Word: miners
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...Association, requires the United Mine Workers to return to work by this Monday for an 80-day cooling-off period. To enforce the law, Carter has an array of weapons, ranging from White House oratory to U.S. marshals and federal troops. But though the President said that the miners were "patriotic citizens [who] will comply with the law," hardly a miner in the hills of Appalachia or the flatlands of the Midwest would admit a willingness to bow to Taft-Hartley, which the union has defied twice before...
Once the papers are served, a task expected to be completed over the weekend, Taft-Hartley will be put to the test. Like Carter, Bell stressed that he thought the miners would obey the law and added that those who did should be protected by state and local authorities. When he was asked if his expectations might be overoptimistic in view of miner defiance in the past, he replied heatedly: "I'm really not interested as Attorney General in speculating about people not abiding by the law. They're patriotic people. I think it disparages the mine workers...
...true that over the years, the mines have become much safer. In 1948 there were 999 fatalities; last year 139 miners died on the job. The frequency of nonfatal accidents has dropped from 49.3 per million man-hours in 1948 to 36.07 in 1976. But mining still remains one of the most dangerous industrial occupations in the U.S. Says Barney Beard, president of Local 9111 in Waltonville, Ill.: "When I kiss my wife goodbye every day, she doesn't know if I'm going to get back home that night." Safety is also a consideration in the miners...
These demands are now backed up by a more belligerent, self-confident kind of miner. The average age in the mines has dropped from 49 in 1968 to around 31 today. Many of the younger miners either fought in the Viet Nam War or protested it. They are independent, outspoken and not addicted to regular work. The new contract provides for five days of work a week for 50 weeks a year, a two-week paid vacation and ten extra days of paid holidays. A miner can work six or even seven days a week if he wants...
They are supported by miners still on the job in a customary display of solidarity. "We're not forsaking our fathers." Says Jerold Hamrick, 35: "Blood is thicker than a contract and thicker than coal." Adds another young miner: "The way we treat these old miners is going to have a lot to do with how we get treated when we're old. We're all brothers...