Word: coaling
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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John L. Lewis, the late great boss of the United Mine Workers, would rub his shaggy eyebrows in disbelief if he could see a coal miners' strike nowadays. ( No goons with clubs. No beatings. No gunfire (except for an occasional harmless lapse). Instead, in a remote corner of southwestern Virginia, 1,400 striking miners -- and even their wives and kids -- were all decked out in jungle fatigues. A public relations firm was pumping out pamphlets excoriating the bosses. Strike leaders with beepers, walkie-talkies and cellular telephones were blasting orders, tuning in scanners to chart the movements of the state...
...most are serious churchgoers; many are preachers). They earned more than $600 a week, had free medical benefits, seemed content with their simple lives in the savage hills and mountains of old Appalachia. For 14 months they worked without a contract while negotiating a new pact with the Pittston Coal Group, which operates some 40 mines in the region...
...biggest exporter of metallurgical coal in the U.S., Pittston has seen the world price of its product halved (to $30 a ton) in the past seven years. To trim costs, Pittston offered its employees a $1-an-hour raise in exchange for reduced health benefits -- from 100% coverage to 80% with a deductible -- and a seven-day-a-week "flex time" work schedule. Losing their precious Sundays as well as part of their health plan was too much for the miners. On April 5 they walked...
...suppose the answer all depends on whether one is a coal miner or a tenured economics professor with a lot of bonds in the portfolio...
...percent of the problem we face? Because the selective barring of ads merely highlights our hypocrisy. At the same time Eastern Airlines is being struck, workers are picketing Shawmut Bank--a frequent Crimson advertiser--for its ties to a union-busting firm now hurting thousands of striking Appalachian coal miners. Are these workers any less oppressed than Eastern strikers and any less worthy of our political notice...