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Fire in the hole!
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Fire in the hole!
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Fire in the hole!
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All clear!
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♪♪ Come, all you young fellers ♪♪
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♪♪ Way down in the mines ♪♪
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♪ It'll form like a habit ♪
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♪ And will sink in your soul ♪
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♪ Till the streams of your blood ♪
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♪ Runs as black as the coal ♪
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♪ Where it's dark as a dungeon ♪
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♪ Damp as a tomb ♪
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♪ Where the danger is double ♪
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♪ And the pleasures are few ♪
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♪ Where the rain never falls ♪
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♪ The sun never shines ♪
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♪ It's dark as a dungeon ♪
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♪ Way down in the mine ♪♪
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- She out here smilin'?
- Yeah! Smile for her!
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Why do them girls
got them car clothes on?
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Whew.
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♪ For 42 years ♪
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♪ Been a mighty long time ♪
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♪ I labored and toiled ♪
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♪ Down in a coal mine ♪
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♪ Down in a deep hole ♪
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♪ Where the bright lights did glow ♪
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♪ Back in a dark room ♪
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♪ A-spadin' up coal ♪
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♪ My bones, they did ache me ♪
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♪ My kneecaps got bad ♪
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♪ Down on a hard rock ♪
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♪ On a set of knee pads ♪
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♪ The motors were shiftin' ♪
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♪ I got sand in my hair ♪
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♪ Both lungs were broke down ♪
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♪ From a-breathin' bad air ♪
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Coal mining was rough.
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Eighteen and 20 hours.
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Get wet, come outside,
and your clothes'd be froze to stiff.
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It would sound like a fire broom hit 'em -
make a rattling noise.
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They worked you like
workin' a mule or a brute.
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I heard the boss man to say one time-
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"He said," You be sure...
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"don't get that mule no place
where the rock'll fall in on him.
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Don't take that mule to no bad place."
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I said, uh, "Well, what about me?"
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I was drivin' mule then.
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"What about me,
if a rock had fallen on me?"
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He said, "We can always hire another man,
but you gotta buy that mule."
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In other words, he thought more
of the mule than he did a man.
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My grandfather was a coal miner...
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and belonged to the union-
the U.M. W.
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And, uh, he died with black lung.
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Uh, I can remember sittin' around,
you know, when we were younger...
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and him talkin' about
bein' on picket lines and organizin'.
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I mean, that was - that was
mostly what we talked about...
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sittin' around the table
after supper and all.
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Most of our conversation was his union-
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You know, when he was
organizin' for the union...
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and things that happened on the picket line
and things that the company did to you.
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So I began to hate the company,
you know, uh -
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I mean, seemed like I just always did.
I knew they were our enemy, you know.
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And then, uh, when I watched him die...
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and suffer like he did
with that black lung disease...
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I knew that something
could be done about it.
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I told myself then, if I ever get the
opportunity to get those coal operators, I will.
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'Cause I thought, you know...
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they was the enemy.
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So when this strike came up, I saw the
opportunity and I jumped right in there.
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Let's get up there at 5:00 in the
morning and fix you a good cup of coffee.
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Let's be there and show these
Brookside workers what we can do for 'em.
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Let's stand on our two feet and show
these boys we can help 'em get a contract.
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Let's show the people of Harlan County
we stand together.
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'Cause you filed for this contract.
We gonna get it.
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Hey, the fire's done hot now.
There ain't much they can do.
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All you boys on that football field,
I want you to be there in the mornin:
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Let's show Carl Horn that we stand
on two feet here in Harlan County.
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We'll sit there and sweat
when it's snowin'.
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We'll stand right there until that
U.M.W.A. contract is signed at Brookside.
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All you people here on Black Mountain,
we'd highly appreciate it...
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if you'd be there at 5:00-
sunrise revival at Brookside, Kentucky.
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Let's don't back off. Let's don't
let one man run us out of Harlan.
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Yeah, boys, that's where it's happenin' -
Brookside at 5:00, Monday mornin'.
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Let's be down there to support
the Brookside workers.
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I got hurt down there
about a year ago at Brookside.
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I had about 300 pounds of steel
on my head.
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They took me to the hospital,
sewed my head up.
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Had a hole cut through my nose here.
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I was off one day and the superintendent
sent a feller over, said, uh...
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"Get him to come on
back up here and work.
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We'll make it easy on him
so he won't lose no time".
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Went back up there, and then it
knocked me out of compensation or anything.
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Come back with my head busted open.
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That's the way they want you
to work down there.
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Protect your family! U.M.W.A.
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join now, boys.
Need your support.
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Take some letters for a buddy!
It's on the house!
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Now you're a real pal!
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- Need your support, buddy.
- May the good Lord take a likin' to ya.
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- You know I will.
- I like that! I like that!
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- Hey, I'll put one on the car if you want me to.
- U.M.W.A. all the way.
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Here, give me one.
I'll put it on his car for him.
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Right on the bumper there-
"Tennessee is a U.M. W.A. state!"
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We're out of Kentucky stickers.
We need more of them.
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Organize the unorganized.
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With organization,
you have the aid of your fellow man.
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Without organization...
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you're a lone individual...
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without influence...
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and without recognition of any kind.
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An exploitation...
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of you and your family...
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when it pleases some industrialist...
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who desires to make money
from your misery.
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Well, we'd like to have every man
that'll walk this picket duty with us -
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To get his name before he leaves,
and we'll break it up.
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These boys on this committee'll
break it down...
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and we'll get somethin' goin' here.
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Come on up and sit around.
It ain't no big thing.
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You ain't gonna be doin' nothin' no way,
cryin' about how broke you are, like I am.
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We'd sure appreciate that.
Would you like a sticker?
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We're protesting.
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We're protesting Duke Power's
control over these men...
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that voted in the U.M. W. contract...
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and Duke Power says,
"No, you can't have that contract."
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We have made them...
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dozens and dozens of proposals...
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of different language...
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in these areas of disagreement.
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They read 'em and throw 'em back.
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They have no counterproposal.
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If you could settle it quietly,
I would think maybe you'd do it and say...
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"Well, maybe they won this battle,
but we've got 'em off our back."
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Well, I would agree with you to this
extent - I'd like to have 'em off our back.
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They're treatin' us
like we're animals, dogs.
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Well, we aren't.
We're American citizens.
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And they are violatin'
our constitutional rights...
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when they tell us that we can't have
the union of our choice...
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that those men voted in.
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00:11:08,484 --> 00:11:11,851
If you looked on TV the other day,
you seen women goin' up there, and men-
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"Impeach Nixon!
Impeach Nixon!"
145
00:11:14,357 --> 00:11:18,521
But you let us get up there
with pick-uh, with protest signs...
146
00:11:18,628 --> 00:11:20,528
against Duke Power...
147
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and they're sendin' their gun thugs
to intimidate us.
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What do you think when unions
are destroying our whole country?
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Mm-hmm.
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Mr. Hoffa's in the penitentiary...
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the Teamster Union
are known communists...
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the Longshoremen
are known communists.
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Every union in the country strikin',
what will happen to our country?
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The men wants higher wages.
They're gonna strike for it.
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The union is backing 'em.
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They stay on strike
till they get their higher wages.
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Like I explained to my daughter, I said,
there's a spool of thread there.
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That thread might have been 15 cents.
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A man goes on strike, I said, if they want 30
more cents on an hour-They get their 30 cents.
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00:12:06,709 --> 00:12:10,975
When they go back to work, they got
to raise that price to cover that wage.
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00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:12,980
The unions is what's doin' it.
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00:12:13,082 --> 00:12:15,380
The unions is ruinin'
the United States.
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I went to work when I was 10 years old
pickin' slate in the coal burner.
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Well, at that time
we were workin' 10 hours a day...
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and we were gettin'
six-and-a-fraction cents an hour.
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Well, we breaker boys...
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we'd have our feet in the chute
and we'd be pickin' the slate out...
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when the breaker boss
would sneak up behind us.
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And if he'd see a piece of slate
comin' through...
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he'd pick up the slate and hit you
in the back with it, and hit you hard.
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And he'd said, "Pick that slate up!"
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Well, they used to abuse us, actually.
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Well, finally we got to a stage where
we figured that, well, we was gonna strike.
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That was when I learned
my first real political lesson...
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about what happens when you take
a position against the coal operators...
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against the capitalists.
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Well, the first thing that happened...
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the union officials came to us
and told us we'd have to go back to work...
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that we were violating the agreement.
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We said, "To hell with the agreement. We're
gonna strike until we get our demands."
181
00:13:19,949 --> 00:13:24,147
Well, then the politicians began
visiting us and putting pressure on us.
182
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Then the parish priests.
183
00:13:26,255 --> 00:13:30,692
Well, finally the coal company
did agree to meet with us...
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and they agreed
to raise the hourly pay...
185
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from six-and-a-fraction cents
to eight cents an hour.
186
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So we thought
we got big concessions.
187
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Today that wouldn't mean anything.
That's only peanuts.
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But it meant a whole lot to us
and our paycheck at that period.
189
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Well, this was my first lesson -
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00:13:49,278 --> 00:13:54,682
that if you stuck to your organization
and stuck together in solidarity...
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you could defeat them.
192
00:13:56,786 --> 00:14:01,120
Besides that, I learned that the
politicians worked with the coal companies.
193
00:14:01,223 --> 00:14:05,455
I found out that the union officials
were working with the coal companies.
194
00:14:05,561 --> 00:14:10,021
I also found out that the Catholic hierarchy
was working with the coal officials.
195
00:14:10,132 --> 00:14:12,760
Here was a combination
of the whole thing, see -
196
00:14:12,868 --> 00:14:15,996
that you had to bump up
against the whole combination of them.
197
00:14:17,773 --> 00:14:22,540
When the coal and iron police would find
out who was trying to instigate a union...
198
00:14:22,645 --> 00:14:24,875
well, they'd abuse them.
199
00:14:24,980 --> 00:14:28,438
The miners figured, well,
the only way they could fight back...
200
00:14:28,551 --> 00:14:31,452
was to abuse them,
pay them for what they was doing:
201
00:14:31,554 --> 00:14:34,421
So they began to use, then, violence...
202
00:14:34,523 --> 00:14:39,984
in retaliation of the violence
that was bein' used against them.
203
00:14:40,095 --> 00:14:43,121
This kind of a struggle
went on to such a degree...
204
00:14:43,232 --> 00:14:45,860
that there was many of the mine foremen
gettin' killed...
205
00:14:45,968 --> 00:14:48,960
there was many of the police
gettin' killed...
206
00:14:49,071 --> 00:14:51,332
and, of course,
there was many miners gettin' killed.
207
00:14:51,373 --> 00:14:52,808
It was regular guerrilla warfare.
208
00:14:52,908 --> 00:14:58,312
And some of the early ideas of guerrilla
warfare developed out of that kind of struggle.
209
00:15:01,217 --> 00:15:05,586
The coal company gets every dollar which
he can chisel out of some coal miner...
210
00:15:05,688 --> 00:15:08,213
through oppressive management tactics.
211
00:15:08,324 --> 00:15:11,316
So why wouldn't the coal operators
be satisfied?
212
00:15:11,427 --> 00:15:15,090
The government is acting
as their muscleman.
213
00:15:16,832 --> 00:15:19,801
Tax money of Kentucky at work...
214
00:15:19,902 --> 00:15:22,132
breakin' the organized labor.
215
00:15:22,238 --> 00:15:24,263
Organized labor!
216
00:15:25,374 --> 00:15:29,105
Organized labor!
217
00:15:29,211 --> 00:15:34,513
Well, hell, I don't think they're in here
for anything except break the strike here.
218
00:15:34,617 --> 00:15:38,451
They are for the company all the way,
for the operators.
219
00:15:42,258 --> 00:15:46,285
I don't have any feelings one way
or the other. Just have a job to do.
220
00:15:46,395 --> 00:15:50,161
- And why are you here?
- To keep the roads open.
221
00:15:50,266 --> 00:15:53,963
Enforce laws, keep the peace,
try to keep people from gettin' hurt.
222
00:15:54,069 --> 00:15:56,469
Move down here, please.
223
00:15:56,572 --> 00:15:59,063
- Don't put your hands on me, hoss.
- All right.
224
00:15:59,174 --> 00:16:04,077
"Bailey." You know, my name's Bailey, and
you're a damn disgrace to the Bailey family.
225
00:16:06,181 --> 00:16:09,480
Boy, this is a damn shame. A Bailey,
y'all, a state cop. Ain't that a shame?
226
00:16:09,585 --> 00:16:13,351
You wanna get a shot of somethin',
get a shot of this baby hangin' off him.
227
00:16:13,455 --> 00:16:16,947
That's what I been lookin' at.
228
00:16:17,059 --> 00:16:21,018
It's the same diameter as this right here.
229
00:16:21,130 --> 00:16:23,030
Once a scab-
230
00:16:23,132 --> 00:16:25,600
There ain't no healin' for a scab.
You know?
231
00:16:25,701 --> 00:16:29,296
- Hell, that's some nerve.
- Here they come!
232
00:16:51,160 --> 00:16:54,721
There's the damn guy drawed that gun on me!
Right there! Right there!
233
00:16:54,830 --> 00:16:57,560
You son of a bitch, you!
234
00:17:01,971 --> 00:17:04,940
Hey!
235
00:17:07,009 --> 00:17:08,909
Get 'em outta here.
236
00:17:11,013 --> 00:17:13,970
- Hey! That's goddamn wrong!
- That's the kind of goddamn law we got!
237
00:17:16,018 --> 00:17:20,318
- Donny!
- They ask, you tell the people!
238
00:17:20,422 --> 00:17:23,550
They'll set a while out back,
your two families!
239
00:17:23,659 --> 00:17:26,719
Hey! Hey!
What in the hell you think you're doin'?
240
00:17:31,533 --> 00:17:33,763
Scabbin' bastards.
241
00:17:33,869 --> 00:17:36,599
- Go on, sucky!
- Hey, scab!
242
00:17:36,705 --> 00:17:39,401
Hey, go on! Hey, go on!
243
00:17:39,508 --> 00:17:41,408
Excuse me. Have some of my hand.
244
00:17:41,510 --> 00:17:44,104
- Goddamn bastards!
- Goddamn scab sons of bitches!
245
00:17:44,213 --> 00:17:47,114
Hey!
246
00:17:47,216 --> 00:17:49,184
Scabs!
247
00:17:51,220 --> 00:17:55,850
All you guys on this injunction, all 36
of you, remember this-it's a court order.
248
00:17:55,958 --> 00:17:59,359
You can't block the traffic,
and don't call 'em scabs.
249
00:17:59,461 --> 00:18:03,420
- Why not?
- 'Cause if you do, you'll be behind bars.
250
00:18:03,532 --> 00:18:06,433
I don't think
you'll never win a strike...
251
00:18:06,535 --> 00:18:10,437
by havin' six people
on the picket line.
252
00:18:10,539 --> 00:18:14,839
There's no way, I mean, that you can
win a strike with six pickets.
253
00:18:14,943 --> 00:18:17,776
So you gotta violate these injunctions.
254
00:18:17,880 --> 00:18:20,872
Lawyers are made to
get you out of trouble after you get in...
255
00:18:20,983 --> 00:18:24,146
not to get you out of trouble
before you get in.
256
00:18:25,354 --> 00:18:28,915
I'll put it like this-
you do what you wanna do.
257
00:18:29,124 --> 00:18:32,787
Women all over the country are interested
in what their husbands are doin'.
258
00:18:32,895 --> 00:18:36,831
They're interested in the safety laws
that the United Mine Workers have...
259
00:18:36,932 --> 00:18:39,799
and they want their husbands
to have their pension funds.
260
00:18:39,902 --> 00:18:42,803
They don't want their husbands
goin' into these scab mines...
261
00:18:42,905 --> 00:18:46,033
with the rock a-fallin' and runnin'
these here motors with no brakes.
262
00:18:46,141 --> 00:18:49,542
So, they want to participate.
They're ready and willing.
263
00:18:49,645 --> 00:18:54,173
The good thing about our club is that now
we're giving them the chance to participate.
264
00:18:54,283 --> 00:18:56,183
You see?
265
00:18:56,285 --> 00:18:59,497
When their husbands goes in the mines,
they're prayin' that they'll get out.
266
00:18:59,521 --> 00:19:03,252
I think that they feel like maybe their
prayers would have been answered sooner...
267
00:19:03,358 --> 00:19:06,725
if they were workin'
under a U.M.W.A. contract.
268
00:19:06,829 --> 00:19:10,162
Well, I went down there
in support of the miners...
269
00:19:10,265 --> 00:19:12,165
for the miners...
270
00:19:12,267 --> 00:19:16,567
and in support of my own children too
that I'm raisin' up.
271
00:19:16,672 --> 00:19:20,972
Now, sit down real easy.
Sit down. Now, it's runnin' over.
272
00:19:21,076 --> 00:19:24,409
- I can't get my foot -
- Angie!
273
00:19:24,513 --> 00:19:27,641
- I couldn't get my foot outta here.
- You're messin'.
274
00:19:27,750 --> 00:19:32,517
- When will we be goin' to jail again?
- If the scab starts to cross the picket lines -
275
00:19:32,621 --> 00:19:37,183
We went because we was tryin' to protect -
The scab was gonna take your daddy's job.
276
00:19:37,292 --> 00:19:40,386
When they sign the contract,
Daddy's gonna have hot running water...
277
00:19:40,496 --> 00:19:43,021
and a big ol' bathtub.
278
00:19:48,704 --> 00:19:51,036
Let's help the striking miners now!
279
00:19:51,140 --> 00:19:56,635
♪ Come, all you coal miners ♪
280
00:19:56,745 --> 00:19:59,009
♪ Wherever you may be ♪
281
00:19:59,114 --> 00:20:02,515
♪ And listen to a story ♪
282
00:20:02,618 --> 00:20:05,382
♪ That I'll relate to thee ♪
283
00:20:05,487 --> 00:20:08,854
♪ My name is nothin' "extree" ♪
284
00:20:08,957 --> 00:20:12,154
♪ But the truth to you I'll tell ♪
285
00:20:12,261 --> 00:20:15,560
♪ I am a coal miner's wife ♪
286
00:20:15,664 --> 00:20:18,895
♪ I'm sure I wish you well ♪
287
00:20:19,001 --> 00:20:22,266
♪ They take your very lifeblood ♪
288
00:20:22,371 --> 00:20:24,896
♪ They take our children's lives ♪
289
00:20:25,007 --> 00:20:28,602
♪ Take fathers away from children ♪
290
00:20:28,710 --> 00:20:31,645
♪ And husbands away from wives ♪
291
00:20:31,747 --> 00:20:34,978
♪ Oh, miner, won't you organize ♪
292
00:20:35,083 --> 00:20:37,881
♪ Wherever you may be ♪
293
00:20:37,986 --> 00:20:41,979
♪ And make this a land of freedom ♪
294
00:20:42,090 --> 00:20:45,719
♪ For workers like you and me ♪♪
295
00:20:45,828 --> 00:20:48,888
And we have to fight for our rights.
296
00:20:48,997 --> 00:20:50,897
You gonna have to fight for that.
297
00:20:50,999 --> 00:20:55,834
If you have more safety in the mines,
if you get your portal-to-portal pay...
298
00:20:55,938 --> 00:20:59,430
if you have your doctor card
so you can be doctored.
299
00:20:59,541 --> 00:21:04,001
Because if you get disabled
and you don't have any backing...
300
00:21:04,112 --> 00:21:07,513
then some home will get you...
301
00:21:07,616 --> 00:21:10,050
or your family will starve.
302
00:21:10,152 --> 00:21:12,552
For, you see, I know what it means.
303
00:21:12,654 --> 00:21:15,919
And this club means a lot
to pull us all together.
304
00:21:16,024 --> 00:21:18,720
Everybody stand together in it...
305
00:21:18,827 --> 00:21:20,886
and everybody goes together...
306
00:21:20,996 --> 00:21:23,226
everybody go out on the picket line...
307
00:21:23,332 --> 00:21:25,232
and we'll win their contract...
308
00:21:25,334 --> 00:21:27,234
if they'll all stand up.
309
00:21:27,336 --> 00:21:30,703
That's good, Sudie. That's real good.
310
00:21:40,315 --> 00:21:43,284
All the police were lined up
there when we got there.
311
00:21:43,385 --> 00:21:46,650
It was early. We must've got there
at quarter after 5:00, maybe 5:30.
312
00:21:46,755 --> 00:21:49,553
But they were there already.
313
00:21:49,658 --> 00:21:53,287
And by that time all this big crowd
had gathered-you know, supporters.
314
00:21:53,395 --> 00:21:57,729
One car went through with three men in it.
They kinda slipped through.
315
00:21:57,833 --> 00:22:02,998
And, uh, the next car that come through, we
were able to get in the road and lay down.
316
00:22:03,105 --> 00:22:05,869
- No work today, fellers!
- Come on, girls! Lay down! Lay down!
317
00:22:08,944 --> 00:22:11,845
Now let's see what kind of law
we got in Harlan County...
318
00:22:11,947 --> 00:22:13,847
what kind of state police we got.
319
00:22:13,949 --> 00:22:15,849
Look at them bastards, manhandlin' women.
320
00:22:15,951 --> 00:22:19,079
We didn't give 'em
any resistance whatever.
321
00:22:19,187 --> 00:22:23,144
We just laid down in the road because they were
there to escort those scabs through to work.
322
00:22:23,225 --> 00:22:26,126
And that's been goin' on
for a whole month.
323
00:22:26,228 --> 00:22:28,389
And we'd just come too far for that.
324
00:22:32,167 --> 00:22:34,635
Take pictures, boys!
325
00:22:36,338 --> 00:22:38,898
You're havin' fun, right?
326
00:22:42,844 --> 00:22:46,746
Honey, they gotta stay on that picket line.
They start scabbin'- They gotta go back there.
327
00:22:46,848 --> 00:22:49,749
They can't let me down.
Shit, just bring me a gun, for-
328
00:22:49,851 --> 00:22:52,319
I-I'd rather be dead...
329
00:22:52,421 --> 00:22:55,322
i- if I have to know
that there's scabs at Brookside.
330
00:22:55,424 --> 00:22:58,518
I can't stand it.
I can't stand the thought of it.
331
00:22:58,627 --> 00:23:01,152
So just don't let 'em, you know -
332
00:23:01,263 --> 00:23:04,721
♪ Stay on the picket line
Always on the picket line ♪
333
00:23:04,833 --> 00:23:06,733
I really mean it.
334
00:23:09,471 --> 00:23:12,372
If they'll just keep on the picket line,
we'll -we'll -
335
00:23:12,474 --> 00:23:15,136
then they'll just beat hell
out of them scabs!
336
00:23:15,243 --> 00:23:17,143
Beat the shit right out of 'em!
337
00:23:17,245 --> 00:23:19,145
- That's mine there!
- Which one ain't took?
338
00:23:19,247 --> 00:23:21,147
I don't know, but I got this un.
339
00:23:21,249 --> 00:23:25,049
This top one ain't took yet.
This a double mattress. I'll take this un.
340
00:23:25,153 --> 00:23:28,452
- Hell, I was legally on the picket line.
- I knows he was.
341
00:23:28,557 --> 00:23:32,288
I tried to show 'em in court down there,
and they wouldn't accept a damn thing.
342
00:23:32,394 --> 00:23:34,862
Let's go violate one more time.
343
00:23:34,963 --> 00:23:36,863
Then let 'em put us right back.
344
00:23:36,965 --> 00:23:39,832
'Cause you're a prisoner out there anyway.
You might as well be -
345
00:23:39,935 --> 00:23:41,835
Might as well just be in jail.
346
00:23:41,937 --> 00:23:44,337
It is the judgment of the court...
347
00:23:44,439 --> 00:23:47,237
that Bill Doan, George Eldridge,
Lois Scott, Betty Eldridge...
348
00:23:47,342 --> 00:23:49,537
Bessie Cornett and Melba Strong...
349
00:23:49,644 --> 00:23:52,442
be incarcerated for
a period of 60 days from this date.
350
00:23:52,547 --> 00:23:56,347
Could I say-Because I haven't had
a chance to give any testimony today.
351
00:23:56,451 --> 00:24:00,012
I knew we weren't gonna get any justice.
You say the laws were made for us.
352
00:24:00,122 --> 00:24:03,523
The laws are not made
for the working people in this country.
353
00:24:03,625 --> 00:24:06,150
There's a person missing here today,
and that's Carl Horn.
354
00:24:06,261 --> 00:24:09,162
The law was made for people
like Carl Horn, not for us.
355
00:24:09,264 --> 00:24:12,597
I knew when I came here, without
offering any testimony or gettin' up...
356
00:24:12,701 --> 00:24:16,137
I knew what I was doin' at Brookside,
because that's what I wanted to do.
357
00:24:16,238 --> 00:24:19,571
For once I was able to take the offensive
instead of coming down here...
358
00:24:19,674 --> 00:24:22,575
to take a step backward
to try and defend what we did.
359
00:24:22,677 --> 00:24:25,578
What we did is right,
and we all know that.
360
00:24:32,988 --> 00:24:34,888
I resent the fact...
361
00:24:34,990 --> 00:24:40,519
that they-that Judge Hogg is a-tryin' me,
and him a coal operator...
362
00:24:40,629 --> 00:24:46,192
and that sittin' beside him
is circuit court clerk Mary Lou Coldarn...
363
00:24:46,301 --> 00:24:48,496
is sittin' up there,
and her son is up there -
364
00:24:48,603 --> 00:24:51,868
He's the photographer up there
takin' the pictures for 'em...
365
00:24:51,973 --> 00:24:55,067
to blacklist the men on the picket line -
I resent that.
366
00:24:55,177 --> 00:24:59,807
I resent the fact that he can make a law that
can tell me that I can't go where I please.
367
00:24:59,915 --> 00:25:02,008
He's violatin' my constitutional right.
368
00:25:03,251 --> 00:25:05,151
My name is Norman Yarborough.
369
00:25:05,253 --> 00:25:08,586
On my right is Mr. Logan Patterson...
370
00:25:08,690 --> 00:25:12,990
who is an attorney who has been retained
by the Eastover Mining Company...
371
00:25:13,095 --> 00:25:14,995
as chief negotiator.
372
00:25:15,097 --> 00:25:17,497
I'd like to ask you what you think...
373
00:25:17,599 --> 00:25:19,829
about the role the miners' wives...
374
00:25:19,935 --> 00:25:22,563
have played in this strike.
375
00:25:22,671 --> 00:25:25,139
Well, they've certainly
played a big role in it.
376
00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:29,472
I would hate to think that my wife
would play this kind of role.
377
00:25:29,578 --> 00:25:31,478
Why?
378
00:25:31,580 --> 00:25:33,810
Well, there's been some conduct...
379
00:25:33,915 --> 00:25:38,716
that I don't like to think that our
American women have to -
380
00:25:38,820 --> 00:25:40,879
to revert to.
381
00:25:40,989 --> 00:25:43,389
Is it a fact that the Duke Power Company...
382
00:25:43,492 --> 00:25:47,758
maintains housing for its employees
that has no water and no indoor plumbing?
383
00:25:47,863 --> 00:25:51,196
Yes,
sir. We were attempting to move our people-
384
00:25:51,299 --> 00:25:54,860
And these are our people.
They're my people.
385
00:25:54,970 --> 00:25:59,430
Move our people,
upgrade our people into trailers...
386
00:25:59,541 --> 00:26:02,942
upgrade our people into better housing...
387
00:26:03,044 --> 00:26:05,638
better conditions in all directions...
388
00:26:05,747 --> 00:26:09,376
because they'll make us better people
when we are able to do this.
389
00:26:15,690 --> 00:26:18,557
Larry! Come on to supper!
390
00:26:18,660 --> 00:26:21,561
It's a feudal system, I think.
391
00:26:21,663 --> 00:26:26,123
There's a very rich class of people,
and then there are the coal miners.
392
00:26:26,234 --> 00:26:28,759
And then there are the people
who are on relief.
393
00:26:28,870 --> 00:26:31,236
And that's about it in Harlan.
394
00:26:31,339 --> 00:26:33,239
They wanna keep it this way.
395
00:26:33,341 --> 00:26:37,141
The way they keep it that way
is keepin' a monopoly on the labor market.
396
00:26:37,245 --> 00:26:40,544
They do that by keepin' other competitive -
397
00:26:40,649 --> 00:26:42,947
or industries that will be competitive...
398
00:26:43,051 --> 00:26:45,986
you know, for the labor-
keep them out.
399
00:26:46,087 --> 00:26:50,387
There are a few little places to work, but
they don't pay nothin' but the minimum wage.
400
00:26:50,492 --> 00:26:52,392
Maybe two dollars an hour.
401
00:26:52,494 --> 00:26:55,395
You can't make a livin' at that no more.
402
00:26:55,497 --> 00:26:59,297
And if it don't go United Mine Workers,
me and him'll have to leave Harlan County.
403
00:26:59,401 --> 00:27:01,335
That's for sure.
Or maybe Kentucky.
404
00:27:01,436 --> 00:27:04,872
We'll have to go where it's a
union state to get a job again.
405
00:27:04,973 --> 00:27:08,636
Duke Power is a Southern,
conservative company.
406
00:27:08,743 --> 00:27:12,873
Less than 10%% of their employees
in their power plants...
407
00:27:12,981 --> 00:27:14,881
and their line crews...
408
00:27:14,983 --> 00:27:16,883
are organized.
409
00:27:16,985 --> 00:27:20,045
And they feel that if we -
410
00:27:20,155 --> 00:27:22,715
if they give in to a contract here...
411
00:27:22,824 --> 00:27:27,318
it will encourage union organization
in their home state of North Carolina...
412
00:27:27,429 --> 00:27:29,329
and South Carolina.
413
00:27:32,500 --> 00:27:35,094
♪ They say in North Carolina ♪
414
00:27:35,203 --> 00:27:37,967
♪ Duke Power runs the show ♪
415
00:27:38,073 --> 00:27:40,871
♪ Carl Horn would like
to break the strike ♪
416
00:27:40,976 --> 00:27:43,843
♪ But the miners tell him no ♪
417
00:27:43,945 --> 00:27:46,436
♪ Which side are you on, boys ♪
418
00:27:46,548 --> 00:27:50,075
♪ Which side are you on ♪
419
00:27:50,185 --> 00:27:53,086
♪ Goin' up to New York City ♪
420
00:27:53,188 --> 00:27:55,349
♪ We've got to spread the news ♪
421
00:27:55,457 --> 00:27:58,426
♪ Been fightin' hard for many months ♪
422
00:27:58,526 --> 00:28:00,858
♪ And we're not about to lose ♪
423
00:28:00,962 --> 00:28:04,420
♪ Which side are you on, boys ♪
424
00:28:04,532 --> 00:28:08,434
♪ Which side are you on ♪♪
425
00:28:08,536 --> 00:28:11,437
- You from the South?
- Can I have one of those? Thank you!
426
00:28:11,539 --> 00:28:14,201
You all look like y'all from -
427
00:28:14,309 --> 00:28:16,209
We're gonna let people know...
428
00:28:16,311 --> 00:28:19,405
that if you buy Duke Power stock,
it's risky.
429
00:28:19,514 --> 00:28:21,675
We've had several this mornin:
430
00:28:21,783 --> 00:28:24,684
Said they had Duke Power stock,
but they wouldn't have it long.
431
00:28:24,786 --> 00:28:27,186
They said,
"We're gonna get rid of it."
432
00:28:27,289 --> 00:28:29,189
And that sounded beautiful to me.
433
00:28:29,424 --> 00:28:32,359
- The tunnels here is just like a mine.
- Yeah.
434
00:28:32,460 --> 00:28:36,294
Only ours is about 42 inches high.
435
00:28:36,398 --> 00:28:39,299
I think-I think these are more secure
than a mine, sir.
436
00:28:39,401 --> 00:28:42,302
I wouldn't mind going under here,
but your mines -
437
00:28:42,404 --> 00:28:44,929
- Yeah. You wouldn't wanna go in the mines?
- No.
438
00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:49,136
They could make good profit off the mines
if they had a union. They won't give us one.
439
00:28:49,244 --> 00:28:51,679
Make good profit, but they
keep it all themselves. Right?
440
00:28:51,746 --> 00:28:54,306
- Yeah.
- They don't spread the wealth.
441
00:28:54,416 --> 00:28:57,317
I thought you guys got paid
a little more than you do.
442
00:28:57,419 --> 00:28:59,897
You don't get paid a bad salary,
but I thought it was a little more.
443
00:28:59,921 --> 00:29:02,321
- We get paid real good, but, you know -
- No, it's not.
444
00:29:02,424 --> 00:29:04,642
What's real good?
Five dollars, six dollars an hour?
445
00:29:04,693 --> 00:29:07,287
- Yeah, we - - That's not real
good. I make more than that.
446
00:29:07,395 --> 00:29:09,295
- Yeah?
- Sure, I do.
447
00:29:09,397 --> 00:29:11,797
The policeman makes less down there.
448
00:29:11,900 --> 00:29:15,336
- We make about seven.
- God! That's good money.
449
00:29:15,437 --> 00:29:17,462
We draw union strike benefits.
450
00:29:17,572 --> 00:29:21,064
And it's real hard, you know,
to live on a hundred.
451
00:29:21,176 --> 00:29:23,076
Is your job real dangerous, though?
452
00:29:23,178 --> 00:29:25,078
- Look at me.
- I mean -
453
00:29:25,180 --> 00:29:27,080
This is all I do.
It's a lot of bullshit.
454
00:29:27,182 --> 00:29:30,583
A lot of people don't understand
that that electricity burnin' over there...
455
00:29:30,685 --> 00:29:33,586
takes somebody dyin'
every day for it.
456
00:29:33,688 --> 00:29:36,088
There's one man dies every day.
457
00:29:38,226 --> 00:29:40,456
- You probably got medical coverage.
- Free.
458
00:29:40,562 --> 00:29:42,462
Free medical coverage.
459
00:29:42,564 --> 00:29:44,794
I'd save up, buddy, buy a house.
460
00:29:44,899 --> 00:29:47,120
Kids all get sick,
I'd have to spend every penny-
461
00:29:47,144 --> 00:29:48,266
What about dental?
462
00:29:48,370 --> 00:29:50,270
No dental.
463
00:29:50,372 --> 00:29:52,272
- You got dental?
- Dental.
464
00:29:52,374 --> 00:29:55,036
- Goddamn.
- We got dental. We got all kinds of health.
465
00:29:55,143 --> 00:29:57,771
We got drugs.
I could retire at 36.
466
00:29:57,879 --> 00:29:59,779
Half pay-10,000 a year.
467
00:29:59,881 --> 00:30:02,315
They don't want us to
ever be able to retire.
468
00:30:02,417 --> 00:30:04,510
- That's bad.
- That's the reason we're here.
469
00:30:04,619 --> 00:30:07,611
That's the reason we're on strike.
Been on strike nine months.
470
00:30:07,722 --> 00:30:09,622
- Nine months?
- Nine months.
471
00:30:09,724 --> 00:30:12,955
- I thought this was the first day.
- No! This is nine months.
472
00:30:13,061 --> 00:30:14,602
We can't get a-
They won't sign a contract.
473
00:30:14,626 --> 00:30:16,273
- It's good you came here
to bring some publicity.
474
00:30:16,297 --> 00:30:18,060
Yeah. Yeah.
475
00:30:18,233 --> 00:30:21,066
The outstanding issues...
476
00:30:21,169 --> 00:30:24,138
between Duke Power's
coal mining subsidiary...
477
00:30:24,239 --> 00:30:26,139
Eastover Mining Company...
478
00:30:26,241 --> 00:30:29,404
and the United Mine Workers...
479
00:30:29,511 --> 00:30:33,106
in the opinion of
the management of Eastover...
480
00:30:33,214 --> 00:30:36,741
and the management of Duke Power,
its parent, are...
481
00:30:36,851 --> 00:30:40,116
the absence of a no-strike clause -
482
00:30:40,221 --> 00:30:46,091
the refusal of the union to agree to
not strike during the life of the contract.
483
00:30:46,194 --> 00:30:51,063
If there are questions on the content
of my report to the stockholders...
484
00:30:51,166 --> 00:30:53,066
I will entertain those questions.
485
00:30:53,168 --> 00:30:57,696
How come you hire gun thugs
to harass us around with?
486
00:30:57,806 --> 00:31:02,106
You sayin' there that the issue is
for a no-strike clause.
487
00:31:02,210 --> 00:31:04,804
Well,
if we had a no-strike clause in there...
488
00:31:04,913 --> 00:31:06,891
Norman Yarborough
could kick us off that hill...
489
00:31:06,915 --> 00:31:10,442
and there wouldn't be
a thing we could do about it.
490
00:31:10,552 --> 00:31:13,385
But I tell you,
we in Harlan County...
491
00:31:13,488 --> 00:31:15,888
all of our life
we've been kicked around...
492
00:31:15,990 --> 00:31:17,890
we've been put in jail...
493
00:31:17,992 --> 00:31:20,392
we've been shot at,
we've had dynamite throwed at us...
494
00:31:20,495 --> 00:31:22,895
and then you don't want us
to have nothin'.
495
00:31:22,997 --> 00:31:24,897
Well, I tell you, Mr. Horn...
496
00:31:24,999 --> 00:31:27,978
I'm gonna be standin' right there
on that picket line lookin' at you...
497
00:31:28,002 --> 00:31:29,902
just as long as it takes.
498
00:31:30,004 --> 00:31:31,562
Thank you.
499
00:31:33,441 --> 00:31:38,105
Coal companies are not
the ♪.P. Morgans or the Hannas anymore.
500
00:31:38,213 --> 00:31:40,113
It's Occidental Petroleum...
501
00:31:40,215 --> 00:31:42,046
and Exxon and Sohio.
502
00:31:42,150 --> 00:31:44,064
The oil companies
control the coal industry.
503
00:31:44,152 --> 00:31:48,316
Seventy percent of all the domestic coal
reserves are owned by oil companies.
504
00:31:54,996 --> 00:31:58,056
There just can't be any question...
505
00:31:58,166 --> 00:32:00,498
that the health and the safety...
506
00:32:00,602 --> 00:32:02,593
of our employees...
507
00:32:02,704 --> 00:32:04,729
in the mining industry...
508
00:32:04,839 --> 00:32:07,637
must be given first priority...
509
00:32:08,977 --> 00:32:12,003
on humanitarian grounds alone.
510
00:32:12,113 --> 00:32:14,877
We find violation
after violation after violation...
511
00:32:14,983 --> 00:32:16,883
in those mines.
512
00:32:16,985 --> 00:32:18,885
We have a national record...
513
00:32:18,987 --> 00:32:20,477
that looks very poor...
514
00:32:20,588 --> 00:32:22,566
when laid up against
the German national record...
515
00:32:22,590 --> 00:32:25,491
the U.X. national record,
the French national record...
516
00:32:25,593 --> 00:32:27,925
the Netherlands national record...
517
00:32:28,029 --> 00:32:29,929
and the others that I've examined.
518
00:32:30,031 --> 00:32:34,263
So I think that - I'm not indicting anyone.
If anything, I'm indicting myself.
519
00:32:34,369 --> 00:32:38,635
I'm indicting an agency that I've been
associated with for a long time.
520
00:32:38,740 --> 00:32:41,641
We haven't done all
that we should have in this field.
521
00:32:57,125 --> 00:33:02,791
"Oh, my God, Frankie," I said, "The
whole midnight shift in the mine blew up.
522
00:33:02,897 --> 00:33:07,391
They're trapped in the mine,
and Pete's in there too."
523
00:33:07,502 --> 00:33:11,996
He left for work, and he acted, well, just
kinda like he didn't want to go to work.
524
00:33:12,106 --> 00:33:15,007
He'd rather stayed home.
He said, "Maybe I should stay home."
525
00:33:15,109 --> 00:33:18,088
I said, "Well, why don't you?"
He went to the door two or three times.
526
00:33:18,112 --> 00:33:21,013
Kept saying, "Should I go,
or should I stay home?
527
00:33:21,115 --> 00:33:24,016
It's spittin' snow out there,
and I just hate to be on the road."
528
00:33:24,118 --> 00:33:27,019
I said, "Stay home, then,
and pretend you're sick tonight."
529
00:33:27,121 --> 00:33:29,521
But he went,
and that was the explosion -
530
00:33:29,624 --> 00:33:34,323
I live right almost on the seat
of the main explosion - right there.
531
00:33:34,429 --> 00:33:36,590
And they said,
"You get out of your house!"
532
00:33:36,698 --> 00:33:39,599
And the police told me to get out.
But you know why?
533
00:33:39,701 --> 00:33:42,101
Because they was notified
to tell me get out.
534
00:33:42,203 --> 00:33:46,401
Because they didn't want me to see what was
goin' on up at that damn, dirty, filthy mines!
535
00:33:46,507 --> 00:33:52,036
I gave up.
I figured we'd never make it out.
536
00:33:52,146 --> 00:33:55,411
Because we just -
w-we all passed out.
537
00:33:55,516 --> 00:33:59,179
I don't know, uh, whether...
538
00:33:59,287 --> 00:34:03,053
any-any one man
didn't pass out or not.
539
00:34:03,157 --> 00:34:06,058
I couldn't say that,
'cause I know I did.
540
00:34:06,160 --> 00:34:09,288
When I woke up,
I was like froze to death.
541
00:34:09,397 --> 00:34:12,298
I've worked in the mines
about seven years...
542
00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:16,860
and I've really never been
too scared of the mines.
543
00:34:16,971 --> 00:34:21,431
But I don't think
I'll go back in the mines.
544
00:34:21,542 --> 00:34:24,807
And, uh, the television says...
545
00:34:24,912 --> 00:34:27,813
uh, if another explosion would occur...
546
00:34:27,915 --> 00:34:29,815
they'd have to seal the mine.
547
00:34:29,917 --> 00:34:32,181
And about 1:00 that explosion came...
548
00:34:32,286 --> 00:34:34,254
and I says, "Uh-oh, they'll seal it."
549
00:34:36,524 --> 00:34:38,424
They sealed 'em.
550
00:34:38,526 --> 00:34:40,824
And then we knew that was-
that was it.
551
00:34:46,167 --> 00:34:48,499
♪ You can read it in the paper ♪
552
00:34:48,603 --> 00:34:51,470
♪ And the radio tells ♪
553
00:34:52,774 --> 00:34:55,106
♪ Us to raise our children ♪
554
00:34:55,209 --> 00:34:58,610
♪ To be miners as well ♪
555
00:35:00,114 --> 00:35:03,777
♪ Tell them how safe ♪
556
00:35:03,885 --> 00:35:07,787
♪ The mines are today ♪
557
00:35:07,889 --> 00:35:10,084
♪ And be like Daddy ♪
558
00:35:10,191 --> 00:35:13,422
♪ Bring home a big pay ♪
559
00:35:14,762 --> 00:35:19,392
♪ But don't you believe it, my boy ♪
560
00:35:19,500 --> 00:35:24,335
♪ That story's a lie ♪
561
00:35:24,439 --> 00:35:27,602
♪ Remember the disaster ♪
562
00:35:27,709 --> 00:35:32,703
♪ At the Mannington mine ♪
563
00:35:32,814 --> 00:35:38,844
♪ Where 78 miners were burned alive ♪
564
00:35:38,953 --> 00:35:41,854
♪ 'Cause of unsafe conditions ♪
565
00:35:41,956 --> 00:35:44,584
♪ Your daddies died ♪♪
566
00:35:49,931 --> 00:35:53,025
And I would like to know,
since they died...
567
00:35:53,134 --> 00:35:57,298
uh, in order to help the living,
find out what caused that explosion.
568
00:35:57,405 --> 00:35:59,930
You know,
you learn from a tragedy.
569
00:36:00,041 --> 00:36:02,100
Then maybe they could help, uh -
570
00:36:02,210 --> 00:36:04,371
- Others.
- Uh, others to live.
571
00:36:04,479 --> 00:36:06,777
Then it wouldn't happen again.
572
00:36:06,881 --> 00:36:08,781
But as long as they're greedy...
573
00:36:08,883 --> 00:36:12,114
and as long as they're
rushing the coal miner...
574
00:36:12,220 --> 00:36:14,780
in wanting the production
before lives...
575
00:36:14,889 --> 00:36:17,323
there'll always be tragedies.
576
00:36:19,427 --> 00:36:22,328
I known there was somethin' wrong,
but I didn't know what it was.
577
00:36:22,430 --> 00:36:24,796
- And the doctors told me.
- 'Bout 60, don't you guess?
578
00:36:24,899 --> 00:36:27,697
Yeah, 'bout 60.
Somewheres along there.
579
00:36:27,802 --> 00:36:30,168
Well, what would happen to you...
580
00:36:30,271 --> 00:36:33,172
when you started realizing
that something was wrong?
581
00:36:33,274 --> 00:36:35,174
Well, you just couldn't get no breath.
582
00:36:35,276 --> 00:36:40,805
You'd walk a little piece and you'd
give out, just a-pantin' for breath.
583
00:36:40,915 --> 00:36:44,442
And sometimes
you couldn't hardly get it no way.
584
00:36:44,552 --> 00:36:47,680
Lots of times I've had to go
to the hospital down here.
585
00:36:47,789 --> 00:36:50,053
They gave me some shots and things.
586
00:36:50,158 --> 00:36:52,058
I thought I was a goner.
587
00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:54,924
♪ Black lung, black lung ♪
588
00:36:55,029 --> 00:36:59,989
♪ Oh, your hand's icy cold ♪
589
00:37:00,101 --> 00:37:04,231
♪ As you reach for my life ♪
590
00:37:04,338 --> 00:37:08,297
♪ And you torture my soul ♪
591
00:37:08,409 --> 00:37:14,439
♪ Cold as that water hole
down in that dark cave ♪
592
00:37:14,549 --> 00:37:18,110
♪ Where I spent my life's blood ♪
593
00:37:18,219 --> 00:37:22,246
♪ Diggin' my own grave ♪♪
594
00:37:25,359 --> 00:37:28,658
When you start destroying
the lung tissue...
595
00:37:28,763 --> 00:37:32,164
as occurs in miners who
have pneumoconiosis...
596
00:37:32,266 --> 00:37:34,291
and the end result of pneumoconiosis...
597
00:37:34,402 --> 00:37:37,337
there really isn't anything
that you can do to restore the lungs.
598
00:37:37,438 --> 00:37:39,406
They're just simply destroyed.
599
00:37:44,078 --> 00:37:46,911
170 over 100.
600
00:37:47,014 --> 00:37:49,278
Buck, how old a man are you?
601
00:37:49,383 --> 00:37:52,443
- I'm 67.
- You're 67?
602
00:37:52,553 --> 00:37:56,546
You couldn't see your buddy
on the other side of the car for the dust.
603
00:37:56,657 --> 00:38:00,058
We'd be covered just black.
604
00:38:00,161 --> 00:38:04,495
We done make every color when we went in.
You all be look the same when you came out.
605
00:38:04,599 --> 00:38:06,692
Right?
606
00:38:06,801 --> 00:38:09,599
- That's right.
- We's all even, huh?
607
00:38:09,704 --> 00:38:13,606
- We's all brothers when we out.
- That's right, when you came out.
608
00:38:13,708 --> 00:38:16,386
The whites looked like the blacks,
so it wasn't any difference.
609
00:38:16,410 --> 00:38:19,174
You known you was gettin'
plenty dust.
610
00:38:19,280 --> 00:38:22,511
There are also miners that are working
and who are very symptomatic...
611
00:38:22,617 --> 00:38:24,517
but who don't dare quit...
612
00:38:24,619 --> 00:38:28,453
unless they can be reassured
that they have sufficient impairment...
613
00:38:28,556 --> 00:38:31,821
that they'll be able to collect
some sort of disability benefits.
614
00:38:31,926 --> 00:38:33,826
It's a kind of negative system...
615
00:38:33,928 --> 00:38:38,888
because what we do is we really force them to
keep working until they become that disabled.
616
00:38:40,434 --> 00:38:43,460
♪ He went to the boss man ♪
617
00:38:43,571 --> 00:38:47,803
♪ But he closed the door ♪
618
00:38:47,909 --> 00:38:51,709
♪ Well, it seems you're not wanted ♪
619
00:38:51,812 --> 00:38:54,440
- Very good.
- ♪ When you're sick ♪
620
00:38:54,548 --> 00:38:57,813
♪ And you're poor ♪
621
00:38:57,919 --> 00:39:01,787
♪ You're not even covered ♪
622
00:39:01,889 --> 00:39:06,121
♪ In their medical plans ♪
623
00:39:06,227 --> 00:39:09,822
♪ And your life depends ♪
624
00:39:09,931 --> 00:39:14,231
♪ On the favors of man ♪♪
625
00:39:16,003 --> 00:39:21,236
We want to do the right thing
about coal workers' pneumoconiosis.
626
00:39:21,342 --> 00:39:23,242
But we think the best informed...
627
00:39:23,344 --> 00:39:26,211
medical opinion will show you...
628
00:39:26,314 --> 00:39:28,214
that it's not true...
629
00:39:28,316 --> 00:39:31,217
that the inhalation and retention
of coal dust in the lungs...
630
00:39:31,319 --> 00:39:35,346
necessarily results in any impairment
of pulmonary function...
631
00:39:35,456 --> 00:39:37,356
and that, on the contrary...
632
00:39:37,458 --> 00:39:40,450
only a relatively small portion
of coal miners...
633
00:39:40,561 --> 00:39:43,553
who have coal dust
retained in the lungs...
634
00:39:43,664 --> 00:39:46,565
have any resulting impairment
of pulmonary function...
635
00:39:46,667 --> 00:39:48,567
much less disability.
636
00:39:48,669 --> 00:39:51,570
This is one of your brother's lungs.
637
00:39:51,672 --> 00:39:54,641
And this is what it looks like at autopsy.
638
00:39:54,742 --> 00:39:57,575
And this is why he died.
639
00:39:57,678 --> 00:39:59,646
That's preventable.
640
00:40:00,681 --> 00:40:02,581
Other countries have done it.
641
00:40:02,683 --> 00:40:04,810
Other countries have made
tremendous strides.
642
00:40:04,919 --> 00:40:08,377
For example, the Australians believe
that they've completely eliminated...
643
00:40:08,489 --> 00:40:10,889
the problem of lung disease
in their coal miners.
644
00:40:12,393 --> 00:40:15,590
♪ Down at the graveyard ♪
645
00:40:15,696 --> 00:40:19,029
♪ The boss man came ♪
646
00:40:19,133 --> 00:40:24,036
♪ With his little bunch of flowers ♪
647
00:40:24,138 --> 00:40:26,732
♪ Dear God ♪
648
00:40:26,841 --> 00:40:29,366
♪ What a shame ♪
649
00:40:29,477 --> 00:40:32,674
♪ Take back those flowers ♪
650
00:40:32,780 --> 00:40:36,682
♪ Don't you sing no sad song ♪
651
00:40:36,784 --> 00:40:40,242
♪ The die has been cast now ♪
652
00:40:40,354 --> 00:40:45,257
♪ A good man is gone ♪♪
653
00:40:49,530 --> 00:40:55,332
It turns out that 1969 was a year for an
election in the United Mine Workers union.
654
00:40:55,436 --> 00:40:58,564
And with all the dissatisfaction
that was going on...
655
00:40:58,672 --> 00:41:02,199
there was really, for the first time,
I guess, in the union's history...
656
00:41:02,309 --> 00:41:05,801
open talk of people
opposing Tony Boyle.
657
00:41:05,913 --> 00:41:08,575
Forty years I have to work in a mine...
658
00:41:08,682 --> 00:41:10,582
to get a pension.
659
00:41:10,684 --> 00:41:12,777
A meager pension at that.
660
00:41:12,887 --> 00:41:15,048
And I suppose, when I do quit...
661
00:41:15,156 --> 00:41:19,058
which will be in two years
because I can't stand it anymore...
662
00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:23,062
I won't be able to get silicosis
because you have to be dead.
663
00:41:23,230 --> 00:41:26,722
I doubt if Tony Boyle's ever known
what coal dust is on his hands.
664
00:41:26,834 --> 00:41:31,066
He's sittin' back there in Washington
drawin' a big amount of money.
665
00:41:31,172 --> 00:41:34,369
What for? He don't even know
what the miners goes through.
666
00:41:34,475 --> 00:41:37,638
And to hell with him!
That's the way I feel.
667
00:41:37,745 --> 00:41:40,305
"Boyle's doing nothing for the widows.
668
00:41:40,414 --> 00:41:42,780
"Boyle's doing nothing for the pensioners.
669
00:41:42,883 --> 00:41:46,614
"I'll give you this, I'll give you that.
670
00:41:46,720 --> 00:41:49,382
"I'll give you pie...
671
00:41:49,490 --> 00:41:53,290
"if I can reach high enough
in the sky...
672
00:41:53,394 --> 00:41:55,521
in the sweet by-and-by."
673
00:41:55,629 --> 00:41:57,529
Well, the coal miners in this country...
674
00:41:57,631 --> 00:41:59,997
are damn sick and tired of having...
675
00:42:00,101 --> 00:42:02,399
a national president of its organization...
676
00:42:02,503 --> 00:42:04,937
that's in bed with the coal operators.
677
00:42:11,212 --> 00:42:13,271
♪ Clarksville, Pennsylvania ♪
678
00:42:13,380 --> 00:42:15,610
♪ Is not too far from here ♪
679
00:42:15,716 --> 00:42:18,913
♪ Coal miners were hopin' ♪
680
00:42:19,019 --> 00:42:21,249
-
- Hi, fellas.
681
00:42:21,355 --> 00:42:23,755
♪ But for Jock Yablonski ♪
682
00:42:23,858 --> 00:42:26,224
♪ His daughter and wife ♪
683
00:42:26,327 --> 00:42:28,727
♪ The new year brought an ending ♪
684
00:42:28,829 --> 00:42:31,730
♪ To their precious lives ♪
685
00:42:31,832 --> 00:42:34,323
♪ Well, it's cold-blooded murder, friends ♪
686
00:42:34,435 --> 00:42:36,426
♪ I'm talkin' about ♪
687
00:42:36,537 --> 00:42:38,937
♪ Now who's gonna stand up ♪
688
00:42:39,039 --> 00:42:42,065
♪ And who's gonna fight ♪
689
00:42:42,176 --> 00:42:44,440
♪ You better clean up that union ♪
690
00:42:44,545 --> 00:42:46,536
♪ Put it on solid ground ♪
691
00:42:46,647 --> 00:42:49,275
♪ And get rid of that dirty trash ♪
692
00:42:49,383 --> 00:42:52,477
♪ That keeps the workin' man down ♪♪
693
00:42:52,586 --> 00:42:55,749
Now we have nine paid holidays.
694
00:42:55,856 --> 00:43:00,953
And I think the one that tops them all
is the holiday for your birthday.
695
00:43:01,061 --> 00:43:03,791
Every miner is given the opportunity...
696
00:43:03,898 --> 00:43:06,526
to work on his birthday...
697
00:43:06,634 --> 00:43:09,603
and he receives triple time
for working on his birthday.
698
00:43:09,703 --> 00:43:12,695
I think that's really something
to be proud of.
699
00:43:12,806 --> 00:43:16,503
And this is the thought
and the idea and the accomplishment...
700
00:43:16,610 --> 00:43:18,510
of President Boyle.
701
00:43:18,612 --> 00:43:22,810
When they asked, "How many terms do you
want?" you know how many terms I told 'em?
702
00:43:22,917 --> 00:43:27,479
I told 'em. I said, "Just as long
as the Supreme Being up there..."
703
00:43:27,588 --> 00:43:31,524
"Gives me the intellect
and the health to carry on...
704
00:43:31,625 --> 00:43:34,287
"and the membership
elect me to office.
705
00:43:34,395 --> 00:43:38,297
That's how many terms I want,
until I'm 180 years of age!"
706
00:43:44,672 --> 00:43:46,902
Can you tell us
just where the bodies were found...
707
00:43:47,007 --> 00:43:49,186
and some of the circumstances
surrounding the discovery?
708
00:43:49,210 --> 00:43:54,546
Well, the, uh, daughter was in a bedroom
adjoining the master bedroom.
709
00:43:54,648 --> 00:43:59,449
Mr. and Mrs. Yablonski
were in the master bedroom.
710
00:43:59,553 --> 00:44:02,579
The events in Washington, Pennsylvania...
711
00:44:02,690 --> 00:44:05,955
show that murder is as institutionalized...
712
00:44:06,060 --> 00:44:07,960
within the U.M.W. A...
713
00:44:08,062 --> 00:44:10,257
as it is in the mafia.
714
00:44:10,364 --> 00:44:15,358
The order to kill -
to kill the whole family, if necessary-
715
00:44:15,469 --> 00:44:18,870
was as routinely transmitted
and carried out...
716
00:44:18,973 --> 00:44:22,465
as an order to call a strike
or settle a grievance.
717
00:44:23,611 --> 00:44:25,579
We loved and admired our father.
718
00:44:25,679 --> 00:44:27,840
We respected him.
719
00:44:27,948 --> 00:44:30,109
And my brother and I
would like to carry him...
720
00:44:30,217 --> 00:44:32,242
to his final resting place.
721
00:44:33,621 --> 00:44:36,784
But we deem it proper
to do otherwise.
722
00:44:36,890 --> 00:44:40,656
My brother, Joseph, with our cousins
from my mother's family...
723
00:44:40,761 --> 00:44:42,661
will carry our mother...
724
00:44:42,763 --> 00:44:46,426
and I, with our cousins
from my father's family...
725
00:44:46,533 --> 00:44:49,229
will carry our sister, Charlotte.
726
00:44:49,336 --> 00:44:53,204
We entrust our father
to the coal miners whom he loved so much.
727
00:44:54,241 --> 00:44:57,005
♪ O Death ♪
728
00:44:57,111 --> 00:44:59,238
♪ O Death ♪
729
00:44:59,346 --> 00:45:03,248
for another year
730
00:45:03,350 --> 00:45:05,409
♪ Please spare me over ♪
731
00:45:05,519 --> 00:45:09,011
♪ For another year ♪
732
00:45:09,123 --> 00:45:12,092
♪ The children prayed
The preacher preached ♪
733
00:45:12,192 --> 00:45:15,389
♪ Time and mercy's out of reach ♪
734
00:45:15,496 --> 00:45:18,363
"I come to take the soul
735
00:45:18,465 --> 00:45:21,593
♪ "Leave the body
and leave it cold ♪
736
00:45:21,702 --> 00:45:24,637
♪ "Take the skin right off the brain ♪
737
00:45:24,738 --> 00:45:27,571
♪ Earth and worms both have their claim" ♪
738
00:45:27,675 --> 00:45:31,611
♪ O Death ♪
739
00:45:31,712 --> 00:45:33,976
♪ O Death ♪
740
00:45:34,081 --> 00:45:38,074
♪ Please spare me over
for another year ♪
741
00:45:38,185 --> 00:45:40,551
♪ Please spare me over ♪
742
00:45:40,654 --> 00:45:43,953
♪ For another year ♪
743
00:45:47,628 --> 00:45:49,596
In 1969...
744
00:45:52,533 --> 00:45:56,333
there wasn't any reform organization.
745
00:45:56,437 --> 00:46:00,271
This is 1972...
746
00:46:00,374 --> 00:46:04,242
and this is the year
for Miners for Democracy.
747
00:46:05,346 --> 00:46:07,143
Now you can look around...
748
00:46:07,247 --> 00:46:09,147
and see your brothers...
749
00:46:09,249 --> 00:46:11,149
in other districts...
750
00:46:11,251 --> 00:46:15,085
who are willing to stand
shoulder to shoulder with you...
751
00:46:16,190 --> 00:46:19,182
to throw Boyle and his crowd out...
752
00:46:19,293 --> 00:46:21,591
for once and for all.
753
00:46:23,764 --> 00:46:27,791
I'm proud of the honor of heading up
a slate of rank-and-file candidates...
754
00:46:29,103 --> 00:46:31,003
for the international offices...
755
00:46:31,105 --> 00:46:33,005
for rank-and-file miners.
756
00:46:33,107 --> 00:46:36,270
We must have a safety program...
757
00:46:36,377 --> 00:46:38,504
that will guarantee our members...
758
00:46:38,612 --> 00:46:40,944
a safe journey to and from the mines...
759
00:46:41,048 --> 00:46:43,539
not one which accepts...
760
00:46:43,650 --> 00:46:47,017
that we must lose
200-300 men every year in mining.
761
00:46:47,121 --> 00:46:51,490
I wanna make it plain that my commitment
is to the rank-and-file miner.
762
00:46:53,594 --> 00:46:57,257
♪ When the ninth of December rolls around ♪
763
00:46:57,364 --> 00:47:01,892
♪ We'll have our election day ♪
764
00:47:02,002 --> 00:47:05,233
sit up and listen
765
00:47:05,339 --> 00:47:09,400
♪ 'Cause here's what we're gonna say ♪
766
00:47:09,510 --> 00:47:13,742
♪ Oh, Tony, you been
at the trough too long ♪
767
00:47:13,847 --> 00:47:18,682
♪ Been stealin' all our pay ♪
768
00:47:18,786 --> 00:47:21,880
and the time is near
769
00:47:21,989 --> 00:47:27,017
♪ There's comin' a reckonin' day ♪
770
00:47:27,127 --> 00:47:30,221
♪ Comin' a reckonin' day ♪♪
771
00:47:31,265 --> 00:47:34,063
I now pronounce you president
of United Mine Workers of America.
772
00:47:34,168 --> 00:47:37,695
Congratulations!
773
00:47:39,973 --> 00:47:41,873
Which office was this?
774
00:47:41,975 --> 00:47:43,875
This was Boyle's old office...
775
00:47:43,977 --> 00:47:46,878
and the other one
was Suzanne Richards's old office.
776
00:47:46,980 --> 00:47:48,880
Neither lives here anymore.
777
00:47:50,984 --> 00:47:53,919
I do sign a 20-cent royalty for-
778
00:47:54,021 --> 00:47:56,251
- Peabody!
- Peabody Coal Company.
779
00:47:56,356 --> 00:47:58,256
Tony Boyle.
780
00:47:58,358 --> 00:48:00,223
What'd you say?
781
00:48:00,327 --> 00:48:02,056
Mr. Boyle was giving...
782
00:48:02,162 --> 00:48:05,097
a civil deposition when
he was intruded upon...
783
00:48:05,199 --> 00:48:07,030
by three F.B.I. agents.
784
00:48:07,134 --> 00:48:09,034
I think that's grossly unfair.
785
00:48:09,136 --> 00:48:12,833
Never expected that that was gonna
come through - anything like this.
786
00:48:12,940 --> 00:48:16,603
- Why?
- Because I had no forewarning.
787
00:48:16,710 --> 00:48:19,270
What about the charge itself?
788
00:48:19,379 --> 00:48:21,745
Well, as I read the charge -
789
00:48:21,849 --> 00:48:24,750
I'm not supposed to say anything.
My lawyer told me not to.
790
00:48:24,852 --> 00:48:27,218
Come on, Tony.
791
00:48:27,321 --> 00:48:30,313
- As you read the charge, what?
- Tony? Tony?
792
00:48:30,424 --> 00:48:32,551
As bad as the killers are-
793
00:48:32,659 --> 00:48:35,958
Vealey and Gilly
and whatever they may be-
794
00:48:36,063 --> 00:48:38,293
they don't compare
to the people at the top...
795
00:48:38,398 --> 00:48:41,993
who would use
the blood and sweat of miners...
796
00:48:42,102 --> 00:48:44,662
to finance for killing.
797
00:48:46,440 --> 00:48:48,408
Excuse us, please.
798
00:48:49,676 --> 00:48:51,644
Excuse me.
799
00:49:37,791 --> 00:49:40,555
The United Mine Workers today...
800
00:49:40,661 --> 00:49:42,686
is a labor organization...
801
00:49:42,796 --> 00:49:44,923
of rank-and-file miners...
802
00:49:45,032 --> 00:49:48,160
led by rank-and-file miners,
for rank-and-file miners.
803
00:49:48,268 --> 00:49:50,168
And that's the way it ought to be.
804
00:49:56,043 --> 00:49:58,443
I want to introduce
to all of you now-
805
00:49:58,545 --> 00:50:02,675
and I expect that most of you
already know her-Miss Florence Reese.
806
00:50:02,783 --> 00:50:06,184
I'm not a coal miner,
as you well know...
807
00:50:06,286 --> 00:50:08,846
but I'm as close as I could be
not to be one.
808
00:50:08,956 --> 00:50:12,153
My father was a coal miner
who was killed in the mines...
809
00:50:12,259 --> 00:50:14,591
and my husband is slowly dyin'
with the black lung.
810
00:50:14,695 --> 00:50:18,688
And my husband and me
was in the strike in the '30s...
811
00:50:18,799 --> 00:50:20,699
in bloody Harlan County...
812
00:50:20,801 --> 00:50:23,895
and I do mean it was bloody too.
813
00:50:24,004 --> 00:50:27,235
And they tell me -These miners say
we're gonna stick it out...
814
00:50:27,341 --> 00:50:30,401
unless Duke Power signs a contract,
till hell freezes over.
815
00:50:35,916 --> 00:50:39,943
And the men knows they got nothin' to lose
but their chains...
816
00:50:40,053 --> 00:50:41,953
and their union to gain.
817
00:50:42,055 --> 00:50:44,023
So I say hang in there.
818
00:50:44,124 --> 00:50:47,787
And, uh, now, this song
I composed in the '30s.
819
00:50:47,894 --> 00:50:50,795
As you know, I'm old -
that's 40 year ago -
820
00:50:50,897 --> 00:50:52,797
and I can't sing very well...
821
00:50:52,899 --> 00:50:56,801
but you can ask the scabs
and the gun thugs which side they're on...
822
00:50:56,903 --> 00:50:58,803
because they're workers too.
823
00:51:01,208 --> 00:51:03,335
♪ Come, all you poor workers ♪
824
00:51:03,443 --> 00:51:06,537
♪ Good news to you I'll tell ♪
825
00:51:06,647 --> 00:51:08,911
♪ How the good old union ♪
826
00:51:09,016 --> 00:51:11,541
♪ Is coming here to dwell ♪
827
00:51:11,652 --> 00:51:13,950
♪ Which side are you on ♪
828
00:51:14,054 --> 00:51:16,921
♪ Which side are you on ♪
829
00:51:17,024 --> 00:51:19,754
♪ If you go to Harlan County ♪
830
00:51:19,860 --> 00:51:22,522
♪ There is no neutral there ♪
831
00:51:22,629 --> 00:51:25,189
♪ You'll either be a union man ♪
832
00:51:25,298 --> 00:51:27,892
♪ Or a thug for ♪.H. Blair ♪
833
00:51:28,001 --> 00:51:32,768
♪ Which side are you on
Which side are you on ♪
834
00:51:33,006 --> 00:51:35,031
What about this gun bein' pulled?
835
00:51:35,142 --> 00:51:37,542
Oh, he pulled it right here!
836
00:51:37,644 --> 00:51:40,135
- He had it concealed in a rag.
- And we got his name.
837
00:51:40,247 --> 00:51:43,944
He told me that-His boys said if we got
in his way again he would mow us down.
838
00:51:44,051 --> 00:51:47,030
I told him, "I'll see you in federal court
Monday if you say that again, sir.
839
00:51:47,054 --> 00:51:49,022
We're here on peaceful business."
840
00:51:50,223 --> 00:51:53,180
So he put it back in his holster then,
wrapped it back up in a rag...
841
00:51:53,226 --> 00:51:55,126
and got back in his car.
842
00:51:55,228 --> 00:51:57,287
But he did pull the gun and point it.
843
00:51:58,665 --> 00:52:01,156
That's Basil Collins.
That's the gun thug.
844
00:52:01,268 --> 00:52:03,361
He is a known strikebreaker.
845
00:52:03,470 --> 00:52:05,370
That man is a gun thug.
846
00:52:05,472 --> 00:52:07,872
He's the same one
that came up here before.
847
00:52:07,974 --> 00:52:10,943
He had the gun in the car
whenever Red was talkin' to him.
848
00:52:11,044 --> 00:52:13,945
He's a-cruisin' around here now,
goin' up and down...
849
00:52:14,047 --> 00:52:16,709
tryin' to find out who's here.
850
00:52:16,817 --> 00:52:19,445
- Who are you working with, honey?
- What? United Press.
851
00:52:19,553 --> 00:52:22,021
Who do you work with?
Well, you show me your press card.
852
00:52:22,122 --> 00:52:25,101
- It's in the car. Anne, get my press card.
- Show me your press card.
853
00:52:25,125 --> 00:52:28,219
- Okay. What's your name, sir?
- My name's Basil Collins.
854
00:52:28,328 --> 00:52:30,228
- Do you work here?
- Yes, ma'am.
855
00:52:30,330 --> 00:52:33,458
- What's your position here?
- Line foreman.
856
00:52:33,567 --> 00:52:36,195
How do you feel about the people
picketing out here?
857
00:52:37,237 --> 00:52:39,137
Well...
858
00:52:39,239 --> 00:52:41,332
I don't have no comment on that.
859
00:52:42,375 --> 00:52:44,502
- And you, sir?
- Same thing.
860
00:52:44,611 --> 00:52:46,579
Where's this press card
you was gonna show me?
861
00:52:46,680 --> 00:52:48,910
- Can I see your identification?
- Ma'am?
862
00:52:49,015 --> 00:52:51,294
- May I see your identification?
- Yes, ma'am, if I had any.
863
00:52:51,318 --> 00:52:53,559
I'm sorry. I've lost it.
All I can do is tell you my name.
864
00:52:53,583 --> 00:52:55,846
I think I might have misplaced mine too.
865
00:52:55,956 --> 00:52:57,924
- Okay. Okay.
- All right.
866
00:52:59,960 --> 00:53:03,589
He had the nerve enough,
believe it or not, to run for sheriff.
867
00:53:05,365 --> 00:53:09,392
We're not gonna have
the violence of the '30s.
868
00:53:09,503 --> 00:53:12,336
The conditions are not the same.
869
00:53:12,439 --> 00:53:15,033
There is probably
nothing illegal or immoral...
870
00:53:15,142 --> 00:53:17,042
about the union trying to get...
871
00:53:17,144 --> 00:53:19,044
the best contract they can...
872
00:53:19,146 --> 00:53:21,146
including the one they have
with everyone else.
873
00:53:21,181 --> 00:53:25,277
On the other hand, the fact that
somebody else has made a contract...
874
00:53:25,385 --> 00:53:27,285
with the United Mine Workers...
875
00:53:27,387 --> 00:53:30,083
doesn't raise any obligation
on our part, as I see it...
876
00:53:30,190 --> 00:53:32,681
legally or morally,
to accept that contract...
877
00:53:32,793 --> 00:53:34,886
any more than we could
go to the union...
878
00:53:34,995 --> 00:53:37,964
and say we want you to accept
the Southern Labor Union contract...
879
00:53:38,064 --> 00:53:39,964
which we have at two other mines.
880
00:53:40,066 --> 00:53:41,966
Is it as simple as that?
881
00:53:42,068 --> 00:53:45,902
You do not want the major industry
agreement with United Mine Workers.
882
00:53:46,006 --> 00:53:48,406
- That is the 1971 agreement.
- It's that simple.
883
00:53:48,508 --> 00:53:50,533
Yes, sir.
If you want to make it simple.
884
00:53:54,581 --> 00:53:59,018
We'll bug 'em a little bit this mornin',
play with 'em a little bit, see.
885
00:53:59,119 --> 00:54:01,246
- Mister, you're mean.
- I'm not.
886
00:54:01,354 --> 00:54:04,915
- Mean old man. That's what you are.
- That's what they say, don't they?
887
00:54:05,025 --> 00:54:07,186
You can tell 'em different, can't you?
888
00:54:07,294 --> 00:54:10,923
Huh? I'm as gentle as a newborn baby.
889
00:54:17,671 --> 00:54:20,799
Just when it was the first ti-
time they went to work.
890
00:54:20,907 --> 00:54:23,808
All of them had guns and pistols.
891
00:54:23,910 --> 00:54:27,641
And it was just-
You know, it was really bad up there.
892
00:54:41,161 --> 00:54:44,062
Get the hell out of my way.
893
00:54:44,164 --> 00:54:48,157
Get back in here now.
Hold the rest of 'em. Hold everybody.
894
00:54:54,207 --> 00:54:58,075
- Preparin' for a little trouble here.
- There's a gun. Get a picture of that gun.
895
00:54:58,178 --> 00:55:00,078
- Gun.
- Where?
896
00:55:21,301 --> 00:55:23,326
Go on in, boys.
897
00:55:23,436 --> 00:55:27,202
Come on in. Come on!
898
00:55:31,578 --> 00:55:33,546
Come on in.
899
00:55:33,647 --> 00:55:35,911
Go on in, Bobby.
900
00:55:51,932 --> 00:55:55,663
Let's go, boys.
Everybody, let's go.
901
00:56:06,112 --> 00:56:08,012
I'm not happy about it.
We can't hold 'em -
902
00:56:08,114 --> 00:56:11,345
We can hold 'em, but we can't hold 'em
with all them guns they got.
903
00:56:11,451 --> 00:56:13,351
They got guns.
We don't got 'em.
904
00:56:13,453 --> 00:56:17,446
They allowed to carry guns and sticks. We
can't have nothing but a knife and a whetrock.
905
00:56:17,557 --> 00:56:19,457
That's right.
906
00:56:19,559 --> 00:56:23,461
We just heard that, uh, Mickey Messer,
president of Brookside Local was, uh -
907
00:56:23,563 --> 00:56:25,861
house was shot up last night by...
908
00:56:25,966 --> 00:56:27,866
some Highsplint employees.
909
00:56:27,968 --> 00:56:30,099
They called his name
to get him to come outside...
910
00:56:30,203 --> 00:56:33,382
and he went out the back door and they
opened up on him with a machine gun.
911
00:56:33,406 --> 00:56:36,375
Right here is one shot.
912
00:56:36,476 --> 00:56:38,967
Up here is a shot.
913
00:56:39,079 --> 00:56:42,742
And then right here is a shot.
914
00:56:42,849 --> 00:56:46,842
I'm sure it was scabs-uh, gun thugs-
Eastover has hired...
915
00:56:46,953 --> 00:56:50,445
because, uh, there ain't nobody else
who'd want to do anything like that to me.
916
00:56:50,557 --> 00:56:52,457
I've never bothered anybody.
917
00:56:52,559 --> 00:56:55,338
They're shootin' down beside the house,
and we all slipped to the floor.
918
00:56:55,362 --> 00:56:58,889
- Jesus. Honey-
- Thugs shooting. Yes.
919
00:56:58,999 --> 00:57:02,867
They shot about 16 times last night.
Knocked me out of bed.
920
00:57:02,969 --> 00:57:05,403
And the kids was all in there cryin'.
921
00:57:05,505 --> 00:57:07,405
Scarin' your baby.
922
00:57:07,507 --> 00:57:09,873
- Makes my blood boil.
- Shh.
923
00:57:09,976 --> 00:57:13,810
If we don't want it
to come back to the '30s...
924
00:57:13,913 --> 00:57:16,040
and bloody Harlan...
925
00:57:16,149 --> 00:57:20,085
and all of this crowd -
women and men -
926
00:57:20,186 --> 00:57:24,452
can get out on the picket line
two or three times, we've got it made.
927
00:57:24,557 --> 00:57:28,618
If you're afraid to go to sleep
and can't wake up, just stay up all night.
928
00:57:28,728 --> 00:57:31,196
Let's not let it happen-
929
00:57:31,297 --> 00:57:33,959
to come back to the '30s -
because I was here.
930
00:57:34,067 --> 00:57:38,003
I seed children hungry,
cryin' for somethin' to eat.
931
00:57:38,104 --> 00:57:42,871
And - Oh, I - I can't take it.
I'll be out -
932
00:57:42,976 --> 00:57:46,935
If I get shot, they can't
shoot the union out of me.
933
00:57:51,618 --> 00:57:54,553
♪ If you don't want your husbands ♪
934
00:57:54,654 --> 00:57:57,145
♪ To die in a coal mine ♪
935
00:57:57,257 --> 00:58:02,456
out on the picket line
936
00:58:02,562 --> 00:58:05,360
♪ Which side are you on ♪
937
00:58:05,465 --> 00:58:08,901
♪ Which side are you on ♪
938
00:58:09,002 --> 00:58:11,937
♪ We're fighting for a contract ♪
939
00:58:12,038 --> 00:58:14,666
♪ We're fighting to be free ♪
940
00:58:14,774 --> 00:58:20,303
There's room for you and me
941
00:58:20,413 --> 00:58:22,904
♪ Which side are you on ♪
942
00:58:23,016 --> 00:58:26,349
♪ Which side are you on ♪♪
943
00:58:44,604 --> 00:58:47,801
We find two or three -
sometimes four pickets.
944
00:58:47,907 --> 00:58:50,102
Very rarely are we finding six.
945
00:58:50,210 --> 00:58:52,838
Now, where are all these people
that was raisin' hell...
946
00:58:52,946 --> 00:58:56,177
because they couldn't have 50
on these picket lines?
947
00:58:56,282 --> 00:59:00,582
Now, the understanding
in this local union was...
948
00:59:00,687 --> 00:59:03,053
that strike benefits would be paid...
949
00:59:04,791 --> 00:59:08,022
and every man
would pull his share of picket duty.
950
00:59:08,128 --> 00:59:10,596
- Right or wrong?
- Right.
951
00:59:10,697 --> 00:59:13,530
All right. Then what in the hell's
goin' on around here?
952
00:59:13,633 --> 00:59:18,229
Let me tell you somethin'. When I was on the
picket line, you was in bed and you was in bed.
953
00:59:18,338 --> 00:59:21,273
So don't tell me -
And so I know about -
954
00:59:21,374 --> 00:59:24,104
- Yeah, but we went to jail-
- Oh, you went to jail.
955
00:59:24,210 --> 00:59:27,270
- Who else went to jail? Was you the only one?
- No.
956
00:59:27,380 --> 00:59:30,941
We stayed over there as long as
we could stay without goin' back to jail.
957
00:59:31,050 --> 00:59:32,950
I call for a moment of silence.
958
00:59:33,052 --> 00:59:35,816
She's not done nothin' but cause trouble.
959
00:59:35,922 --> 00:59:39,255
- You know, you make me sick.
- Well, you make me sick too.
960
00:59:41,928 --> 00:59:45,728
...to you and tell you what they tell me-
that you're running round with their husbands.
961
00:59:45,832 --> 00:59:48,062
You're trying to take
their husbands away from 'em.
962
00:59:48,168 --> 00:59:51,137
Okay then. They told me
you're an alcoholic and everything else.
963
00:59:51,237 --> 00:59:54,502
I don't care who takes whose man,
who lives with whose man or what they do.
964
00:59:54,607 --> 00:59:59,067
If they can take mine and take him on,
they can have him. I'll shed no tears.
965
00:59:59,179 --> 01:00:03,445
I'm not after a man. I'm after a contract.
I'm raisin' two boys.
966
01:00:10,323 --> 01:00:14,692
I tell you. We can't let our brother down.
We gotta stand on solid ground.
967
01:00:14,794 --> 01:00:16,694
And then we're gonna go through.
968
01:00:16,796 --> 01:00:18,373
If we're gonna start lettin' personal -
969
01:00:18,397 --> 01:00:21,597
what we feel about each other
personally get in the way...
970
01:00:21,701 --> 01:00:24,135
then we're not gonna
be able to accomplish anything.
971
01:00:24,237 --> 01:00:26,967
I don't count myself
nothing big in the club.
972
01:00:27,073 --> 01:00:29,117
I don't count myself no bigger
than nobody else.
973
01:00:29,209 --> 01:00:31,643
The rest of 'em has more
to do with it than I do...
974
01:00:31,744 --> 01:00:35,145
because my husband was mashed up
in the mines, retired.
975
01:00:35,248 --> 01:00:37,216
And Eastover just pushed us out.
976
01:00:37,317 --> 01:00:40,150
We was pushed out before
the rent was up and all of that.
977
01:00:40,253 --> 01:00:43,051
It either smashed up their daddies...
978
01:00:43,156 --> 01:00:46,592
or down with coal dust from that mines.
979
01:00:46,693 --> 01:00:50,026
I went to school - to age of school -
I've got part of the sixth grade...
980
01:00:50,129 --> 01:00:53,496
because Daddy got eight dollars
and somethin' a shift.
981
01:00:53,600 --> 01:00:57,092
Nothin' to go to school on.
I had to go in overalls.
982
01:00:57,203 --> 01:01:00,570
And pile out slate for a living
after I growed up.
983
01:01:00,673 --> 01:01:02,766
Coal out of it and sell it.
984
01:01:02,875 --> 01:01:04,775
And...
985
01:01:04,877 --> 01:01:07,243
walk off of that mountain
from that mines to school.
986
01:01:07,347 --> 01:01:09,975
And they're all barned up there,
not even allowed in it.
987
01:01:10,083 --> 01:01:15,077
I've got Mom's coal oil lamps. I've got her
stove irons a-sittin' there for 'em to look at.
988
01:01:15,188 --> 01:01:17,884
And walkin' to school and back.
989
01:01:20,827 --> 01:01:24,786
And I know everybody's disappointed
we don't have a bigger crowd...
990
01:01:24,897 --> 01:01:29,027
and we're disappointed that more people
haven't come in, but when you get down to it...
991
01:01:29,135 --> 01:01:32,730
in this fight, and like in any other fight,
you gotta depend on yourselves.
992
01:01:32,839 --> 01:01:35,000
Nobody in the end's gonna do it for you.
993
01:01:35,108 --> 01:01:38,100
The union's gonna back you,
and we're gonna do all we can...
994
01:01:38,211 --> 01:01:40,679
but you gotta win this fight yourselves.
995
01:01:40,780 --> 01:01:43,889
Now, it's the first time East Kentucky
has stood up against the coal operators,
996
01:01:43,913 --> 01:01:45,479
and you're doin' it.
997
01:01:45,585 --> 01:01:49,021
And when you win, you're fighting
for your kids and your grandkids.
998
01:01:49,122 --> 01:01:52,387
Every one of them will have a better life
because of what you're doin' here.
999
01:01:52,492 --> 01:01:54,392
And that's why the fight's so hard.
1000
01:01:54,494 --> 01:01:57,539
If there wasn't so much at stake,
they wouldn't be fightin' you this hard.
1001
01:01:57,563 --> 01:02:00,109
They wouldn't shoot into your homes
if there wasn't so much at stake.
1002
01:02:00,133 --> 01:02:03,916
And if there are not enough on the picket
line, then when you come to the picket line...
1003
01:02:03,970 --> 01:02:06,871
on the way, stop by and pick
someone up and knock on his door...
1004
01:02:06,973 --> 01:02:08,941
and ask him to come along with ya.
1005
01:02:09,108 --> 01:02:11,235
- Bob, are you gonna be there?
- Where?
1006
01:02:11,344 --> 01:02:13,689
- At the picket line at Highsplint in the mornin'.
- Yeah.
1007
01:02:13,713 --> 01:02:16,477
I don't know what y'all
are goin' up to do except for-
1008
01:02:16,582 --> 01:02:21,110
The thugs that's sittin' there
in the highway with guns in their hands.
1009
01:02:21,220 --> 01:02:23,586
We can't do nothin'
except get up there and whittle.
1010
01:02:23,690 --> 01:02:25,590
How do you feel about it, Tommy?
1011
01:02:25,692 --> 01:02:30,322
How do you feel about us comin' up there? I
don't want to go up there against their will.
1012
01:02:30,430 --> 01:02:32,489
I want to be welcomed, but, uh -
1013
01:02:32,598 --> 01:02:35,624
Welcomed? We've been expecting
you forever to come. Come.
1014
01:02:42,108 --> 01:02:46,772
Now, we've got a new president.
Sudie Crusenberry is our new president.
1015
01:02:46,879 --> 01:02:49,313
So let's give her a hand.
1016
01:02:53,553 --> 01:02:56,613
And we've got two treasurers-
co-treasurers.
1017
01:02:56,723 --> 01:02:59,487
Dorothy Johnson and Mary Lou Fergerson.
1018
01:02:59,592 --> 01:03:02,288
So let's give them-
1019
01:03:02,395 --> 01:03:05,330
I-I really-I'm just really tickled...
1020
01:03:05,431 --> 01:03:08,867
that we've got this many people out,
you know, today, and all of us out.
1021
01:03:08,968 --> 01:03:11,436
And I think if one thing,
it's helped us.
1022
01:03:11,537 --> 01:03:13,801
'Cause last week we had such a struggle.
1023
01:03:13,906 --> 01:03:16,397
But I think
that what's come out of it is good.
1024
01:03:17,443 --> 01:03:19,377
Come on!
1025
01:03:19,479 --> 01:03:21,538
- And it's loaded?
- Yeah.
1026
01:03:21,647 --> 01:03:24,081
You shouldn't carry it with you like that.
1027
01:03:24,183 --> 01:03:28,085
It's got a safety on it. And if it did,
it wouldn't shoot nothin' but my titty off.
1028
01:03:28,187 --> 01:03:30,621
And I might lose that one anyway.
1029
01:03:30,723 --> 01:03:32,623
As long as I got another one.
1030
01:03:32,725 --> 01:03:34,818
- I want you to meet Anita, Lois.
- Oh.
1031
01:03:34,927 --> 01:03:37,506
Tellin' 'em I started out with a switch
on that picket line...
1032
01:03:37,530 --> 01:03:39,555
but I'm ended up now carrying a gun.
1033
01:03:39,665 --> 01:03:41,565
I mean, all the time too.
1034
01:03:41,667 --> 01:03:46,832
Hell, you - I have to, you know - Especially
since what's happening up there at Highsplint.
1035
01:03:46,939 --> 01:03:48,839
And knowin' 'em and seein' 'em.
1036
01:03:48,941 --> 01:03:50,875
Seeing the machine guns and all.
1037
01:03:50,977 --> 01:03:55,277
It's time to - Well,
you'd be crazy not to carry a gun now.
1038
01:03:56,315 --> 01:03:58,510
You would, really.
1039
01:03:58,618 --> 01:04:00,586
Yeah.
1040
01:04:00,686 --> 01:04:04,645
Well, all right. Uh, are we gonna -
Are y'all gonna be back at 6:00?
1041
01:04:23,609 --> 01:04:25,543
Don't shoot!
1042
01:04:37,323 --> 01:04:39,291
Watch out. Coming back across the bridge.
1043
01:04:39,392 --> 01:04:41,792
He shot right at me.
1044
01:04:44,831 --> 01:04:46,799
No!
1045
01:04:50,403 --> 01:04:52,837
You get away from me! Huh?
1046
01:04:58,010 --> 01:04:59,978
Fuckin'- A!
1047
01:05:02,315 --> 01:05:05,978
Take 'em back over there
and take your pants off, Basil.
1048
01:05:06,085 --> 01:05:08,315
All right, men.
Let's - Let's break it up now.
1049
01:05:08,421 --> 01:05:10,855
Clear the bridge.
Let these people leave.
1050
01:05:11,891 --> 01:05:14,223
You know that nigger?
1051
01:05:14,327 --> 01:05:17,455
That "nigger"
is a better man than you'll ever be.
1052
01:05:17,563 --> 01:05:20,760
He's a better man than you'll ever be.
1053
01:05:20,867 --> 01:05:22,926
Three or four of 'em,
damned old gun thugs...
1054
01:05:23,035 --> 01:05:26,004
get on him and start kicking a woman
and hitting a woman and then-
1055
01:05:26,105 --> 01:05:29,802
and then another one come over
and start beatin' a man...
1056
01:05:29,909 --> 01:05:32,275
and - and gettin'
four or five of them on him...
1057
01:05:32,378 --> 01:05:34,710
and then see, uh -
uh, Basil Collins holding a gun...
1058
01:05:34,814 --> 01:05:39,649
and - and calling a - a - a union man
that believes in - union man -
1059
01:05:39,752 --> 01:05:43,882
said, "I want you to get that nigger.
You hear that nigger? Get that nigger."
1060
01:05:43,990 --> 01:05:46,652
I'm sick of it.
I'm sick of it.
1061
01:05:47,693 --> 01:05:50,662
And it's - it's time for us, uh,
to - to stand together...
1062
01:05:50,763 --> 01:05:54,426
and - and get just as violent as they are.
1063
01:05:54,534 --> 01:05:57,230
- I agree.
- Right.
1064
01:05:57,336 --> 01:06:00,897
They're violent, so, by God,
you fight fire with fire.
1065
01:06:01,007 --> 01:06:04,135
It seemed like they were
pretty well organized to me this morning...
1066
01:06:04,243 --> 01:06:06,939
and we're gonna have to get
a little tighter organized.
1067
01:06:07,046 --> 01:06:09,558
We're gonna get together.
The women are gonna get together...
1068
01:06:09,582 --> 01:06:11,846
and be responsible
for 10 women each...
1069
01:06:11,951 --> 01:06:14,317
- or 10 people out there each at 4:00.
- Okay.
1070
01:06:14,420 --> 01:06:17,116
If you women gonna bring 10 each...
1071
01:06:17,223 --> 01:06:19,350
then, uh, the men
ought to be able to say...
1072
01:06:19,458 --> 01:06:23,360
"Well, we'll bring five
or we'll bring 10 or we'll bring 15."
1073
01:06:24,597 --> 01:06:26,656
And that would be workin' together.
1074
01:06:26,766 --> 01:06:30,702
You're gonna have to get some more
black people out, too, 'cause you look odd-
1075
01:06:30,803 --> 01:06:33,033
I am odd.
1076
01:06:35,074 --> 01:06:38,532
They want us to sit by
and watch 'em shoot...
1077
01:06:38,644 --> 01:06:40,578
and not us shoot back.
1078
01:06:40,680 --> 01:06:43,811
And the police is not gonna do nothin'
about it either. They're for them.
1079
01:06:43,849 --> 01:06:45,749
No. We know that.
just fight back.
1080
01:06:45,851 --> 01:06:49,446
Just attack hell out of them -
and not run.
1081
01:06:49,555 --> 01:06:52,353
Let your conscience be you go -
I never run.
1082
01:06:53,793 --> 01:06:56,387
I - I had one.
One's all I could handle.
1083
01:06:56,495 --> 01:06:59,430
But I got him.
He didn't come no farther.
1084
01:06:59,532 --> 01:07:01,898
If there's enough of us up there,
and we can get one-
1085
01:07:02,001 --> 01:07:04,231
if each one of us can get one,
hell, we can do it.
1086
01:07:04,337 --> 01:07:09,070
Men, women and children all.
1087
01:07:09,175 --> 01:07:11,234
It's time to stand up and be counted.
1088
01:07:11,344 --> 01:07:14,177
Don't you gonna be
throwed back for 500 years.
1089
01:07:15,448 --> 01:07:18,645
We're gonna have a picket line
in the morning.
1090
01:07:18,751 --> 01:07:21,242
And we hope to have a big picket line.
1091
01:07:21,354 --> 01:07:24,323
It's gonna be set up a little bit
different than the last one.
1092
01:07:24,423 --> 01:07:26,533
'Cause - We can't have
a picket line at the bridge
1093
01:07:26,557 --> 01:07:28,689
with a.30-caliber machine gun
shooting at you.
1094
01:07:28,794 --> 01:07:30,853
These ladies are setting it up.
1095
01:07:30,963 --> 01:07:34,228
We're gonna have to get out there
and back them. That's all there are to it.
1096
01:07:34,333 --> 01:07:37,779
They come up to back us, and we're not even
backing them. It's pretty disgusting.
1097
01:07:37,803 --> 01:07:40,328
So we'd like to see-
We know about who ain't been there.
1098
01:07:40,439 --> 01:07:42,839
We'd like to see you out there
once in a while.
1099
01:07:45,011 --> 01:07:47,673
- Has anybody got any questions?
- Bob.
1100
01:07:47,780 --> 01:07:50,044
Most of 'em are afraid to come up.
1101
01:07:50,149 --> 01:07:52,049
Hell, I'm afraid too,
but I go up there.
1102
01:07:52,151 --> 01:07:54,984
Looked pretty shaky up there this mornin:
1103
01:07:55,087 --> 01:07:57,055
We got some good uns though.
1104
01:07:59,825 --> 01:08:02,157
- Anything anybody want to bring up?
- Can I talk?
1105
01:08:02,261 --> 01:08:04,559
Come on up here.
You sure can.
1106
01:08:05,798 --> 01:08:10,667
Uh, if there's anybody in here
that can't - or is not with us...
1107
01:08:10,770 --> 01:08:13,762
and can't go with us in the morning...
1108
01:08:13,873 --> 01:08:17,309
I'd rather for 'em to leave
before that I finish this...
1109
01:08:17,410 --> 01:08:19,571
because I do want to know...
1110
01:08:19,679 --> 01:08:24,082
if we're gonna have these people here
or if we can depend on 'em or what.
1111
01:08:24,183 --> 01:08:27,710
Because if we can't,
we're not a-gonna go up there no more...
1112
01:08:27,820 --> 01:08:30,983
and have those machine guns
shot at us and have the -
1113
01:08:31,090 --> 01:08:33,490
the gun thugs a-comin' across
and attacking us.
1114
01:08:33,592 --> 01:08:36,527
We're not a-gonna do that.
Now, we're with ya...
1115
01:08:36,629 --> 01:08:38,529
and we'll stick with ya.
1116
01:08:38,631 --> 01:08:41,794
All these women -
We got a whole gang of 'em...
1117
01:08:41,901 --> 01:08:43,869
that says they'll go
with 'em tomorrow...
1118
01:08:43,969 --> 01:08:47,598
and we're gonna be
at Mac's in the morning at 5:00.
1119
01:08:47,707 --> 01:08:50,801
Now, they're not - We're not
a-gonna go any earlier than that...
1120
01:08:50,910 --> 01:08:54,346
because if we do,
we're just sitting ducks for them.
1121
01:08:54,447 --> 01:08:56,381
And they'll wait for us.
1122
01:08:56,482 --> 01:08:59,394
And we're not a-gonna tell you where we're
gonna set up the picket line
1123
01:08:59,418 --> 01:09:00,885
until in the morning.
1124
01:09:00,986 --> 01:09:03,716
If you want to know where
the picket line's gonna be set up...
1125
01:09:03,823 --> 01:09:05,791
you'll be at Mac's
in the morning at 5:00.
1126
01:09:05,891 --> 01:09:07,791
We need every man and woman.
1127
01:09:07,893 --> 01:09:10,623
There's enough Brookside pickets
and Highsplint pickets...
1128
01:09:10,730 --> 01:09:13,563
and women
that those scabs wouldn't mean a thing...
1129
01:09:13,666 --> 01:09:15,566
if we get all of 'em up there.
1130
01:09:15,668 --> 01:09:18,501
But we're not a-gonna do it
layin' in bed.
1131
01:09:22,742 --> 01:09:25,267
Think they're gonna shoot at us today?
1132
01:09:26,312 --> 01:09:28,280
Shot at us yesterday.
1133
01:09:28,380 --> 01:09:31,474
- What about today?
- I don't know.
1134
01:09:35,454 --> 01:09:37,820
- You scared?
- I hope not. Yeah.
1135
01:09:37,923 --> 01:09:40,517
Ain't you?
1136
01:09:44,530 --> 01:09:46,498
I just hope nobody gets hurt.
1137
01:09:51,804 --> 01:09:54,773
I don't believe -We'd have seen 'em go.
We've got people out on that.
1138
01:09:54,874 --> 01:09:59,072
You let them bastard scabs come.
We got our guns now.
1139
01:09:59,178 --> 01:10:00,421
Then they work two shifts.
1140
01:10:00,445 --> 01:10:02,978
Nah. They ain't gonna
do nothin' dirty like that.
1141
01:10:10,623 --> 01:10:12,591
Huh?
1142
01:10:12,691 --> 01:10:16,127
- Gotta get it right at the railroad.
- Bring it over here a little bit.
1143
01:10:28,474 --> 01:10:31,409
Basil Collins. Right in front.
1144
01:10:34,046 --> 01:10:36,014
Well, what's he doing?
1145
01:10:41,520 --> 01:10:46,355
♪ We shall not be
We shall not be moved ♪
1146
01:10:46,458 --> 01:10:50,952
♪ We shall
We shall not be moved ♪
1147
01:10:51,063 --> 01:10:56,592
♪ Just like a tree
that's standing by the water ♪
1148
01:10:56,702 --> 01:10:59,899
♪ We shall not be moved ♪
1149
01:11:00,005 --> 01:11:01,973
Come on, Basil!
1150
01:11:03,943 --> 01:11:07,470
We got somethin' for you!
1151
01:11:07,580 --> 01:11:10,071
Are we gonna start
like we did yesterday?
1152
01:11:10,316 --> 01:11:12,910
We wasn't blocking the road. They was.
1153
01:11:13,018 --> 01:11:15,282
They've had it blocked all day.
1154
01:11:18,290 --> 01:11:22,488
You -You put the car there, so either remove
it, or I'll call the wrecker to remove it.
1155
01:11:22,595 --> 01:11:25,207
That's neutral, ain't it?
That's neutral. No, it's not neutral.
1156
01:11:25,231 --> 01:11:27,529
And you know it's not neutral.
It's not neutral.
1157
01:11:27,633 --> 01:11:30,178
You know what it is. I'll tell you.
You know what I told you.
1158
01:11:30,202 --> 01:11:32,932
I don't give a damn how much money
you makin' at bein' a sheriff,
1159
01:11:32,956 --> 01:11:34,332
but don't go against the union.
1160
01:11:34,440 --> 01:11:36,431
That's all I ask.
That's the only thing I ask.
1161
01:11:36,542 --> 01:11:39,537
Baby, you can stand here
and raise hell all you want to,
1162
01:11:39,561 --> 01:11:41,070
but this road's gotta be cleared.
1163
01:11:41,180 --> 01:11:44,172
Will you go up there when
they shoot machine guns across the highway?
1164
01:11:44,283 --> 01:11:45,591
No. He won't. No. He won't.
1165
01:11:45,615 --> 01:11:48,276
Will you go up then?
'Cause that's your duty too.
1166
01:11:48,387 --> 01:11:49,619
No, he won't do it. He won't.
1167
01:11:49,643 --> 01:11:52,234
Why don't you go up there then?
You weren't up there yesterday.
1168
01:11:52,258 --> 01:11:55,670
When they beat us and club us. And when
they beat that 17-year-old boy-He won't.
1169
01:11:55,694 --> 01:11:58,959
I mean, I see. You know what,
Billy G., that was told to me...
1170
01:11:59,064 --> 01:12:01,259
and I wouldn't believe it
before the election.
1171
01:12:01,367 --> 01:12:04,700
That was told to me that you'd do this.
It really was.
1172
01:12:04,803 --> 01:12:06,896
Excuse me. Mr. Williams.
1173
01:12:07,006 --> 01:12:09,406
I have a warrant for Basil Collins.
1174
01:12:09,508 --> 01:12:11,840
We want you to throw Basil's ass in jail.
1175
01:12:11,944 --> 01:12:14,435
Don't stand there!
You've got a warrant for him.
1176
01:12:14,546 --> 01:12:16,707
- Now serve it to him!
- Will you give me -
1177
01:12:16,815 --> 01:12:20,251
- You won't do it.
- Will you give me a chance to do my job?
1178
01:12:20,352 --> 01:12:22,252
- Okay. Let's see you do it.
- All right.
1179
01:12:22,354 --> 01:12:24,572
Somebody pay me seven dollars
for the fee of arrest.
1180
01:12:34,166 --> 01:12:36,066
Here's your seven dollars.
1181
01:12:36,168 --> 01:12:38,500
How much more do you want?
Hell, you can have it all.
1182
01:12:38,604 --> 01:12:41,300
By God, we'll get you up a hundred dollars.
Go arrest him.
1183
01:12:41,407 --> 01:12:43,375
- Look. Okay.
- And take him to jail.
1184
01:12:43,475 --> 01:12:46,308
I'm gonna do my job,
and this happens to be part of my job.
1185
01:12:46,412 --> 01:12:49,575
- Yeah, he's got it. He's got it.
- Okay. Now let's see it.
1186
01:12:50,616 --> 01:12:51,593
For that...
1187
01:12:51,617 --> 01:12:53,595
He'll be arrested,
but this car's gotta move on.
1188
01:12:53,619 --> 01:12:56,918
- Get him right now -
- You arrest him.
1189
01:12:57,022 --> 01:12:59,388
You -You -
1190
01:12:59,491 --> 01:13:04,622
Here I go to, ladies.
1191
01:13:07,766 --> 01:13:10,200
♪ Glory, glory, hallelujah ♪
1192
01:13:11,570 --> 01:13:13,470
- What?
- You're under arrest.
1193
01:13:13,572 --> 01:13:18,009
- Under arrest for what?
- Oh, disorderly conduct, I guess. I don't know.
1194
01:13:18,110 --> 01:13:20,237
Flashin' a deadly weapon.
1195
01:13:23,849 --> 01:13:25,817
Once again, that's part of my job.
1196
01:13:25,918 --> 01:13:28,730
- Movin' this car's part of my job also.
- That's part of your job.
1197
01:13:28,754 --> 01:13:31,382
I'll be in pretty quick.
Soon as we get this thing moved...
1198
01:13:31,490 --> 01:13:33,856
- and get my men to work, I'll come into town.
- Yeah.
1199
01:13:34,893 --> 01:13:37,361
I'm gonna see that she's moved,
then we're goin' to town.
1200
01:13:37,463 --> 01:13:39,590
All right.
1201
01:13:39,698 --> 01:13:41,928
Move these people
away from my truck, Bill.
1202
01:13:42,034 --> 01:13:44,730
- Move back from his truck.
- Get away from my truck.
1203
01:13:44,837 --> 01:13:46,805
Move back from the truck.
1204
01:13:48,540 --> 01:13:51,475
Now let's move the car-
1205
01:13:51,577 --> 01:13:53,977
No. You arrest him, Billy.
1206
01:13:54,079 --> 01:13:57,913
You come and get us. You get him out of the
truck, put him in your car and take him -
1207
01:13:58,017 --> 01:14:01,350
This is not a one-sided thing, Lois.
Now, I'm gonna take him to town...
1208
01:14:01,453 --> 01:14:03,353
but I'm also movin' that car.
1209
01:14:03,455 --> 01:14:07,325
You're letting him drive himself to town after
he gets up there. That's what you're doing:
1210
01:14:07,393 --> 01:14:10,157
- What's the difference?
- Oh, no. There's a lot of difference.
1211
01:14:10,262 --> 01:14:12,423
There's a lot of difference.
I tell you one thing.
1212
01:14:12,531 --> 01:14:15,523
If they got a warrant for us,
you would come and take us to jail.
1213
01:14:15,634 --> 01:14:17,779
Lois, you're taking things
in your own hands. You're-
1214
01:14:17,803 --> 01:14:21,603
- I'm not taking things in my own hands.
- You're thinking one way- and no other way.
1215
01:14:21,707 --> 01:14:24,767
Oh, no-Well, how-how other way
are there to think, Billy?
1216
01:14:24,877 --> 01:14:28,225
Whenever you get shot at with machine guns-
They shot at us with machine guns.
1217
01:14:28,313 --> 01:14:31,441
How many of your men
have I up and hauled off to jail?
1218
01:14:31,550 --> 01:14:34,896
This is the first time you've come out.
I will say that. But this has shocked me.
1219
01:14:34,920 --> 01:14:36,820
This has absolutely shocked me to death.
1220
01:14:36,922 --> 01:14:39,857
So be it. You're down here
on a public highway now.
1221
01:14:39,958 --> 01:14:43,338
You're not up there at the picket line.
You're not at Brookside on the picket line.
1222
01:14:43,362 --> 01:14:47,008
- You're here in the middle - - We can't stand
up there. They're shooting machine guns at us.
1223
01:14:47,032 --> 01:14:50,578
Well, they can also transfer 'em down here
if they're gonna kill you. You know that.
1224
01:14:50,602 --> 01:14:53,002
Yeah, but, see, we've got
a better chance down here.
1225
01:14:53,105 --> 01:14:56,236
- Well, nevertheless, that car has got to go.
- ♪ We shall not be moved ♪
1226
01:14:56,308 --> 01:14:59,675
♪ We stood by the sheriff
We shall not be moved ♪
1227
01:14:59,778 --> 01:15:05,239
♪ Just like a tree
that's standing by the water ♪
1228
01:15:05,350 --> 01:15:09,411
♪ We shall not be moved ♪
1229
01:15:09,521 --> 01:15:14,151
♪ We shall not be
We shall not be moved ♪
1230
01:15:14,259 --> 01:15:18,127
♪ We shall not be
We shall not be moved ♪
1231
01:15:18,230 --> 01:15:22,860
♪ Just like a tree standing by the water ♪
1232
01:15:22,968 --> 01:15:27,200
♪ We shall not be moved ♪
1233
01:15:27,306 --> 01:15:32,573
♪ Glory, hallelujah,
we shall not be moved ♪
1234
01:15:32,678 --> 01:15:36,774
♪ Glory, hallelujah
We shall not be moved ♪
1235
01:15:36,949 --> 01:15:39,713
♪ Well, over on the mountaintop ♪
1236
01:15:39,818 --> 01:15:42,218
♪ Children, we're gonna let it shine ♪
1237
01:15:42,321 --> 01:15:45,017
♪ Oh, on the mountaintop ♪
1238
01:15:45,124 --> 01:15:47,217
♪ I said we're gonna let it shine ♪
1239
01:15:47,326 --> 01:15:50,261
♪ Whoa On the mountaintop ♪
1240
01:15:50,362 --> 01:15:52,796
♪ We gonna let it shine ♪
1241
01:15:52,898 --> 01:15:55,366
♪ Let it shine Let it shine ♪
1242
01:15:55,467 --> 01:15:58,766
♪ Let it shine ♪
1243
01:15:58,871 --> 01:16:03,808
Well, we're gonna try to get 'em organized
and give these brothers a little help.
1244
01:16:03,909 --> 01:16:06,469
I think it's a great day.
1245
01:16:06,578 --> 01:16:08,478
It really rejoices me.
1246
01:16:11,250 --> 01:16:13,150
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
1247
01:16:13,252 --> 01:16:15,812
♪ Let it shine Let it shine ♪
1248
01:16:15,921 --> 01:16:17,889
♪ Let it shine ♪
1249
01:16:17,990 --> 01:16:20,982
All the way! All the way!
1250
01:16:21,093 --> 01:16:23,152
- All the way!
- Join the march!
1251
01:16:23,262 --> 01:16:26,925
Come on and join the march!
1252
01:16:30,002 --> 01:16:32,129
We're Harlan County union...
1253
01:16:32,237 --> 01:16:35,968
from the top of our head
to the sole of our foot.
1254
01:16:36,074 --> 01:16:40,443
Do you think that the company has
any possibility of breaking this strike?
1255
01:16:40,546 --> 01:16:42,878
Well, at this particular time
I don't think so.
1256
01:16:42,981 --> 01:16:46,417
The, uh, show of strength on the part
of our membership here...
1257
01:16:46,518 --> 01:16:50,113
and the general, uh, public awareness
in East Kentucky indicates to me...
1258
01:16:50,222 --> 01:16:53,385
that it isn't gonna be easy,
but we're gonna be successful.
1259
01:16:53,492 --> 01:16:56,859
Do you have any idea how long this
may go, and are you prepared to-
1260
01:16:56,962 --> 01:17:00,955
It's pretty hard to say how long it's gonna
go, but we're here to stay, as I said earlier.
1261
01:17:01,066 --> 01:17:05,002
♪ Yeah, but my name is Sam
I'm a shuttle-car driving man ♪
1262
01:17:05,103 --> 01:17:08,937
♪ Said my name is Sam
I'm a shuttle-car driving man ♪
1263
01:17:09,041 --> 01:17:10,975
♪ With my six big wheels a-rollin' ♪
1264
01:17:11,076 --> 01:17:13,010
♪ At 14 cent a load ♪
1265
01:17:13,111 --> 01:17:16,171
♪ A never-ending battle
I keep on rollin' ♪
1266
01:17:16,281 --> 01:17:20,047
♪ Well, this may not be
a very big part I play ♪
1267
01:17:20,152 --> 01:17:23,519
work hard at it every day
1268
01:17:23,622 --> 01:17:25,749
♪ So let's come out for the union ♪
1269
01:17:25,857 --> 01:17:29,190
on the ground
1270
01:17:29,294 --> 01:17:32,855
♪ Yeah, but my name is Sam
I'm a shuttle-car driving man ♪
1271
01:17:32,965 --> 01:17:36,833
♪ Said my name is Sam
I'm a shuttle-car driving man ♪
1272
01:17:36,935 --> 01:17:40,564
♪ With six big wheels a-rollin'
at 14 cent a load ♪
1273
01:17:40,672 --> 01:17:43,436
♪ A never-ending battle
I keeps on rollin' ♪
1274
01:17:55,153 --> 01:17:57,747
I don't know of any time
in coal mine history...
1275
01:17:57,856 --> 01:17:59,824
when, uh...
1276
01:17:59,925 --> 01:18:01,825
the president and principal officers...
1277
01:18:01,927 --> 01:18:05,073
of the international union have come
to the coalfields during an organizing.
1278
01:18:05,097 --> 01:18:08,157
The battle.
It's most gratifying to me to see...
1279
01:18:08,267 --> 01:18:11,293
busloads in here
from Indiana and Illinois.
1280
01:18:11,403 --> 01:18:15,032
I think if I were a Brookside striker, I
think that that would mean something to me.
1281
01:18:15,140 --> 01:18:18,303
To bring people hundreds of miles...
1282
01:18:18,410 --> 01:18:21,038
to just march around town
and listen to a couple speeches...
1283
01:18:21,146 --> 01:18:23,046
don't make too much sense to me.
1284
01:18:23,148 --> 01:18:27,346
That, uh -Although it generated
a lot of enthusiasm and fortified -
1285
01:18:27,452 --> 01:18:30,910
you know, maybe strengthens
people's morale here...
1286
01:18:31,023 --> 01:18:33,719
a lot more could have been done
when they came here.
1287
01:18:33,825 --> 01:18:37,022
That we could have, for example,
marched down to Brookside...
1288
01:18:37,129 --> 01:18:39,097
and confronted Yarborough
face-to-face...
1289
01:18:39,197 --> 01:18:41,927
who was sittin' at
the Brookside office during the day.
1290
01:18:42,034 --> 01:18:47,062
Uh, we could have gone to Highsplint
and expropriated their machine guns.
1291
01:18:47,172 --> 01:18:50,335
And the miners here, I'm convinced,
were ready to do something like that.
1292
01:18:50,442 --> 01:18:52,706
After that contract's a-signed...
1293
01:18:52,811 --> 01:18:54,711
it's gonna be better on everybody.
1294
01:18:54,813 --> 01:18:57,680
Let's show Norman Yarborough
he don't run Harlan County.
1295
01:18:57,783 --> 01:19:00,251
Let's show Judge Hogg
he don't run Harlan County.
1296
01:19:00,352 --> 01:19:04,365
And if you people don't get out here and help
us out, we ain't gonna get nothin' that's right.
1297
01:19:04,389 --> 01:19:08,985
We want you down there at 5:00. That's
a sunrise revival at Brookside, Kentucky.
1298
01:19:38,090 --> 01:19:40,786
We don't know
what caused the shooting or nothing...
1299
01:19:40,892 --> 01:19:44,658
but we can figure it was just a
disagreement for the mine workers.
1300
01:19:44,763 --> 01:19:47,425
He was shot in the face.
1301
01:19:50,135 --> 01:19:52,968
We helped bring him over here.
1302
01:19:54,306 --> 01:19:57,104
- What happened?
- Got shot in the damn head.
1303
01:19:57,209 --> 01:19:59,575
- Shot in the face with a shotgun.
- Who shot him?
1304
01:19:59,678 --> 01:20:03,205
A goddamn scab.
Bill Bruner.
1305
01:20:04,850 --> 01:20:09,549
That's brain that's laying there. A goddamn
fella when he tried to do somethin'.
1306
01:20:10,622 --> 01:20:14,114
That's what a scab does to a person,
by God, when they're not lookin'.
1307
01:20:16,061 --> 01:20:18,825
See, the pissants carrying off
a goddamn man's brain...
1308
01:20:18,930 --> 01:20:21,125
while he's layin' over
in the hospital dying.
1309
01:20:21,233 --> 01:20:23,963
Maybe shot all to hell.
1310
01:20:24,069 --> 01:20:27,266
- You friends of his?
- I'm always tellin' him -
1311
01:20:30,142 --> 01:20:33,077
He got dea -
shot in the goddamn head by a -
1312
01:20:35,947 --> 01:20:39,405
Yeah. My son's a-fightin' for it,
and that's what he got shot over.
1313
01:20:39,518 --> 01:20:41,986
- You got two sons fighting.
- Yeah.
1314
01:20:42,087 --> 01:20:45,818
My-My other son too.
He pickets at Highsplint.
1315
01:20:48,393 --> 01:20:50,827
How long have you been married?
1316
01:20:50,929 --> 01:20:53,022
Almost a year.
1317
01:20:53,131 --> 01:20:55,531
- How old are you?
- Sixteen.
1318
01:20:55,634 --> 01:20:58,194
- Do you have any children?
- One.
1319
01:20:58,303 --> 01:21:00,567
Are you proud of your husband?
1320
01:21:00,672 --> 01:21:02,765
Yeah.
1321
01:21:02,874 --> 01:21:06,435
What made him decide
to go on the picket line?
1322
01:21:07,746 --> 01:21:10,408
The union, I guess.
1323
01:21:10,515 --> 01:21:12,949
Yeah. He's a union man. That's why.
1324
01:21:13,051 --> 01:21:18,114
I - I want my kids all to be union.
I don't want 'em to be a yellowback scab.
1325
01:21:18,223 --> 01:21:20,851
I don't want 'em to be
kicked around like at the -
1326
01:21:20,959 --> 01:21:22,893
like we was when we was kids.
1327
01:21:22,994 --> 01:21:27,693
And my daddy-He worked all his life
and didn't get a thing before he died.
1328
01:21:27,799 --> 01:21:31,633
Worked all his life in the coal mines,
and we never did see him either.
1329
01:21:31,736 --> 01:21:36,230
Till we was asleep in the bed. Mom would give
us what we had to eat, and we'd go to bed.
1330
01:21:36,341 --> 01:21:39,970
He'd eat when he come.
He'd be gone when we got out of bed.
1331
01:21:40,078 --> 01:21:44,606
Then whenever he got too old to work in
the mines, they just kicked him out to die.
1332
01:21:44,716 --> 01:21:48,243
They didn't care.
'Cause there wasn't no union then.
1333
01:21:49,821 --> 01:21:52,051
And I don't want my kids
to be like that.
1334
01:21:52,157 --> 01:21:56,560
I want my kids to stick up
for their rights and be a union... man.
1335
01:21:58,029 --> 01:22:01,965
Well, next time somebody gets up in our
meetin' and says let's have nonviolence...
1336
01:22:02,067 --> 01:22:04,831
and don't bother them,
let's kick their goddamn ass.
1337
01:22:04,936 --> 01:22:07,996
The women get up there,
and they park their car across the road...
1338
01:22:08,106 --> 01:22:11,219
and they gets to say what they think,
and we hide behind the goddamn car.
1339
01:22:11,243 --> 01:22:13,803
- Don't use no violence -
- I'll be honest with you.
1340
01:22:13,912 --> 01:22:16,608
I done got enough goddamn
shotgun blasts in my goddamn face.
1341
01:22:16,715 --> 01:22:18,649
Nonviolence. We don't have no violence.
1342
01:22:18,750 --> 01:22:22,447
We stand back there, and we don't say
a goddamn thing. We don't even do nothin'.
1343
01:22:23,555 --> 01:22:26,820
Most of you were
real close friends with Lawrence Jones.
1344
01:22:26,925 --> 01:22:30,952
He left a 16-year-old wife
and a five-month-old daughter.
1345
01:22:32,664 --> 01:22:37,692
But I think at this time that
we should at least wait till the morning...
1346
01:22:37,802 --> 01:22:40,293
before -
and not let things get out of hand.
1347
01:22:40,405 --> 01:22:43,033
I've just talked to Chip Yablonski
and Rick Banks...
1348
01:22:43,141 --> 01:22:45,803
and they've asked me to tell you...
1349
01:22:45,911 --> 01:22:48,175
that the company
and the union is talkin:
1350
01:22:48,280 --> 01:22:50,578
And that they're close.
1351
01:22:50,682 --> 01:22:53,173
Looks to me like the best part...
1352
01:22:53,285 --> 01:22:55,807
is to be - try to get old Yarborough
and old Basil Collins.
1353
01:22:55,887 --> 01:22:57,787
Amen.
1354
01:22:57,889 --> 01:23:01,290
Now, them's the leaders, boys.
Them's the leaders...
1355
01:23:01,393 --> 01:23:03,918
and they're somewhere
they can be got.
1356
01:23:04,029 --> 01:23:06,190
There's plenty of big trees down there...
1357
01:23:06,298 --> 01:23:08,789
and there's plenty of high-powered rifles.
1358
01:23:08,900 --> 01:23:12,233
I went in 'em back in the '30s.
I known it exactly.
1359
01:23:12,337 --> 01:23:15,829
I've seen 'em, buddy-I've seen
'em carryin' - puttin' down with this.
1360
01:23:15,941 --> 01:23:18,273
And I've seed men
get it right out in the open.
1361
01:23:18,376 --> 01:23:22,745
So I tell everybody. Take to shelter
if you can and lay the lead to 'em.
1362
01:23:22,847 --> 01:23:24,815
Amen, brother.
1363
01:23:28,353 --> 01:23:32,517
The contract is what we are fightin' for.
1364
01:23:32,624 --> 01:23:35,593
That's what Lawrence Jones died for.
1365
01:23:35,694 --> 01:23:38,492
To get a contract.
1366
01:23:38,597 --> 01:23:40,997
But I told his family-
1367
01:23:41,099 --> 01:23:43,590
I said, "It was for a good cause."
1368
01:23:45,870 --> 01:23:47,770
And what I said-
1369
01:23:47,872 --> 01:23:50,306
"Why couldn't it be somebody like me?
1370
01:23:50,408 --> 01:23:53,605
Some old man just about spent anyhow."
1371
01:23:53,712 --> 01:23:57,113
But it took a young man's life...
1372
01:23:57,215 --> 01:23:59,547
to bring this thing -
1373
01:23:59,651 --> 01:24:03,747
the government and the union
and the operators together.
1374
01:24:04,990 --> 01:24:07,458
If this shootin'
hadn't have happened, probably...
1375
01:24:07,559 --> 01:24:11,290
this contract - they wouldn't probably-
might not have been a meetin'...
1376
01:24:12,330 --> 01:24:15,390
to negotiate a contract.
1377
01:24:15,500 --> 01:24:18,435
But every contract that we've ever got...
1378
01:24:18,536 --> 01:24:20,436
has been hard.
1379
01:24:20,538 --> 01:24:22,472
We've had to fight for it.
1380
01:24:23,575 --> 01:24:26,339
I've been all around the blood...
1381
01:24:26,444 --> 01:24:29,072
shed back here in the '30s.
1382
01:24:30,115 --> 01:24:32,083
Blood all around me.
1383
01:24:33,385 --> 01:24:35,910
Where men died right around my feet.
1384
01:24:37,589 --> 01:24:40,023
For a contract.
1385
01:24:40,125 --> 01:24:44,061
And I think,
if we ever did hold our peace...
1386
01:24:44,162 --> 01:24:46,562
let's try to hold it tonight.
1387
01:24:46,665 --> 01:24:48,997
The price has been paid for it.
1388
01:24:50,068 --> 01:24:54,596
♪ Leave behind ♪
1389
01:24:54,706 --> 01:24:59,769
♪ Yes, leave behind ♪
1390
01:24:59,878 --> 01:25:06,408
♪ What will I leave behind ♪
1391
01:25:07,452 --> 01:25:11,445
♪ After I leave ♪
1392
01:25:11,556 --> 01:25:16,687
♪ For worlds unknown ♪
1393
01:25:16,795 --> 01:25:23,530
♪ What will I leave behind ♪
1394
01:25:29,774 --> 01:25:32,743
Oh, God.
1395
01:25:37,348 --> 01:25:40,317
Oh, God! Oh!
1396
01:25:43,588 --> 01:25:47,115
Oh, God!
1397
01:25:48,259 --> 01:25:50,284
I can't -
1398
01:25:52,263 --> 01:25:54,788
Oh, God, I can't stand it!
1399
01:25:54,899 --> 01:25:58,062
Oh, God, I can't -
1400
01:26:15,420 --> 01:26:18,514
Needs to come up
the river just a little bit, don't it?
1401
01:26:34,973 --> 01:26:38,636
When you believe in something strong
enough that you're ready to die for it...
1402
01:26:38,743 --> 01:26:40,643
that's when you get it.
1403
01:26:40,745 --> 01:26:43,441
Because that's what happened
to Lawrence Jones.
1404
01:26:43,548 --> 01:26:47,814
He believed in it so strong,
and he was ready to die for it, and he did.
1405
01:26:47,919 --> 01:26:52,686
But it could have been me. It could have been
anybody that was out there on the picket line.
1406
01:26:53,792 --> 01:26:57,558
I feel like that this is just a
little pebble on the beach.
1407
01:26:57,662 --> 01:27:01,428
Because we've got
a lot of organizing to do in Harlan County.
1408
01:27:01,533 --> 01:27:06,436
'Cause Harlan County will be
U.M. W.A. coal.
1409
01:27:06,538 --> 01:27:11,498
I guess that, uh, I'd have to say that...
1410
01:27:11,609 --> 01:27:13,543
as much as we fought down here...
1411
01:27:13,645 --> 01:27:15,613
and as hard as we fought...
1412
01:27:15,713 --> 01:27:17,738
I don't think if it was for...
1413
01:27:17,849 --> 01:27:20,682
that young boy Lawrence Jones,
I doubt if we...
1414
01:27:20,785 --> 01:27:23,049
would have got a contract
as fast as we did.
1415
01:27:23,288 --> 01:27:28,021
Uh, I'd like to ask to pass a motion
that we accept this contract.
1416
01:27:30,328 --> 01:27:32,228
- Somebody-
- I second it.
1417
01:27:32,330 --> 01:27:34,230
Somebody, uh, make the motion.
1418
01:27:34,332 --> 01:27:36,596
- I make the motion.
- I second.
1419
01:27:36,701 --> 01:27:39,499
All Brookside miners
stand for a count.
1420
01:27:40,538 --> 01:27:42,438
All right.
1421
01:27:42,540 --> 01:27:45,065
- Tell 'em to sit down.
- Sit down. Everybody sit down.
1422
01:27:46,277 --> 01:27:48,177
The ayes have it, and so ordered.
1423
01:27:48,279 --> 01:27:50,440
The ayes have it,
and so ordered.
1424
01:27:50,548 --> 01:27:53,312
- The contract's accepted.
- The contract's accepted.
1425
01:27:55,553 --> 01:27:59,148
The only thing I hate about this - On -
On account of that boy getting killed...
1426
01:27:59,257 --> 01:28:01,157
you know, and it all having to come to -
1427
01:28:01,259 --> 01:28:06,561
Of course, you expected that. I really
expected more, you know, than that to happen...
1428
01:28:06,664 --> 01:28:10,361
and probably would have if it had gone on,
you know, this week and next week.
1429
01:28:10,468 --> 01:28:14,029
That's right.
We all knew that it was comin'...
1430
01:28:14,138 --> 01:28:16,470
but we didn't know who or when.
1431
01:28:18,209 --> 01:28:20,871
Do you feel you've been
changed by the strike?
1432
01:28:20,979 --> 01:28:23,311
- Oh, yes.
- How so?
1433
01:28:23,414 --> 01:28:26,747
Many different ways.
I can look for a future now.
1434
01:28:31,322 --> 01:28:33,381
I feel good about it.
1435
01:28:33,491 --> 01:28:35,391
It's just great. Marvelous.
1436
01:28:35,493 --> 01:28:38,690
After 13 months, waitin' to see,
you know, him go back to work.
1437
01:28:38,796 --> 01:28:41,993
Boy. It's been a long time.
1438
01:28:42,100 --> 01:28:45,069
I wish that I wouldn't go up there,
but I did.
1439
01:28:45,169 --> 01:28:48,696
I wouldn't go, but when I see him go,
his fight's my fight...
1440
01:28:48,806 --> 01:28:52,298
so I want to stand beside of him
and fight too.
1441
01:28:52,410 --> 01:28:54,469
If this had just been a
Harlan County strike...
1442
01:28:54,579 --> 01:28:56,479
and there hadn't been publicity...
1443
01:28:56,581 --> 01:28:58,712
hadn't been a fight against
their rate increase...
1444
01:28:58,783 --> 01:29:00,683
hadn't been a fight against their stock...
1445
01:29:00,785 --> 01:29:04,312
Duke Power wouldn't have given a damn
about any of the pressure down here...
1446
01:29:04,422 --> 01:29:06,447
'cause, uh, all we had was their coal...
1447
01:29:06,557 --> 01:29:10,357
and we never had shut off enough of that
to hurt their stockpiles up until the end.
1448
01:29:10,461 --> 01:29:12,361
And the same thing with Lawrence.
1449
01:29:12,463 --> 01:29:15,042
They never would have cared
if Lawrence Jones died in Harlan.
1450
01:29:15,066 --> 01:29:18,365
It would have been a two-inch paragraph
in the Harlan Daily Enterprise...
1451
01:29:18,469 --> 01:29:21,734
and Carl Horn wouldn't have
given a goddamn about it.
1452
01:29:21,839 --> 01:29:24,899
And so I don't think
a strike is won by any one thing.
1453
01:29:25,009 --> 01:29:29,207
It was won by a lot of different people
in a lot of different ways...
1454
01:29:29,314 --> 01:29:31,748
fighting together
and playing different roles.
1455
01:29:31,849 --> 01:29:35,114
Victory! Harlan County!
1456
01:29:35,219 --> 01:29:37,119
The other thing we're trying to do...
1457
01:29:37,221 --> 01:29:39,689
is investigate how the fix
was put in here in Harlan.
1458
01:29:39,791 --> 01:29:42,157
- What fix?
- Well, it's pretty clear...
1459
01:29:42,260 --> 01:29:45,821
that when a man commits murder
and the state police charges him...
1460
01:29:45,930 --> 01:29:50,333
and witnesses say that he, uh,
fired on the man unprovoked...
1461
01:29:50,435 --> 01:29:52,835
that a grand jury is duty-bound
to indict him.
1462
01:29:52,937 --> 01:29:55,167
But this grand jury was Harlan County...
1463
01:29:55,273 --> 01:29:57,935
and it seemed like,
despite the fact we had won a contract...
1464
01:29:58,042 --> 01:29:59,942
not that much had changed here.
1465
01:30:00,044 --> 01:30:01,944
It was just like in the old days.
1466
01:30:02,046 --> 01:30:04,913
If the company kills a man,
the company gets let off.
1467
01:30:05,016 --> 01:30:08,782
If one of our people had shot
any company man throughout this strike...
1468
01:30:08,886 --> 01:30:11,081
he'd be servin' 25 years now.
1469
01:30:11,189 --> 01:30:13,350
Bill Bruner is scot-free.
1470
01:30:14,692 --> 01:30:17,490
Once a concession is won...
1471
01:30:17,595 --> 01:30:21,122
and once a strike is won,
that the workers have to move right on...
1472
01:30:21,232 --> 01:30:23,132
to the next struggle.
1473
01:30:23,234 --> 01:30:26,080
And if they don't, the concession
that was won, you're gonna lose it.
1474
01:30:26,104 --> 01:30:30,564
So there's two types of ways
to win strikes and concessions.
1475
01:30:31,609 --> 01:30:35,943
And the first type is
where the workers fight and struggle...
1476
01:30:36,047 --> 01:30:38,015
and force the concessions...
1477
01:30:38,116 --> 01:30:42,143
out of the mine owners
or factory owners or who have ya.
1478
01:30:42,253 --> 01:30:46,417
And, uh, these strikes are strikes
that are won from below.
1479
01:30:46,524 --> 01:30:50,290
The other type of strike is strikes
that are given to you from above.
1480
01:30:50,395 --> 01:30:53,956
Whenever anybody gives you something,
they don't give you nothin' for nothin:
1481
01:30:54,065 --> 01:30:56,226
To get something and be given it...
1482
01:30:56,334 --> 01:30:58,666
you're gonna have to give up something.
1483
01:31:30,668 --> 01:31:32,727
The B.C.O.A. member companies...
1484
01:31:32,837 --> 01:31:34,964
are to be expected to provide...
1485
01:31:35,073 --> 01:31:39,203
substantially higher levels
of wages and benefits.
1486
01:31:39,310 --> 01:31:41,210
It is essential -
1487
01:31:41,312 --> 01:31:44,611
be necessary for the bargaining
parties to give serious consideration...
1488
01:31:44,715 --> 01:31:48,276
to contract provisions
which will contribute significantly...
1489
01:31:48,386 --> 01:31:50,479
to increased production and productivity.
1490
01:31:50,588 --> 01:31:54,684
The membership of our union no longer was
willing to accept two dollars more a day...
1491
01:31:54,792 --> 01:31:57,625
and a bar of soap
and a towel and a bathhouse.
1492
01:31:57,728 --> 01:32:00,458
The areas -The main areas of concern
to our membership -
1493
01:32:00,565 --> 01:32:03,911
It's been well established and should be
recognized by everyone in this country.
1494
01:32:03,935 --> 01:32:06,733
Particularly the coal operators.
Safety is our highest priority.
1495
01:32:06,838 --> 01:32:10,296
The men's asking for
more than they did before.
1496
01:32:10,408 --> 01:32:12,342
And they're gonna get it.
1497
01:32:12,443 --> 01:32:15,071
They either get it,
or there won't be no coal.
1498
01:32:15,179 --> 01:32:17,079
The strike.
1499
01:32:17,181 --> 01:32:19,945
They're -
They've been looking forward to this.
1500
01:32:20,051 --> 01:32:23,282
This is a big thing for the miner.
1501
01:32:23,387 --> 01:32:25,355
He will better his lot after today...
1502
01:32:25,456 --> 01:32:27,890
because when Miller took office...
1503
01:32:27,992 --> 01:32:31,689
he said that he was going to
get the miner what he was entitled to.
1504
01:32:31,796 --> 01:32:34,458
Okay. The supply track.
1505
01:32:43,407 --> 01:32:45,932
They're starting now from the work area...
1506
01:32:46,043 --> 01:32:48,102
and they're coming to
what we call the manway.
1507
01:32:48,212 --> 01:32:50,203
They'll be coming up the cage.
1508
01:32:50,314 --> 01:32:54,114
In another, uh,
32 minutes they'll all be out.
1509
01:32:54,218 --> 01:32:56,186
God willing.
1510
01:32:59,223 --> 01:33:03,751
Well, I think that, uh, ratification's
great. We have something to say about it.
1511
01:33:03,861 --> 01:33:07,194
Retire - Retirement.
1512
01:33:07,298 --> 01:33:09,198
Want vacation.
1513
01:33:09,300 --> 01:33:12,497
- Yeah. Better-Better vacation.
- Sick pay.
1514
01:33:12,603 --> 01:33:17,836
It'll never be ratified for something
that's not at least a $15-a-day increase.
1515
01:33:17,942 --> 01:33:20,775
- You've been through this before.
- Many a time.
1516
01:33:20,878 --> 01:33:24,678
- Six months one time.
- Are you afraid of going out on strike?
1517
01:33:24,782 --> 01:33:27,979
No, I'm not afraid.
I don't want to see no strike. Naturally.
1518
01:33:29,520 --> 01:33:32,080
No miner wants a strike.
But no contract, no work.
1519
01:33:32,190 --> 01:33:35,091
And if it's not -
A good one, we get to ratify it.
1520
01:33:36,127 --> 01:33:39,790
It would never have gone the way it has
if we'd have been able to vote before.
1521
01:33:39,897 --> 01:33:42,661
Just like, uh, Boyle.
He didn't -We didn't vote.
1522
01:33:42,767 --> 01:33:44,945
He says,
"Oh, this is what they'll take".
1523
01:33:44,969 --> 01:33:47,230
So that's what we had to take
is what they'd give us.
1524
01:33:47,271 --> 01:33:49,705
Now we're gonna take what we want.
1525
01:33:56,547 --> 01:33:59,209
Even those who criticize it acknowledge...
1526
01:33:59,317 --> 01:34:01,410
that it's probably the best agreement...
1527
01:34:01,519 --> 01:34:04,977
uh, that's been made in any industry
in modern times.
1528
01:34:05,089 --> 01:34:08,855
Mr. Miller, do you expect to recommend
ratification of this contract to the membership?
1529
01:34:08,960 --> 01:34:11,705
I will recommend ratification
of this contract to the membership.
1530
01:34:11,729 --> 01:34:14,527
- Sir?
- Will you have a right to strike at the local level?
1531
01:34:14,632 --> 01:34:16,532
No.
1532
01:34:16,634 --> 01:34:20,092
Do you anticipate that will cause you
trouble in ratification, since that's one-
1533
01:34:20,204 --> 01:34:23,291
No. I'm sure there are some divergent views
among the membership, and...
1534
01:34:23,341 --> 01:34:26,787
I never expected 100%% ratification, but
I'm confident the membership will ratify.
1535
01:34:26,811 --> 01:34:28,870
You can't take the right to strike away.
1536
01:34:28,980 --> 01:34:33,007
If you go through the proper
grievance procedure and it doesn't work...
1537
01:34:33,117 --> 01:34:35,847
you have only got one right left:
The right to strike.
1538
01:34:35,953 --> 01:34:39,650
And if you take that away from a man,
you've had it.
1539
01:34:41,659 --> 01:34:44,138
- It's not in the agreement.
- But it's not ruled out yet.
1540
01:34:44,195 --> 01:34:45,347
I'd like to have it.
1541
01:34:45,371 --> 01:34:47,722
- Well, I would like.
- I can't speak for everyone.
1542
01:34:47,832 --> 01:34:50,733
Let me step out here
and talk to you privately about it.
1543
01:34:56,274 --> 01:34:58,674
The international's gone and changed...
1544
01:34:58,776 --> 01:35:01,516
the whole ratification process
without giving any reason for it.
1545
01:35:01,612 --> 01:35:05,275
They're trying to keep us apart. He could
be getting pressure from the government.
1546
01:35:05,383 --> 01:35:08,195
He could be getting pressure
from the companies. It's hard to say.
1547
01:35:08,219 --> 01:35:11,882
We don't know. That's what the problem is.
We don't know, and we're not being told.
1548
01:35:11,989 --> 01:35:16,085
Everybody was under the impression, when Miller
was elected, that he was the man for the job.
1549
01:35:16,193 --> 01:35:18,627
- Everybody-
- Well, he acted. He acted like he was.
1550
01:35:18,729 --> 01:35:20,702
He's an honest man,
but he's no match
1551
01:35:20,726 --> 01:35:22,809
for them bunch of clowns,
because that is their job.
1552
01:35:22,833 --> 01:35:24,733
- He's honest.
- He didn't try.
1553
01:35:24,835 --> 01:35:27,314
Coal companies don't need
to tell you they can't afford this...
1554
01:35:27,338 --> 01:35:29,950
because they're owned by the oil companies
and the power companies.
1555
01:35:29,974 --> 01:35:32,279
And who has more money in the world
than those people?
1556
01:35:32,310 --> 01:35:34,789
- They can afford everything.
- That's why we're out here.
1557
01:35:34,845 --> 01:35:39,339
I'll tell you what. The company kept
the apple. They throwed us the core.
1558
01:35:39,450 --> 01:35:42,419
That's what they did.
1559
01:35:42,520 --> 01:35:46,047
You look at these coal companies.
You look at Consolidated Coal -
1560
01:35:46,157 --> 01:35:49,320
181 goddamn percent profit.
1561
01:35:49,427 --> 01:35:51,452
You look at Piston:886.
1562
01:35:51,562 --> 01:35:55,157
And they're bitchin' about their giving us
a goddamn five more days vacation.
1563
01:36:06,344 --> 01:36:08,475
This is unprecedented,
isn't it, Mr. Secretary...
1564
01:36:08,579 --> 01:36:11,207
for a secretary of the treasury
to step in like this?
1565
01:36:11,315 --> 01:36:13,374
I don't think it's, uh, unprecedented. No.
1566
01:36:13,484 --> 01:36:18,012
I think this is a very serious, uh, issue
in the economic area in our country.
1567
01:36:18,122 --> 01:36:21,057
A prolonged coal strike would have...
1568
01:36:21,158 --> 01:36:23,058
very serious economic implications.
1569
01:36:23,160 --> 01:36:25,060
So as the chief economic spokesman...
1570
01:36:25,162 --> 01:36:26,693
I consider this
my very deep responsibility
1571
01:36:26,717 --> 01:36:29,826
to attempt to work toward
a resolution of this issue.
1572
01:36:29,934 --> 01:36:33,426
What is your reaction to the government
stepping in at this time?
1573
01:36:33,537 --> 01:36:36,904
Well, I hope that we can
resolve the matter ourself, but -
1574
01:36:37,007 --> 01:36:39,066
That's, uh, the way I feel about it.
1575
01:36:40,578 --> 01:36:43,342
Some of this contract-
It's got some good in it.
1576
01:36:43,447 --> 01:36:46,678
But most of this contract is against you.
1577
01:36:46,784 --> 01:36:48,979
What contract?
1578
01:36:49,086 --> 01:36:52,021
- As far as I-As far as I can see, this-
- A funny book.
1579
01:36:52,123 --> 01:36:54,023
This, uh-This is no contract at all.
1580
01:36:54,125 --> 01:36:57,526
- Take it and read it and shut up.
- That's what I did with the last one.
1581
01:36:57,628 --> 01:37:01,530
You work three years in Wheeling Steel,
you can get 13 weeks.
1582
01:37:01,632 --> 01:37:04,806
Bill, you're not working at Wheeling Steel.
You're working in a coal mine.
1583
01:37:04,902 --> 01:37:08,181
I ain't workin' in a hole all the time.
I have to work down in the hole too...
1584
01:37:08,205 --> 01:37:10,484
- and I deserve just as much as he gets.
- That's right.
1585
01:37:10,508 --> 01:37:13,443
What about your high cost of living?
What about your sick leave?
1586
01:37:13,544 --> 01:37:16,206
Five goddamn days.
1587
01:37:16,313 --> 01:37:19,908
- You been off sick?
- I can't afford to get sick.
1588
01:37:20,017 --> 01:37:23,612
I have to spend all my money-the money
going to doctors and getting doctor slips.
1589
01:37:23,721 --> 01:37:25,581
They got the
cost-of-living index set up
1590
01:37:25,605 --> 01:37:27,567
for people making two and
three dollars an hour...
1591
01:37:27,591 --> 01:37:30,458
where we should be on a.3 or a.25
instead of a.4.
1592
01:37:30,561 --> 01:37:32,051
- That's right.
- It's a joke.
1593
01:37:42,940 --> 01:37:45,841
- A lot of yeses, boys. I'm telling you.
- Yes, sir.
1594
01:37:46,944 --> 01:37:52,075
104, 105, 106, 107.
1595
01:37:52,249 --> 01:37:55,218
The 1974
Bituminous COA's agreement...
1596
01:37:55,319 --> 01:37:58,686
has been ratified by the membership
of the United Mine Workers.
1597
01:37:59,857 --> 01:38:03,258
The, uh, figures for
those voting for...
1598
01:38:03,360 --> 01:38:06,124
is 44,754...
1599
01:38:07,198 --> 01:38:10,531
and 34,741 voting against.
1600
01:38:10,634 --> 01:38:13,125
I think that we have a great contract.
1601
01:38:13,237 --> 01:38:17,037
I think our people will
adapt theirselves to it.
1602
01:38:17,141 --> 01:38:20,269
They will be more familiar with it
as they work along with it.
1603
01:38:20,377 --> 01:38:23,073
And it's, uh, my hope that, uh...
1604
01:38:23,180 --> 01:38:25,148
we can now get on with the job...
1605
01:38:25,249 --> 01:38:27,376
of, uh, running this union...
1606
01:38:27,485 --> 01:38:29,976
and, uh, doing
the kind of organizing job...
1607
01:38:30,087 --> 01:38:33,887
that will make the United Mine Workers
number one in the country again.
1608
01:38:37,328 --> 01:38:41,526
I'm directing the membership of our
United Mine Workers organization -
1609
01:38:41,632 --> 01:38:43,600
labor organization -
back to work.
1610
01:38:43,701 --> 01:38:47,569
- I'm glad to get back.
- You feel you got a good contract?
1611
01:38:47,671 --> 01:38:50,162
Uh - Oh, I felt mine's all right.
1612
01:38:50,274 --> 01:38:52,333
Uh, I got a good raise.
I'm happy about it.
1613
01:38:52,443 --> 01:38:54,343
I'm not too worried.
1614
01:38:54,445 --> 01:38:57,539
Morning.
How do you feel about going back to work?
1615
01:38:57,648 --> 01:39:01,414
Well, going to work-I don't feel like
working anytime, but I have to go.
1616
01:39:01,519 --> 01:39:04,044
Do you feel you got a good contract?
1617
01:39:04,154 --> 01:39:07,317
Well, not for us old-timers,
we don't have a good contract.
1618
01:39:07,424 --> 01:39:10,757
- Why not?
- Well, we ain't gonna get too much benefit.
1619
01:39:10,861 --> 01:39:16,356
You take, uh, three years ago the coal
miners were supposed to be getting $50 a day.
1620
01:39:16,467 --> 01:39:20,062
Three. Within six years - 1976-
1621
01:39:20,170 --> 01:39:23,731
I still won't be getting $50 a day
with this new raise in there.
1622
01:39:23,841 --> 01:39:26,401
And the papers had to be forged
three years ago...
1623
01:39:26,510 --> 01:39:29,070
that they'd start up $50.
1624
01:39:30,347 --> 01:39:33,942
But now, after six years,
I still won't be making $50.
1625
01:39:34,051 --> 01:39:36,315
When are you gonna be able to retire?
1626
01:39:36,420 --> 01:39:38,354
Well, I'm old enough to retire now...
1627
01:39:38,455 --> 01:39:41,686
but I couldn't live off $150 a month.
1628
01:39:43,093 --> 01:39:45,391
So I gotta go to work.
1629
01:39:45,496 --> 01:39:48,294
- Okay. Have a safe day.
- I'm gonna try.
1630
01:40:01,211 --> 01:40:04,476
It was a fight before
and it's still a fight.
1631
01:40:04,582 --> 01:40:07,346
Fight before we had the union
and still fightin'.
1632
01:40:08,485 --> 01:40:11,399
And they're gonna keep fightin'.
Coal miner will always be fightin'.
1633
01:40:18,128 --> 01:40:22,292
♪ United we stand, divided we fall ♪
1634
01:40:22,399 --> 01:40:26,426
a battle must be fought
1635
01:40:26,537 --> 01:40:30,405
the key to liberty
1636
01:40:30,507 --> 01:40:34,637
that rich man's style of luxury
1637
01:40:34,745 --> 01:40:39,045
♪ There ain't no way they can
ever keep us down Oh, no ♪
1638
01:40:39,149 --> 01:40:42,846
♪ Ain't no way they can ever keep us down ♪
1639
01:40:42,953 --> 01:40:45,114
♪ We won't be bought, we won't be sold ♪
1640
01:40:45,222 --> 01:40:47,200
♪ To be treated right,
well, that's our goal ♪
1641
01:40:47,224 --> 01:40:49,124
♪ And there ain't no way ♪
1642
01:40:49,226 --> 01:40:51,524
♪ They can ever keep us down ♪
1643
01:40:51,629 --> 01:40:54,655
But you have got them goin' now,
and you're gonna keep 'em goin'.
1644
01:40:54,765 --> 01:40:57,529
If you don't, God bless America,
you're down!
1645
01:40:57,635 --> 01:41:00,763
Join the struggle! Fight to strike!
1646
01:41:00,871 --> 01:41:02,771
Join the struggle!
Fight to strike!
1647
01:41:02,873 --> 01:41:06,138
That we get a grievance procedure
that has the right to strike in it...
1648
01:41:06,243 --> 01:41:08,871
so that we can fight the companies
and win our grievances.
1649
01:41:08,979 --> 01:41:10,879
♪ We've been shot and we've been jailed ♪
1650
01:41:10,981 --> 01:41:12,881
♪ Lord, it's a sin ♪
1651
01:41:12,983 --> 01:41:14,917
♪ When mom and little children ♪
1652
01:41:15,019 --> 01:41:17,044
♪ Stood right by the men ♪
1653
01:41:17,154 --> 01:41:19,054
♪ But we got that union contract ♪
1654
01:41:19,156 --> 01:41:21,181
♪ That keeps the worker free ♪
1655
01:41:21,291 --> 01:41:25,227
♪ And they'll never shoot
that union out of me ♪
1656
01:41:25,329 --> 01:41:28,093
♪ And they'll never shoot
that union out of me ♪
1657
01:41:28,198 --> 01:41:30,098
♪ Oh, no ♪
1658
01:41:30,200 --> 01:41:33,658
♪ Never shoot that union out of me ♪
1659
01:41:33,771 --> 01:41:35,671
♪ Got a contract in our hand ♪
1660
01:41:35,773 --> 01:41:38,071
of honest men
1661
01:41:38,175 --> 01:41:42,168
shoot that union out of me
1662
01:41:42,279 --> 01:41:46,443
But if you get those junctions lifted -
1663
01:41:46,550 --> 01:41:49,713
you get those junctions dropped-
1664
01:41:49,820 --> 01:41:52,254
automatically you got the right to strike.
1665
01:41:58,128 --> 01:42:00,619
♪ Well, the power wheel is rolling,
rolling ♪
1666
01:42:00,731 --> 01:42:02,631
♪ Right along ♪
1667
01:42:02,733 --> 01:42:04,928
♪ And the government helps keep it goin' ♪
1668
01:42:05,035 --> 01:42:06,935
♪ Goin' strong ♪
1669
01:42:07,037 --> 01:42:08,937
get your help
1670
01:42:09,039 --> 01:42:10,939
♪ From your own kind ♪
1671
01:42:11,041 --> 01:42:14,909
♪ Your welfare ain't on
that rich man's mind ♪
1672
01:42:15,012 --> 01:42:19,210
♪ Your welfare ain't on
that rich man's mind Oh, no ♪
1673
01:42:19,316 --> 01:42:23,013
♪ Your welfare ain't on
that rich man's mind ♪
1674
01:42:23,120 --> 01:42:25,179
♪ They want the power
in their hands ♪
1675
01:42:25,289 --> 01:42:27,450
♪ Just to keep down the worker and ♪
1676
01:42:27,558 --> 01:42:31,460
♪ Your welfare ain't on
that rich man's mind ♪
1677
01:42:31,562 --> 01:42:34,360
never, never, never keep us down
1678
01:42:34,465 --> 01:42:39,459
♪ Oh, no
Never, never, never keep us down ♪
1679
01:42:39,570 --> 01:42:41,504
♪ They can cheat, lie, frame or steal ♪
1680
01:42:41,605 --> 01:42:43,869
♪ But we'll stop that big wheel ♪
1681
01:42:43,974 --> 01:42:48,240
keep us down