No union coal mines remain in Kentucky

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.sltrib.com/home/2905597-155/no-union-coal-mines-remain-in

By DYLAN LOVAN The Associated Press
First Published 3 hours ago • Updated 3 hours ago

Harlan, Ky. • Kentucky coal miners bled and died to unionize.

Their workplaces became war zones, and gun battles once punctuated union protests. In past decades, organizers have been beaten, stabbed and shot while seeking better pay and safer conditions deep underground.

But more recently the United Mine Workers in Kentucky have been in retreat, dwindling like the black seams of coal in the Appalachian mountains.

And now the last union mine in Kentucky has been shut down.

"A lot of people right now who don't know what the [union] stands for is getting good wages and benefits because of the sacrifice that we made," said Kenny Johnson, a retired union miner who was arrested during the Brookside strike in Harlan County in the 1970s. "Because when we went on those long strikes, it wasn't because we wanted to be out of work."

FULL story at link.

[Brickbat]

1. Heartbreaking.

The UMWA did not labor in vain, but goddammit this is hard.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

2. There are fathers and grandfathers that are screaming from their graves

sad

[madinmaryland]

3. Thank you Steve fore keeping us up to date on these developments...

I don't know what bothers me more...

that workers are losing their jobs or that those who are still working are getting screwn by the companies. And why are they losing their jobs? Coal is a nasty environmental disaster which makes it even harder to support.