Word: coal
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Labor's weakness is glaringly apparent in its biggest confrontation of the year -the coal miners' strike. Meany has told associates that the leadership of the United Mine Workers is inept. He also figures that the two-to three-month inventory of coal that has been stockpiled by utilities and steel companies will enable the operators to hold out until the union eventually knuckles under, a sentiment shared by the coal companies. The 165,000 striking union members, mostly in Appalachia, account for only half the nation's coal production. There are growing numbers of nonunion miners...
Because of lack of employer contributions, pension payments will also be cut off for most of the 86,000 retired union members if the strike continues beyond Jan. 1. Some retirees take grim satisfaction in the fact that they contracted black lung, a generally incurable disease caused by inhaling coal dust. That ailment guarantees them lifelong disability payments. "If we lost our pension, I could survive," says Ashland ("Hawk") Howard, 62, a retiree in David, Ky. "But if I did not collect for black lung, I'd really be in trouble." Howard gets a pension of $225 a month...
Unions and unionism, specifically the U.M.W., play an inordinate role in the lives of 17's members and their families. Through the union comes just about the only work around. Its influence is as pervasive as the coal dust that is everywhere. "There is nothing more sacred than the union," says Cecil Roberts, 17's vice president...
Thus the miner is distrustful of anything outside the hills, hollows and coal that make up 17's turf-an individual who is suspicious of Government, big corporations, journalists and almost anything urban. The U.M.W. is seen as a family union, always to be believed in and loved. But the union's present national leaders must earn fealty. If they back off from promises, wildcats result, and assertions like that of Mike Adkins, 33, are heard: "Up here, on the creek, nobody tells me when to work and when not to work." But when the leaders demand something...
...will be high. In this case, the U.M.W. will pay no strike benefits, and strikers do not get unemployment compensation. They will make do on savings, food stamps and whatever income may be earned by nonunion spouses. Already 17 is going its independent way by opening negotiations with three coal companies. That may put pressure on the U.M.W.'s national leaders, but one thing is certain: no coal will be mined by District 17's members while a picket line is standing. That just is not done...