Word: mined
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...near the mine face, visibility diminishes, and the air thickens with black dust. The miners begin to clear their throats and spit. The area around the mine face looks like a small construction site, with piles of boards, bolts, rails, ties and electrical power equipment. The wires on this equipment are regularly checked lest a miner be electrocuted. Facing the wall of coal is a continuous coal mining machine called "the beast." The machine's whirling blades chew into the seam with a roaring noise like an avalanche, spewing chunks of coal back into waiting coal cars, which...
When the machine has dug ahead 4 ft. or so, it pulls back. Then two members of the crew bolt boards in place on the mine roof to support it; drilling holes for the bolts is one of the most dangerous jobs in mining because the unsupported roof can easily give way. When the supports are up, the mining machine goes back to work, and the process is repeated over and over until the shift ends. For all the hazards, miners insist that there is a great deal of satisfaction in coal mining. Says Miller, a third-generation miner: "There...
...their small communities, miners generally do not live as well as auto workers or steelworkers, but they have begun to enjoy more of the amenities of middle class life. Bob Wingrove, 49, a miner for 27 years and the popular president of the U.M.W. local at the Ireland mine near Moundsville, speeds to work in a sports car, returns each evening to his modest frame house, which he is renovating. On days off, he drives to Pittsburgh, 90 minutes away on Interstate 79, for concerts or sporting events...
Neither Wingrove nor his brother "Peach," 36, was dissuaded from mining because of their father's death in a mine fire in 1966. Although Peach was disabled for a year after a roof fall, he still works the mines, and today he lives fairly well. To supplement his income of about $12,000 last year and to help save for retirement, his wife works in an enamelware plant. Last summer the couple and their three teen-age daughters vacationed in their travel trailer for two weeks at South Carolina beaches. "Mining's getting better," says Peach. "I know...
When Arnold Miller took over the presidency of the United Mine Workers in 1972, the victor in a vituperative campaign, he promptly cut the salary for that position from $50,000 to $35,000 and auctioned off to members three of the union's Cadillac limousines. Even as he planned to raise the incomes of U.M.W. members, he declined to adopt a princely life-style at their expense. Unlike most U.S. union chiefs, who rose through a series of headquarters jobs, Miller carried fresh in his mind the memories of rank-and-file travails. Just two years before...