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Show 22A April Energy 2002 After disturbance, miners support UMWA: (Confined from page ISA) and Buffalo Creek; and Bloody Harlan are some of many legendary stories that have been handed down in the oral history of mining families. Despite the early threats of physical harm and economic ruin, Americas coal miners have struggled against great odds to achieve the workers goals. The miners objectives in- cluded: Obtaining the eight-ho- ur ers the right to form unions and bargain collectively with employers at locations across the U.S. After organizing the nations coal fields, the miners turned attention to the mass production industries like steel and automobiles and helped the workers organize. Through the CIO, nearly four million workers throughout the U.S. were organized in less than two years. In addition, the United Mine Workers of America was an early pioneer of health and retirement benefits. In 1946, in a contract negoObtaining health and retiated between the union and the tirement benefits in 1946. Implementing safety protec- federal government, a UMWA welfare and retions in 1969. The UMWA was an influentirement fiind was created. tial member of the American The welfare and retirement Federation ofLabor (AFL) and fiind would change health care acted as a driving force behind delivery in the coal fields ofthe the creation of the Congress of nation. Industrial Organizations (CIO). The UMWA Fund built eight Representatives from the hospitals in Appalachia, estabUMWA fanned out across the lished numerous clinics and reUnited States in the 1933 to cruited young doctors to pracorganize all coal miners alter tice in rural coal field areas. A 1977 presidential commispassage of the National Industrial Recovery Act. sion found that the UMWA fluid The federal industrial recovhad allowed miners to succeed in obtaining for themselves a ery law granted American work day in 1898. Securing collective bargaining rights in 1933. multi-employ- er qualify of health care comparable to that of many sectors of the industrial population. The UMWA has also been a leader in the field of worker health and safety. Since the unions beginning, the UMWA has pushed for technical and statutory advances to protect life, health and limb. Because of the dust created in coal mines, the UMWA was forced to become expert in occupational lung diseases such as iiiiwd wwH pneumoconiosis. In 1969, the UMWA convinced the U.S. Congress to enact the landmark Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Art. The federal statute changed a number of practices to protect miners safety and provided compensation for coal workers suffering from black lung disease. Perhaps most important, the art was the first time that Congress mandated the elimination e ofa occupational Despite reductions in coal mine dust pwiqmtmtinn the man-mad- die-eas- e. mandate still has not been fulfilled - coal miners continue to suffer from black lung after 26 years. The old Carbon County Courthouse provided a legal arena for early labor disputes. Coal miners had legitimate reasons to complain about working conditions, including unsafe practices and unfair wages due to short weights tallied by company representatives. But when the underground workers filed labor related complaints, the coal companies were frequently exonerated by a judiciary. pro-busin- |