Word: yablonsky
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Earlier that year, Yablonski had become the first United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) official in over 40 years to challenge the entrenched leadership of the union. He had lost the December, 1969 election decisively, by 33,000 votes. That election was later overturned by U.S. District Court Judge William B. Bryant on grounds of "massive vote fraud and financial manipulation." In the 1972 election, reform candidate Arnold Miller easily swamped incumbent W.A. (Tony) Boyle by 14,000 votes. Boyle was subsequently convicted of embezzling union money, illegally contributing union funds to the 1968 Humphrey presidential campaign, but most seriously...
...WHEN Tony Boyle took over the UMWA's presidency, the union and the operators were quite cozy with each other, and Boyle was determined to keep it that way. Jock Yablonski was an International Executive Board member from the UMWA's District 5 in southwest Pennsylvania. At one time, he hoped to succeed Boyle as president of the union, but their relationship steadily worsened. Boyle accused Yablonski of not helping his 1964 campaign for re-election to the presidency, although Boyle took District 5 by a four-to-one margin. He charged Yablonski with insubordination because Yablonski had fought...
...Yablonski tried to enlist the help of Ralph Nader. Nader quizzed Yablonski extensively about his plans for the union, and seemed enthusiastic about helping. But the plans fell through. Yablonski needed the support of 50 local unions to get on the December ballot, which he expected to get from his southern Pennsylvania power base of 68 locals. He would end up with 98 endorsements. Nader wanted him to campaign more during the summer of 1969, something Yablonski felt he couldn't do. He thought if he spent too much time away from his job, Boyle would fire...
Boyle stripped Yablonski of his position as head of the League. When Yablonski tried to fight his removal in the International Elective Board's meeting, he found himself out-voted, 21-1. Later, Boyle met with Albert Pass, secretary-treasurer of District 19 in east Tennessee and Kentucky...
...fight," he told Pass. "Yablonski ought to be killed or done away with." Pass, whose district had been the site of much violence, agreed. He came up with a plan to hire Yablonski's murders. It involved the transfer of $20,000 of union money to Pass in District 19 for the use of a non-existent "Research and Information" committee. The money was transferred to 23 retired miners, who cashed the checks and kicked the money back to Pass. Through a District 19 field agent named Bill Prater, he contacted another retired miner, Silous Huddleston. Huddleston enlisted...