Word: coaling
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These faces know hard times. They look sculpted from granite. They are sere with too much work, too little food and the knowledge that in 1920 in Matewan, W. Va., life is a bed of coal. Man and boy go into the mines and die; mother and wife wait for the sound of their men coming home, or for the fatal word that they won't. Life has pressed all hope out of these faces -- to smile would be a crime against remorseless nature -- though there is no free time for despair. The miners have been taught to accept their...
...coal company," Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper) tells the miners, "you're equipment." He wants to make men of them, and he gets help from unlikely places. The police chief (David Strathairn) is not one to be pushed around. A black miner (James Earl Jones) and an Italian laborer (Joe Grifasi) are tired of scabbing for the company and ready to lead their men to revolt. Elma (Mary McDonnell), a young widow, will stand up against the goons who board at her home. And her 14-year-old son (Will Oldham), a prodigy preacher, will update New Testament parables till Jesus...
...typical traits of Ramaphosa, 34, a black lawyer who has emerged as South Africa's newest political star. In the five years since its founding, the black union he heads has grown into the 210,000-member force that last month engaged South Africa's gold and coal mineowners in the nation's longest strike. While the union angered some members by settling for the same package of 15%-to-23% pay raises that the companies first offered, the strike marked a turning point in black-white labor relations. Calling the walkout a "dress rehearsal" for a strike next year...
...Anglo American Corp., the nation's largest mining company, then proceeded to fire some 38,000 strikers, bringing the total of dismissed employees to 45,000. The firm also pledged to sack an additional 16,000 this week if they did not return to work. Meanwhile, a black coal miner who had refused to go on strike was found stabbed and burned to death. The next day security police shot and killed two strikers in a clash near Johannesburg...
...union stalwarts chanted their support in downtown Johannesburg last week, Ramaphosa declared, "The strike continues until our demands are met." Such confidence was expected of him, but the showdown had become an uneven match. The Chamber claimed that 340,000 employees and two- thirds of its 99 gold and coal mines continued to operate despite the strike. Meanwhile, the workers were losing at least $2.2 million a day in wages. They have no strike funds, which are illegal in South Africa. And replacements were readily available. Reflecting the miners' predicament, Ramaphosa last week lowered the union's proposal from...