Word: minerals
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Short began life there in 1924, the son of a black coal miner in Danville, Ill. He taught himself to play the piano when he was three or four, and when he was eleven, he went touring the country as the Miniature King of Swing. The king was soon deposed, however. Bookings became scarce after a couple of years, and Bobby returned to Danville to finish high school. After that, it was back to the piano and the saloons of Chicago, and then Los Angeles, where he stayed, off and on, for more than a decade. He made one brief...
...most surprised miner of all was the hulking, tobacco-chomping Church, 44, who became president of the 91-year-old union in 1979. Determined to negotiate a contract that would cement his support within the U.M.W., Church emerged from two months of wage and benefit talks in possession of a package that seemed overflowing with concessions to the miners. Included in the deal: a 36% pay and benefits increase over three years, boosts in pension payments for retired miners and surviving spouses, and a ban on mandatory Sunday work, which mineowners had been demanding but workers had vehemently opposed...
...funds. On the other hand, industry officials seemed to feel that the rejection simply reflected the union's weakening grasp its members. Said one: "Facts had nothing to do with it. Rationality went out the window. What developed was emotion, suspicion and misinformation. It just gathered." Conceded Kentucky Miner Tommy Gaston, a member of the union's negotiating team: "I think the biggest problem was that the contract was not properly explained to the members fit had been, I think the pact would have passed...
...Midwest, along with the sprawling strip-mining operations of the Rocky Mountain states. As a result, mines covered by the U.M.W. agreement currently account for only 44% of overall U.S. coal production and the strike will probably reduce this figure further. Said Doug Heape, 23, a Tamaroa, Ill., miner with three years' experience underground: "The longer we're out, the more it's going to hurt." With no new contract talks now scheduled, the hurting may go on for a longtime...
Current stress on the use of coal instead of oil is the goal of a managerial plan to deprive miners of their rights, Darity said. He explained the U.S. originally depended on coal, but when miners demanded better pay and working conditions, the managers switched to oil, thus crippling the miner's union by eliminating miners. Now managers are ready to burn coal again, but only on their own terms, Darity said...