Word: pattersons
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...this year will be in the coal fields, where chances of a disastrous strike are great. One reason: United Mine Workers President Arnold Miller is fighting a bruising battle to retain his post in a June election against the union's secretary-treasurer, Harry Patrick, and Lee Roy Patterson, another union official. Whoever wins, the souped-up promises of the campaign-fatter pay, expensive safety improvements-will have to be included in the union's demands and could cause coal operators to resist...
...cause of this latest rumble is the U.M.W.'s presidential election, which is scheduled for June. In a three-way campaign that is already getting heated, Miller is running for re-election against Union Secretary-Treasurer Harry Patrick and U.M.W. International Board Member Lee Roy Patterson. Patrick, 46, a voluble, fiery fourth-generation miner from Monongah, W. Va., ran with Miller on the reform ticket in 1972 and represents the progressive wing of the union. Though he came to office without bookkeeping experience or a high school education, he is credited with putting the U.M.W.'s ledgers...
Despite their ideological differences, Patrick and Patterson share one sentiment: contempt for the way Miller has run the 250,000-member union. Miller is the issue in the election...
Office Door. "The man is incapable of administering the affairs of the U.M.W.," says Patterson. Patrick calls his former ally "a disaster as president." For evidence, they point to his inability to control disorderly meetings of the U.M.W.'s 21-member international board, Miller's habit of spending long weekends in Charleston, W. Va., near his home, and his failure to check the rash of wildcat coal strikes that have plagued the industry during his tenure, including last summer's prolonged walkout that idled more than 90,000 miners...
Miller is the favorite in the race, though not by a wide margin. Patrick is a charismatic speaker who will attract a large number of young miners disenchanted with Miller's leadership. Patterson will pick up the sizable bloc (better than 40% of the vote in 1972) that supported Boyle. What worries union progressives is the possibility of a split vote between Miller and Patrick that would give the election to Patterson. "That will return us to the dark ages," says one Patrick supporter...