky Tennessee Living we fully support the coal miners and their families. This law was enacted to try to reverse the hardships to those who were out of a job because of the economic collapse of the Great Depression. Someone had planted dynamite in his automobile and when he started it up the car blew up. The accident was investigated by Rufus Bailey, Harlan, district mine inspector of the State Department of Mines and Minerals, and James Bryson, safety director, Harlan County Coal Operators Association. 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. He sentenced nine men and seven women to six months in jail and fined them $500 each. The warrant was never served. Many of the houses have no running water, and these families have to carry all their water from a common outdoor spigot. It read: RE-ELECT GAW, JAILER. They just laughed about it, and we kept on cuttin' coal. . (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.) With the added protection for workers and the addition of collective bargaining between the workers and their employers. Afterwards, they gathered near the picket line at the Eastover property in Brookside. 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. Each contract varied from mine to mine. "Boss walks up and says, 'We've got to make this mine look good now, boys; the inspector's comin','" Jerry Johnson says. But will Norman Yarborough ever agree to recognize the UMW? They file with us copies of specific federal safety violation reports, and they say that nothing was ever done to correct these violations. 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 . Toilets are built out over the river, and the water has obviously been much higher in the recent past. Killed - 12. Here, too, are some of the richest natural resources in the countryand some of the poorest people. 5355, atEvarts . In June of 1973, in a National Labor Relations Board election, the miners at Brookside voted 113 to 55 to affiliate with the United Mine Workers. The Red Cross eventually became involved in the county along with several local charities. The Sheriff reportedly got rich on payoffs from the companies, and he used 181 mine company gunmen as special deputies. 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." They're trapped. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Harry Caudill, attorney and author of Night Comes to the Cumberlands, will not be able to join us in Harlan because of legal business. Harlan County. The radical ideology of the union began gaining some ground in the mountains. "We want safety all the time, not just when the inspector comes," Jerry Johnson says. We come into Harlan County at dusk. "I don't try to blacklist anybody," he says. Miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, have drawn national attention with their direct action occupying a railroad track to halt a coal train . Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. From July 30, 2019, through September 28, 2019, coal miners and their families have blocked roads and railways demanding their payment. 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. Miners also wanted the right to organize and have a union. 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. You just don't hit a woman in Harlan County." Nannie Rainey takes us into her four-room house where she and her husband and five children live. Altogether, it is a heavy financial burden for the UMW. Mrs. Herschel Gaw, wife of the ailing jailer, locked them all up. An essay on The Harlan County War : r/history "Try walking out of there, carrying a man with a broken back," one of the miners says. Some seventy-five state policemen were on hand as the crowd gathered. The Harlan County Coal Wars lasted from 1931-1939. Blair. And I can't get you off of that couch. 2011: $1,161,330. Looking for protection by the Kentucky National Guard, many were surprised to find that they broke the picket lines instead. On the way back to the Mount Aire at the end of the day, we pass back through Brookside with its deteriorating mining-camp houses along the stinking Clear Fork River. Find the perfect harlan county coal stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. 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. 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. 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 the miners and their families. We huddle before breaking up. I currently live in Tennessee but my hope is to one day come back home to live in the beautiful mountains once more. Special Judge F. Byrd Hogg, a neighboring county judge who has been assigned to the case, entered an early order limiting the strikers to three pickets at each of two entrances to the Eastover Mining Company property. Most of the land is owned by the mining companies. Printing - Angelfire Did she find the stick on the ground? The final straw was when the Harlan County Coal Operators Association cut miners' wages by 10%. The Act was an attempt to restructure the industrial sector of the economy and to alleviate unemployment with a public works program. "It's one of 'em," Yarborough says. Documentary of mining practices in Hazard County, Kentucky. Overturned car bodies everywhere. KCA traces its origin to a statewide association of coal operators who united their efforts in 1942. It was a nearly decade-long conflict, lasting from 1931 to 1939. . Battle of Evarts - Wikipedia This Day in Labor History: February 16, 1931 And we're burning up people to make electricity. Three Harlan County incorporated towns were not owned by the coal mines, they became a sanctuary for the evicted and starving miners. She doesn't know where she will go when the camp is closed. Resources | Harlan Coal Scrip 8 N.L.R.B. By 1908 the union had . "We run because we wanted to testify, and if we hadn't run, he woulda had us in jail." 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. Freda Armes says, "I take a cloth and strain the water to cook with. Coal employment in Harlan county dropped 53.7% in the second quarter of this year compared with last year, driven by Blackjewel's bankruptcy. The Harlan County Coal War - YouTube Done. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. He then answers a question he wasn't asked. There is a suit still in litigation.