Blair Mountain Editorial
TERRY STEELE of Meador, WV, worked for twenty-six years as an underground coal miner and is a member of the United Mine Workers of America Local 1440 in Matewan, the largest UMWA local in southern WV. Though he has always opposed mountaintop removal, he became an activist in 1994 when a mine began operating above the holler where he lives. A road blockage came onto his property that blocked his right of way, prompting him to begin fighting the Department of Environmental Protection and coal companies.
Terry Steele helped organize union members before and during the March on Blair Mountain. In this excerpt from an opinion-editorial he wrote, he calls on union coal miners to join the fight to save Blair Mountain.
This summer a march will take place to save Blair Mountain. It’s a sacred place to union men and their families in Southern WV. Ninety years ago a battle raged here between the coal companies with their political allies, and the union miners. The miners were trying to organize Mingo and Logan Counties; that had been controlled by big coal.
The march this summer is similar to the first one in many ways. The coal companies of the past controlled the politicians and together, they became wealthy, at the expense of the miners. Today mine explosions and fatalities have risen to the level of twenty years ago. Profits are high so they don’t seem to care. They now have their sight on a place stained with union blood. Ninety years ago the union miners marched and died to establish a union to give our miners a better life.
As we look back at the two combatants, hardly any one that knows our history would defend Don Chafins and the coal company thugs. Their money cannot redeem their name nor make their actions seem just. Time has shown the world just how greedy and unconcerned they were of the life and rights of these miners. The union lost the battle but won the war.
When FDR became president, he made changes that allowed the union to survive. Today, we find the union under attack once more, not only in WV but across this nation. Greed has brought old allies together again. Politicians are backing big business; together they disrespect the people, the land, and the environment.
In WV the officials that are paid to represent us are the puppets of the coal industry. . . They fight for MTR that destroys our mountains, our streams, and our air. On the state and county level it’s almost dangerous to speak out if you disagree with the coal companies. Any time you hear, we want the government out of our business, there’s some dirty business going on. . .
Today in WV, our leaders are claiming the EPA is trying to destroy our jobs. They claim that MTR creates jobs even though all statistics prove that underground mining provides double the number. The big lie is that it’s about jobs when it really is about profits! This money goes to out-of-state companies and their stockholders; people that don’t even know where West Virginia is, let alone Blair Mountain. These people don’t have to live with the pollution, the flooding, or the destruction of their mountains.
All across this nation and especially in WV we see a shrinking middle-class and the attack upon the unions that helped create it. It’s time to identify the real enemy. It’s not those that support collective bargaining, environmental protection, or safety regulations that protect our workers. It’s those that want to destroy Blair Mountain. . .
If Don Blankenship, Buck Harless, and their politicians support it, then Southern West Virginians had better beware. They say coal is the future! Yet they send their kids to college so they will never have to mine coal. They never give a thought that the young miners are someone’s children too! They protect their own while crying for fewer regulations that protect yours.
Come election time, these same politicians show up at the union hall and tell us what great union men their grandfathers and fathers were! My question to them is why the hell aren’t you a good union man? Why are you helping the coal companies destroy the union and blast away Blair Mountain? . . .
They are for big business coal companies that fight for less government and work toward the destruction of our union. The UMWA needs to quit electing friends of coal – there is a big difference between coal companies and coal miners. There is also a big difference between coal mining and mountain top removal. People lived near coal mines for a hundred years but towns are closing down that are under MTR sites. You can mine under Blair Mountain and our history will still be there.
It is my hope that Cecil Roberts (the president of United Mine Workers of America) will join our march to preserve Blair Mountain. He is a good leader and he cares about union history and our coal miners. The true democrats love our mountains, our history, and our environment and they stand for safety laws that protect our miners. We don’t need more friends of coal; we need friends of the coal miners. Just remember that it’s not what they say, or the name they bear, it’s all about their actions.
Terry Steele
UMWA Local 1440