The battle of Blair Mountain in 1921 might be West Virginia's ultimate ‘us and them’ story — labor versus absentee landowners; working class versus ruling class; West Virginia versus the world. This Us & Them episode was honored with an award from The Virginias Associated Press Broadcasters.
More than a hundred years ago West Virginia was home to our nation’s most violent labor uprising.
For some, the Battle of Blair Mountain was a watershed moment when coal workers decided their rights were worth fighting and even dying for. The armed insurrection pitted 10,000 coal miners against 3,000 heavily armed coal industry guards and state troopers. The conflict came to a head because of the social and economic forces that hit West Virginia’s coal country after World War I.
It was the largest labor uprising in American history and the largest armed conflict since the Civil War. And yet, the Battle of Blair Mountain is largely unknown to most Americans, including West Virginians.
To learn more, Us & Them host Trey Kay follows the path of the miners on their march to Mingo, and learn what precipitated the battle.
The episode was honored with an award from The Virginias Associated Press Broadcasters.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and the CRC Foundation.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond. You also can listen to Us & Them on WVPB Radio — tune in on the fourth Thursday of every month at 8 p.m., with an encore presentation on the following Saturday at 3 p.m.
Trey Kay
/
Historian Charles Keeney (author of The Road to Blair Mountain: Saving a Mine Wars Battlefield from King Coal) takes Us & Them host Trey Kay to retrace the “March from Marmet to Mingo.”
Trey Kay
/
The boarded up Whipple Company Store in Whipple, W.Va. was built around 1900. As a company store, it remained in operation until August 1957, when the New River Company mine closed.
Trey Kay
/
Singer/songwriter Mary Hott explores the old Whipple Company Store — one of the last remaining coal company stores in Fayette County, WV. The songs on Hott’s album “Devil In The Hills” focuses on the culture of the company store and its effect on women.
Trey Kay
/
United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts speaking at a rally in New York City in July 2021. UMWA miners protested outside of the Manhattan headquarters of BlackRock, which is listed as the largest shareholder of Warrior Met Coal. For months, the UMWA has protested Warrior Met for better wages and employee benefits.
Trey Kay
/
UMWA protest in midtown New York City in July 2021.
UMWA
/
Actor Susan Sarandon speaking at a UMWA Rally in Midtown Manhattan.
Trey Kay
/
Actor Susan Sarandon speaks with Us & Them host Trey Kay at a UMWA Rally in NYC in July 2021
On a recent soggy Wednesday evening, dozens of West Virginians packed a conference room inside the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center to discuss the need for a “just transition” for coal-impacted communities.
As the nation grapples with climate change, the need for a fair transition for workers and communities that depend upon coal jobs and revenue has also gained traction. Nearly every 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful has touted some version of the idea, ranging from the expansive “Green New Deal” championed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to former Vice President Joe Biden’s more modest mix of worker training and direct assistance for coal country.
In West Virginia, discussions are starting to get attention in the state’s capital despite strong political support for the coal industry.
“When you’re hearing a call for a just transition for coal-reliant communities, folks are saying ‘look, starting now and into the future, we’re going to decarbonize the economy,’” said Ann Eisenberg, a law professor at the University of South Carolina. “There will be disproportionate losses imposed on coal-reliant communities. And that’s unfair. So we’re going to offset the losses. And that is where I think this is a good thing. And it’s also tricky.”
Eisenberg was one of a handful of experts who spoke at the event hosted by West Virginia University’s Center for Energy and Sustainable Development, the nonprofit West Virginia Center on Climate Change (an offshoot of conservation group Friends of Blackwater), and the left-leaning West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.
The speakers facilitated a conversation about what constitutes a “just transition” as well as how West Virginia and other regions that depend on coal could actually get there.
Credit Brittany Patterson / WVPB
/
WVPB
Three groups hosted a just transition discussion on Feb. 5, 2020 in Charleston, WV.
Adele Morris with the Brookings Institution said the first step is to acknowledge the clear data about coal. Even without a comprehensive climate policy, the fuel is already losing ground in the region and across the country. Low natural gas prices and the falling cost of renewable energy have priced many coal plants out of the market.
Federal data show since 2009, mining employment and coal production has fallen by about 50 percent in the Ohio Valley. The energy shift is already underway, Morris said, but without the part that would help communities make the transition.
“We’re in it. We’re in the transition,” said Morris, who is a senior fellow and policy director at the nonpartisan think tank. “And it’s going to get worse before it gets better. But it’s not fair. And that’s what I think should be urgently at the top of the agenda of the policymakers from coal country, and they’re not, in my opinion.”
Legislative Attempt
One lawmaker is making a pitch in West Virginia. State Del. Evan Hansen, a Democrat representing the north-central county of Monongalia, has introduced a bipartisan bill that would create a state Just Transition Office, and a community-led advisory committee that would focus on helping West Virginia communities affected by the decline of coal.
“The primary goal here is to write a just transition plan for the state of West Virginia that would look at ways to funnel funding into these communities and other types of resources into these communities in a manner that’s led by what people in those communities think is best,” Hansen said.
Still, he believes the appetite is growing among the state’s lawmakers to address coal’s decline.
“I would say privately many legislators of both parties acknowledge that there is a transition going on and that this is one of the most important issues that we need to deal with as a Legislature,” Hansen said.
Credit Alexandra Kanik / Ohio Valley ReSource
/
Ohio Valley ReSource
Not everyone is a fan of the bill, including the West Virginia Coal Association.
“Sounds to me like that they think that it would be much better if it were something other than the coal miners,” said the group’s president Bill Raney. “And that bothers me a whole lot because we got the best coal miners in the world.”
Raney’s group is pushing a bill this legislative session that would require West Virginia coal plants to burn the same amount of coal they did in 2019 in the years ahead, regardless of what makes most economic sense.
Of major note during the discussion was how to pay for a “just transition.”
Today most economic transition work in the region comes from federal programs including the Appalachian Regional Commission and Abandoned Mine Land program funding, which offer grants to coal-affected communities in the millions of dollars range.
Credit Alexandra Kanik / Ohio Valley ReSource
/
Ohio Valley ReSource
Morris has estimated the region will require tens of billions of dollars over the next decade and would require some kind of regulatory leadership from Washington, D.C., preferably a carbon tax. Democratic candidates who have supported the idea have differing ways to fund it, although most rely heavily on investing in clean energy and decarbonizing the economy through a “Green New Deal.”
Some in the region have encouraged lawmakers and candidates looking at these climate policies to engage with residents directly.
That includes Cecil Roberts, head of the United Mine Workers of America. In September, he spoke at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. He expressed concern the type of sweeping change Democratic presidential candidates are promising may be too big of a lift for Congress given its past track record in helping coal country.
“We want our health care saved, and if you can’t do that, and it’s been 10 years, how do you think we’re going to believe that you’re going to be able to give us a just transition from the coal industry to some other employment?” he said.
Kentucky Conversations
Chuck Fluharty, President and CEO of the Rural Policy Research Institute, helped to organize a community-centered, just transition model in eastern Kentucky called Shaping Our Appalachian Region, or SOAR. He said SOAR has shown this type of work is possible, especially if a community-centric approach is embraced. However, it’s not easy.
Credit Sydney Boles / Ohio Valley ReSource
/
Ohio Valley ReSource
Kentucky entrepreneurs show their products at the 2019 SOAR Summit.
SOAR’s premise is built upon a collective impact investing model that engaged the public, private and philanthropic sectors.
“The real proof of the pudding is in how broad collective commitment is, and is it there for the money or is it there for the future?” he said. “How much it is about investing and not simply dropping dollars on the table.”
Some politicians hope to engage coalfield communities directly about how to balance implementing climate legislation while protecting workers and investing in communities. Kentucky Democratic state senator and U.S. Senate candidate Charles Booker recently launched a series of town meetings on the subject in the heart of eastern Kentucky coal country.
Even among those who support a just transition, questions remain about how best to do it. Morris said there is little data on what has worked in economic transitions in the past. Her team has looked at the impact of military base closures, for example, but said the analogy isn’t perfect. Worker retraining efforts often have mixed results.
“There’s this policy design challenge of how do you get from the wholesale dollars of the federal government into well designed retail level grants and assistance and so on,” she said. “I’m still struggling with exactly how you do that in a way that gets those resources out, but does it in a way that that gives people comfort that it’s responsibly allocated.”
In a report published last July, Morris and colleagues at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University quantified just how much of a coal-producing county’s budget came from coal, and how big a hole their budgets might face without coal revenue.
Then the authors turned to the various policy proposals to limit greenhouse gas emissions, which would set a price on each ton of carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere.
Morris said that the revenue generated by such policies could be steered into the type of investments needed and at a scale that would make a just transition more likely.
For example, a carbon tax of $25 per ton would likely raise a trillion dollars in revenue over 10 years, she said.
“And that kind of revenue allows for a very generous support for coal-reliant areas,” Morris said.
It’s been nearly a century since thousands of pro-union miners marched into Logan County, West Virginia, to protest abuses by coal operators in what used to be largely anti-union territory.
Marchers were met at Blair Mountain in Logan County by an army of men, fighting on behalf of anti-union mine guards and local law enforcement. The battle was so heated that then-president Warren Harding called in Army troops to restore order.
This Labor Day, present-day members of the United Mine Workers of America marched from Marmet in Kanawha County to Racine in Boone County, to commemorate what they say was one of the greatest events in the nation’s labor history.
Credit Emily Allen / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
UMWA International President Cecil Roberts speaks to attendees of the 2019 UMWA Labor Day Picnic.
“This is the greatest insurrection in the history of these United States of America, other than the Civil War,” UMWA International President Cecil Roberts said. “We should be teaching this in every classroom in America.”
Unlike the reception union miners received nearly a hundred years ago at Blair Mountain, Monday’s march ended with a celebratory picnic at John Slack Park. Folk music played and veterans and union members alike removed their caps for the national anthem.
But Monday’s picnic wasn’t all about history. Roberts had much to say about the state of the country’s coal industry today, and his group’s concerns with mining jobs leaving the country.
“We don’t make anything here. We import things from China and every third-world country in the world,” Roberts said. “I say, make what we need in America. Protect coal mining jobs.”
Much of Roberts’ speech related to the upcoming 2020 election. He said elected officials should be held accountable for promises they’ve made regarding development of “clean coal” technology, which would reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal.
“We have to develop the technology that we need to burn coal cleanly in America,” Roberts said.
But despite substantial federal investment, technology has not been adopted by the electric utility industry, which has instead opted for cheaper, cleaner natural gas and other alternative fuels.
“It needs to be abolished,” Roberts said. “When I hear one of these candidates say they are for that, then I will know that they really support organized labor.”
Roberts will speak Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Topics include legislation on climate change, and the “Green New Deal” proposal adopted by several Democratic presidential candidates, which envisions a large-scale transition from fossil fuels.
America’s largest coal-mining company says it’s reached a tentative labor agreement with unionized miners.
Murray American Energy announced Friday a 5-year pact struck between the United Mine Workers of America and the Bituminous Coal Operators Association, representing mine operators in Ohio and West Virginia.
The union plans a membership vote next week on the contract, which would run from June 30 through 2021.
Robert Murray, CEO of Murray American and chairman of the association, said the agreement “will go a long way” in ensuring union employees are able to continue working “even in this very depressed coal marketplace.”
UMWA President Cecil Roberts said the “rapidly deteriorating status” of the U.S. coal industry required locking in the best terms and conditions six months before the current contract expires.
United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts rallied members at a meeting on Wednesday, June 3, in Morgantown. Roberts says the union will fight the Federal Environmental Protection Agency to keep miners employed.
According to Worforce West Virginia, about 11,500 miners have lost their jobs since March of 2012. Almost 2,000 of those layoffs have come since January of this year.
Roberts addressed the current state of the coal mining industry in front of a packed room at the Morgantown Event Center. He painted a picture of miners caught between an industry trying to cut costs and a government that wants to move away from coal.
Credit Jesse Wright / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
UMWA President Cecil Roberts.
Patriot Coal Company filed for bankruptcy for the second time in less than 3 years while Murray Energy announced plans to lay off hundreds of miners.
Roberts stressed that the decline of coal and loss of union mining jobs doesn’t just hurt miners and their families. He said miners contribute a billion dollars to the economy in the coalfields.
“You pull a billion dollars out of the coalfield communities and see what happens here. This is not just our problem, this is every elected official in America’s problem. This is everybody’s problem,” Roberts said.
Call to Action
He called on his members to support legislation sponsored by sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., that would allow states to opt out of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan. The plan’s goal is a 30-percent reduction in carbon emissions from existing coal-fired power plants by 2030.
Roberts also said miners should fight initiatives to shift from coal-fired electricity generation to gas-fired plants. He urged his union members to oppose county tax breaks for new gas-fired power plants in the counties where they live.
Miners React
After the speech, Monongalia County miner Dave Earl echoed Roberts’ sentiments.
“Like he said, there’s no jobs in gas. Once the wells are drilled and the pipelines are in, there’s no future but just a very few people there,” Earl said.
Roberts’ call to push back against the EPA and fight for lost coal jobs was well-received by his audience.
“That’s what us as a union have been waiting for. We’ve been waiting for Cecil’s backing and it sounds like we got it. It sounds like he’s ready to make a stand with us on this matter,” another Mon County miner, Daniel Strahin, said.
Credit Jesse Wright / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
UMWA members stand in recognition during Cecil Roberts’ speech on Wednesday, June 3, at the Morgantown Event Center.
Tough Battle Ahead
It will be a tough battle, though. Among other tasks, Roberts must navigate Patriot’s second bankruptcy. The company announced Wednesday that it wants to sell the majority of its assets to Blackhawk Mining, LLC.
That brings up the specter of a battle that landed Roberts and others in jail as they protested the terms of Patriot’s 2013 bankruptcy deal. The UMWA fought to keep retired miners’ pensions and health care benefits, among other things.
Meanwhile, a recent report indicates that coal production in West Virginia is expected to drop 39 percent compared with the industry’s last high point in 2008.
