Pittston Coal strike

During the 1980s, the real (inflation-adjusted) price of coal declined,[1] putting economic pressure on coal companies. Many coal companies began employing non-union workers who would work for less money so that the coal company could maintain a profit.

By 1987 Pittston Coal had dropped from being the seventh largest coal operator in the United States to the 15th, and coal production was at an all-time low.[2] The Pittston Coal Company had worked with the Bituminous Coal Operators (BCOA), which regulated health and retirement benefits offered to Pittston workers. The Pittston mines continued to lose money, though, and in 1987 the Pittston Coal Company terminated its contract with the BCOA to establish its own health and retirement benefit contract with the UMWA. Through collective bargaining, the UMWA and the Pittston Coal Company established two different retirement plans for the miners: one for those who retired before 1974 and one for those who retired after 1974, in the hopes that this would help the company gain a profit.[2]

In 1988, Pittston still felt the strain of providing benefits, with the cost per miner increasing by $3,746 from the 1979 amount.[3] The company was still going into debt and having a difficult time paying for the miners' benefits. To avoid losing more money, Pittston doubled health deductibles, lowered the coverage from 100% to 80%, and discontinued benefits to miners who retired before 1974.[3] This change in the health care plan was still not enough for the company to gain a profit, so they decided to keep the mines running 24 hours a day and seven days a week, with no overtime for the workers. Pittston also did away with successorship clauses, which meant that the miners of Pittston would not have job security or transfer of job rights in mines that were leased or sold.[3] Miners were now working longer hours with more expensive health care plans, while the mine was losing no production time because it was never closed.

The UMWA took action against Pittston's new plan of operation and offered to reach a settlement. The coal company stayed quiet, and when the time came to renew the health care and retirement benefit plans for its workers, Pittston refused.[4] The refusal to renew the contract left about 1,500 people without health care. These people were not just miners employed by Pittston, but also families, widows, and disabled miners in the Virginia area.[5]

President of the UMWA during the Pittston strike, Richard Trumka.

In April 1989, after the miners had worked 14 months without benefits, UMWA president Richard Trumka declared a strike against the Pittston Coal Company.[6] Around 2,000 UMWA members who worked for Pittston walked out of the mines and reported to the picket line. Pittston responded to the strike by hiring replacement workers. To ensure that production would continue, Pittston also had help from the state police to escort the replacement miners and coal trucks across the picket line.[4]

The UMWA used civil disobedience to attract attention to the needs of the miners. The union stressed that all actions of the strike must remain peaceful. However, many miners still used violent methods during the strike. The strike gained the media's attention. People came from all across the country to support the UMWA's cause, and around 50,000 people went to southwest Virginia during the course of the strike.[7]

During the strike, Pittston's production was reduced by about one third.[8] Low production could have been a result of the strike taking place in several mines owned by Pittston. The main mine involved was the Clinchfield Coal Company in Dickenson County, Virginia.[9] Some of the other mines that participated in the strike of 1989 were the Moss 3 Preparation Plant in Russell County, Virginia, McClure mine, and the Westmoreland Coal Complex.[10] Pittston refused to give in to the UMWA's demands, although operating at a loss, and the strike continued. Unable to meet the financial needs of the strikers, the UMWA started to suffer as well. As the strike progressed, members of the union were paid less than $210 a week on average; less than a third of the average salary of $640 a week.[8]

Although the union members were getting less pay than promised, they did not lose their faith in the UMWA's ability to negotiate a settlement. Due to Trumka's efforts, the miners were able to keep their spirit and morale up during the strike. He knew that giving into the demands of Pittston would only lead to other mine companies revoking health care benefits.[8] On August 20, 1989 Trumka was questioned by B. Drummond Ayers Jr., a local reporter from the New York Times, about how long he expected the strike to continue. Trumka responded to the question by saying, "People keep asking how long we can hold out. The answer: one day longer than Pittston."[11] The strike continued until February 1990, when a settlement was agreed upon by both parties. The settlement was reached after taking the demands to court several times and after many ratifications were made.[12] The miners of the Pittston Coal Company were able to once again receive health and retirement benefits.

During the Pittston strike, the UMWA wanted to only use nonviolent means of protest against the company. Many union members practiced this method of civil disobedience and found creative ways for their message to be heard such as mass sit down strike and road blockades. However, many wildcat strikers ignored the request of the UMWA and used violence to express the anger that they felt toward the Pittston Coal Company. By the time the strike had ended, over 4,000 people had been arrested for their actions.[13]

Civil disobedience

The UMWA tried to focus the strikers on civil disobedience and often stepped in to stop the wildcat strikers. The union members used many different nonviolent strike tactics. These acts included standing and blocking the roads that the coal trucks would travel, mass sit down strikes, and large groups of people picketing outside of the Pittston coal mines.[16] This method of protesting helped the UMWA gain support from other people around the country.

Castlewood, Virginia, marked by this map, was the location of Camp Solidarity. The main mines involved were located close to this area.

Another method of peaceful protesting was demonstrated in the formation of Camp Solidarity which was located in the center of the protesting, in southern Virginia. Supporters came from all over the country to show their outrage against the actions of Pittston but there was no place that they could stay. Although many people in the local towns would offer shelter, they could not provide enough beds and food for all the people who came. Union member supporters found a solution to the problem. A local recreational park near Castlewood, Virginia was turned into a campground where these supporters could stay.[17] A small shelter equipped with bunk beds was built and an already existing snack bar was opened to provide food for the people staying at Camp Solidarity. Because the location was a recreational park, there was plenty of space for others to bring campers and tents into the area.[17]

As a result of the protests, more than $30 million in fines were levied against UMWA by Russell County Circuit Court Judge Donald A. McGlothlin Jr. In what many saw as an act of retaliation, miner and union official Jackie Stump was recruited to mount a write-in campaign for the state legislature against McGlothlin's father, Delegate Don McGlothlin. Stump, who was cellmates with UMWA vice president Cecil Roberts during the strike, went on to win the November election by more than two-to-one margin.[18]

Although the Pittston strike involved coal miners, many of the supporters of the strike were not miners at all. A majority of the support that the union members received was from women, who were a pivotal aspect of the strike. Many of these women were either wives or daughters of miners who worked for Pittston, but some women supporters had no affiliation with Pittston Coal Company or mining at all. The women would sit down in the middle of roads causing blockages while others would drive slowly in front of coal trucks to cause delays. Two famous groups of women supporters arose during this time; "The Daughters of Mother Jones" and "The Freedom Fighters". At the peak of the strike around 500 women were involved in supporting the miners,[17] most of them housewives.[20]

Daughters of Mother Jones

The "Daughters of Mother Jones" named themselves after union activist Mary Harris "Mother" Jones.

One group of women that formed during the strike was the "Daughters of Mother Jones". The group took their name from Mary Harris Jones, also known as "Mother Jones", a famous mine union activist. The group chose the name because they wanted to support the miners' benefits and follow the same beliefs as Jones.[21] The Daughters performed many of the same actions as other women supporters during the strike, including organizing places for supporters to stay, preparing food, and raising money for the miners.

The action for which the Daughters of Mother Jones are best known is their organization of an ongoing strike at the Pittston Coal State Headquarters in Lebanon, Virginia.[6] The women would meet outside the headquarters and strike, without the instruction or organization of the UMWA. They picketed outside every Monday and Wednesday in the hopes that they could gain more media attention and support for the miners.[6] Despite this, the Daughters did not feel that they were doing enough, so they independently constructed a sit down strike to take place at Pittston Coal headquarters, unorganized by the union.

On April 18, 1989, a group of 39 women went into the Pittston Coal headquarters and held a 36‑hour sit-down strike.[22] The women stated that they would not leave until a contract was signed. When questioned by police and media reporters to give up their names, the women responded by saying that they were daughters of Mother Jones. The Daughters gained the attention of the media and completely halted production at Pittston for an entire day and a half.[22] The women involved were not members of the UMWA but wanted to support their cause, and due to this they were linked to the UMWA and considered by some to be a part of the union.[6]

In February 1990, the Pittston Coal Company and the UMWA came to a settlement. The current miners of Pittston would receive health and retirement benefits once again. Pittston Coal Company also had to pay around $10 million for the retirement benefits plan for pre-1974 miners. In return Pittston was permitted to operate seven days a week as long as they were closed from 8am–4pm on Sundays. Miners were also put on a rotating schedule where every 28 days they would work one week for 4 days, 10 hours each day.[12]

Both groups had lost a considerable amount of money, Pittston due to the slowdown of production, and the UMWA for the cost of organizing the strike. At the end of the strike, the UMWA was fined around $64 million because of their actions during the strike. Many of these fines were not just because of violence that had erupted, but also for the road blockages and other forms of civil disobedience. Union officials were personally charged $13,000 a day for the strike and the union was charged $200,000 for their actions at Moss 3.[23] Many people opposed the charges that were made against the UMWA and petitioned that they be dropped. Although not all charges were, a vast majority were cleared and in return, union officials had to do 10,000 hours of community service to compensate for the removal of the fines.[17]

Miners of the Pittston Coal Company were glad that a settlement had been reached and that they would once again be receiving health and retirement funds. However, because they were without benefits for such a long time, many people had gone into financial trouble.[24] During the strike, the costs of health care had to be paid out of pocket and many miners did not have the resources to do so. As a result, many miners had accumulated debt. Another direct result of the Pittston Strike was the formation of the Coal Act. This act was established in 1992. This act made it mandatory by law for mining companies to provide health and retirement benefits for its workers.

At the time of the strike, Pittston was a strong coal company and the area was full of strikers protesting. Since the strike, many of Pittston's coal plants have been sold to Alpha Natural Resources, which is now in the nation's top three coal companies,[4] in order to pay for the health care for the miners. After the strike ended, Moss 3 was demolished and a new plant was built and named after it, and the recreational park that became Camp Solidarity has been reclaimed by nature and is now an open field.[4] Though the physical aspects of the area have changed since the strike has ended, what has not changed is the feeling that the miners of Pittston accomplished – a win for their own benefits as well as benefits for the UMWA. The union's actions during the strike made it possible for thousands of miners to receive health care and retirement funds for years to come.[25] Even though the miners were able to reach a settlement in early 1990, the case of the UMWA vs. Pittston Coal Company did not end in 1990. The fines, over $60 million, did not come into bargaining until 1994 and Pittston agreed to drop most of the charges. However, since the case was now in the court system, many courts wanted the UMWA to be responsible for all of the fines. The UMWA appealed all fines against them and the case remained undecided for many years.[26]

• Youtube video
• "Justice in the Coalfields trailer.
• UMW website.