Daughters of the Mountain: Women Coal Miners in Central Appalachia

1 Digging In: Coping with Sexualized Work Relations

1 digging in: coping with sexualized work relations In the 1970s, Appalachian coalfield residents experienced both the prosperity of the coal industry’s economic growth and the cultural changes wrought by the social turbulence of the previous decade. Beginning with the oil crisis in 1973, the industry enjoyed a boom that lasted into the early 1980s. Coal-mining companies began hiring underground miners in numbers unparalleled by the previous boom. The clarion call among the region’s underground coal miners was ‘‘Come blister and bleed.’’ This new generation of miners included veterans back from the Vietnam War, black Americans invigorated by the civil rights movement, and women inspired by another wave of feminism. They were younger, better educated, and more politically astute than the previous generation of miners (Perry 1984). They were also more likely to question authority. The mine superintendent, a rather intense, well-educated man who had once been a miner, said miners went out on wildcat strikes over virtually anything.1 According to one veteran male miner, ‘‘In the seventies, we 1. Like the 1930s, the 1970s was a period of conflict between operators and miners, which affected the terms of miners’ employment significantly (Simon 1983). As a result of the energy crisis during the early part of that decade, both parties anticipated rapid growth within the industry. The miners had high expectations for winning numerous concessions in the 1974 contract, and to some extent their expectations were fulfilled. The contract mandated monthly meetings of the mine committees, which were composed of miner and management representatives, and streamlined the grievance procedure. Although the companies continued to look for ways to cut costs, they also agreed to increase miners’ wages and benefits. This was done to attract new miners and increase production, a move that made mining more attractive to nontraditional employees such as women. 22 daughters of the mountain could basically do what we wanted to do and get away with it.’’ But the restlessness of the rank and file was also attributed to their dissatisfaction over more serious issues, such as health benefits (Moore 1966b). At the same time, there was considerable turmoil among the umwa leadership, as Arnold Miller’s ‘‘Miners for Democracy’’ unseated the umwa’s corrupt and entrenched president, Tony Boyle. Only during a time such as this could women have been tolerated, and the company began to hire them in record numbers, thanks in large part to the Coal Employment Project’s successful class action suit. getting hired Between 1973 and 1977 women in the central Appalachian coalfields were hired on their own, one at a time. Often they had to file complaints with state agencies charged with enforcing equal employment statutes before they could get hired. In 1973, using individual women’s complaints , the Kentucky Human Rights Commission began targeting the state’s coal companies; as a result, the number of female coal miners in the state jumped from five in 1974 to two hundred in 1977 (Mountain Life and Work 1978b). But according to advocates of women in mining, such agencies were slow to recognize the obvious and broader discrimination in the industry (Hall 1984; Thrasher 1981). This became more evident when women belonging to two grassroots organizations in the region were denied an underground mine tour. The mine operator, also Over the next three years, however, miners unexpectedly went on a record number of wildcat strikes. They felt their safety had been seriously compromised as the operators stepped up production. Moreover, the anticipated growth failed to materialize and the industry was generally regarded as being in decline. The disappointments experienced by both parties were reflected in the struggles over the 1978 and 1981 contracts. In the former agreement , miners lost certain health and welfare benefits along with cost-of-living increases. In the 1981 contract they suffered even more ‘‘take-backs,’’ including limitations on their right to bid on jobs. Conflicts between labor and management persisted throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s over such issues as mine and machine safety, the flow of mine communications , union jurisdiction, job-bidding rights, and the handling of miners’ grievances. Miners felt betrayed by their union leaders and believed that without change in those representing them, even further concessions on their part would follow in the next contract. With the election of Richard Trumka in 1982, miners entered an era of renewed militancy and relatively successful attempts to regain the contractual losses...