This day in West Virginia labor history

On this day in 1989, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) began its historic strike against the Pittston Coal Company. The issues leading to the strike were mostly regarding retiree health benefits.

The union had been working without a contract for a full 14 months when the strike began, which was pretty much unheard of at the time. During that time many miners received training in nonviolent action and civil disobedience.

Around 1,700 miners in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky participated in the strike, which lasted until Feb. 20, 1990.

It was my first big fight. I had only been working on economic justice issues with the American Friends Service Committee for a month or so, although I followed events as closely as I could in the Charleston Gazette in the year leading up to it. Everybody paying attention knew something was going to blow.

I remember sitting in the cafeteria of the WV capitol and being told by a UMWA rep that it was starting as we spoke. It would come to absorb my attention, energy and chi for the next 10 months and I forged some strong relationships that continue to this day. I'll always be grateful to AFSC for giving me the chance to jump in. I can't say that I had a huge impact on the strike, but it had a huge impact on me.

It was intense and exhausting, but, to be honest, I was having the time of my life.

When I look back on it, I think of friends, picket lines, burning houses, evictions, crashing coal trucks, (alleged) jackrocks, singing, banter, jokes, learning guitar, anger, Christmas, courage, goon guards, provocations, state police, constant motion, solidarity, direct action, mischief, learning, absorbing history, brave women holding the line, places, and the threat of violence, all to a Bob Dylan soundtrack.

At times, the atmosphere on the picket lines reminded me of the movie Matewan just before the shootout. It seemed to me at the time as if the fate of the world, or at least the labor movement, hinged on the outcome. Eventually, the union won a restoration of benefits, which have helped thousands of retirees and survivors over the years. But UMWA membership continued to decline.

The strike developed in the aftermath of another less fortunate strike against Massey subsidiaries earlier in the decade. Like Pittston would later do, Massey withdrew from the Bituminous Coal Operators Association (BCOA), the industry bargaining group. This was the beginning of Massey's spree of union busting, environmental failures, intimidation, political manipulation, safety shortcuts and the rest.

Massey's power would grow over the years in power and influence, like the rising power of Mordor in The Lord of the Rings.

Ironically, Pittston withdrew from the coal industry in the years following the strike, with many of its assets sold to Massey.

Fast forward to this date in 2010, when a mammoth explosion at Massey's Upper Big Branch underground mine in Montcoal WV killed 29 miners. Before Massey bought the mine from Peabody Coal in 1993, it had been a union operation. But after a strong anti-union campaign led by former Massey CEO and now candidate for the US senate (!), the union was decertified by the late 1990s.

Without a union, miners had less of a voice in working conditions, and especially mine safety. With terrible consequences. You can read all about it here.

Much happened in the wake of the disaster. There were investigations, lawsuits, fines and criminal prosecutions, including the first ever conviction of the CEO of a major corporation for conspiring to evade safety rules. Massey no longer exists. But eight years later, the Republican controlled congress has yet to pass meaningful mine safety legislation, such as that advocated by the late great Senator Robert C. Byrd.

This day reminds me of the best and worst in West Virginia history, of what working people organized in unions can achieve and of what can happen if unions are weakened and defeated.

During WV's recent and successful teachers' strike, I felt echoes of Pittston days, with crowds at the capitol almost as large as the ones in 1989. And it was great to feel the warm presence of UMWA members rallying in solidarity.

Times have changed but our recent and more distant history shows that the need for working class solidarity is as urgent as ever. And that's not likely to change.

The road not taken

The follow op-ed of mine ran in yesterday's Charleston Gazette-Mail. (An early draft ran here a while back.)

Lately I’ve been working on a research project about a perennial West Virginia topic: why our state is so poor. There’s been a lot of discussion about that lately in this political year.

But even though times are hard now, this region of the country has been known for poverty for a century or more. And many explanations have been given, some better, some worse.

I’ve been surprised to find that the most insightful — and prophetic — words on the subject are 132 years old. And they came from an official state Tax Commission, of all places.

The commission was charged with the mission to “collect and report whatever information will enable the Legislature to legislate intelligently and with safety upon the subjects calculated to advance the development of the State.”

And, amazingly, they actually did just that. Apparently, the practice of telling the powerful what they want to hear wasn’t yet in fashion.

The year 1884 was fairly early in West Virginia’s industrialization, but there was a great deal of economic activity and a feverish grab for land, minerals and other natural resources. The Commission had the foresight to recognize the difference between growth and real development. It warned of the dangers to the state if the ownership and control of wealth would pass to out-of-state interests:

“It is a mistake to suppose that this State is prospering as much as she ought to do. A State is prospering when, and only when, those who permanently reside within her limits are increasing in wealth; a state is prospering only when her citizens are accumulating property. A state is unprosperous when the wealth is being absorbed by a few individuals; a state is doubly unprosperous when the property is rapidly passing from her present population of home people into the hands of non-residents.”

(Golly, that would be terrible.)

The Commission cautioned that appearances could be deceptive. New economic activity could provide the illusion of progress, but economic growth isn’t necessarily the same as real development that benefits people who live here.

They put it this way: “If the entire enterprise is owned by non-residents, if all the profits belong to persons who reside abroad, if those who are permanently identified with the locality do not participate in the harvest, the State is going backwards.”

It even provided an example that could have come from today’s newspaper:

“… Some years ago a non-resident corporation opened a mine in the county of ***; all the coal in several hundred acres was taken out and when the treasure was exhausted the property was abandoned, and that locality is today poorer and worse off than it would have been if that coal had never been touched; that foreign corporation carried away the entire harvest and all the profit; the permanent or home wealth was diminished, not increased ...”

They went on to predict more:

“The history of this locality will be repeated in many places in this State, which are now pointed out, by thoughtless persons, as illustrations of our prosperity, and those who reflect see today what those who do not reflect will surely witness in the near future — Our State despoiled of her wealth and her resident population poor, helpless, and despondent.”

They even laid out exactly how the despoiling of the state happened then and still happens today:

“When Private Interest conflicts with Patriotism, Private Interest will prevail, and these agents have a private interest far greater than their concern for the public welfare. Besides this, the people have been educated to believe that our immediate development must be obtained at any cost and regardless of sacrifice …”

Once citizens could be induced to swallow that line of thinking, anyone who “would dare to raise a warning voice against this worse than reckless and worse than foolish sacrifice of our local wealth is not only ostracized from all participation in public affairs, but is actually excluded from all the accustomed avenues to the public ear.”

They warned that then, as now, schemes to enrich private interests at public expense would gain an easy hearing, while critical voices would be marginalized:

“Whatever information or argument will cajole the people into advancing the money making schemes of individuals is published in the papers, proclaimed on the hustings and advocated by men employed to manufacture public opinion. On the other hand every fact calculated to acquaint the people with the true condition of affairs is frequently carefully suppressed by influential journals and by those who are recognized as successful politicians.”

The final paragraphs are powerful predictions of the future and sad reminders of the road not taken.

“The wealth of this State is immense; the development of this wealth will earn vast private fortunes far beyond the dreams even of a modem Croesus; the question is, whether this vast wealth shall belong to persons who live here and who are permanently identified with the future of West Virginia, or whether it shall pass into the hands of persons who do not live here and who care nothing for our State except to pocket the treasures which lie buried in our hills?”

“If the people of West Virginia can be roused to an appreciation of the situation we ourselves will gather this harvest now ripe on the lands inherited from our ancestors; on the other hand, if the people are not roused to an understanding of the situation in less than ten years this vast wealth will have passed from our present population into the hands of non-residents, and West Virginia will be almost like Ireland and her history will be like that of Poland.”

It’s too bad this warning wasn’t heeded. We’re paying dearly for it now. Incredibly, some politicians are prescribing more of the same as a remedy for our current woes.