United Mine Workers of America Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

September 28, 1955: Labor Activist Mother Blizzard Dies

Labor activist Sarah “Mother” Blizzard died on September 28, 1955, at age 90. She spent her early years on her family’s farm in Fayette County.

She, her husband, and her children were actively involved in the United Mine Workers of America union from its earliest days. After her support for the 1902 coal strike led to the Blizzards’ eviction from their home, they moved to Cabin Creek in Kanawha County. During the violent Paint Creek-Cabin Creek strike of 1912, “Mother” Blizzard allowed striking miners to camp on her land and joined forces with famed labor leader “Mother” Jones, to whom she was often compared.

“Mother” Blizzard and “Mother” Jones once participated in a march where they supposedly struck policemen with their umbrellas. “Mother” Blizzard also organized a group of women to block the Bull Moose Special from launching a second attack on a tent colony of miners. The Bull Moose was a special armored train coal operators used during the strike.

“Mother” Blizzard, as she was affectionately known, was the actual mother of UMWA District 17 President Bill Blizzard and great-grandmother of current UMWA President Cecil Roberts.

Mine Safety Officials Won’t Do More To Protect Coal Miners From COVID-19, Letter Says

The Mine Safety and Health Administration is declining to issue an emergency temporary standard that could protect coal miners whose jobs make them vulnerable to the coronavirus.

That’s according to an Aug. 14 letter from Department of Labor Deputy Assistant Secretary Joe Wheeler to West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin. MSHA can issue emergency temporary standards only when it determines that miners are exposed to a grave danger. It has only issued a handful of such standards, MSHA said, typically in the aftermath of large-scale mining disasters.

In the letter, Wheeler writes, “At this time, MSHA has determined it lacks evidence that COVID-19 poses a grave risk specific to miners.”

MSHA does not keep a comprehensive list of coronavirus cases among coal miners, though it does track mines where cases have been reported. According to a spokesperson for the Department of Labor, MSHA is currently aware of 188 mines that have reported instances of COVID-19.

To bolster its point, MSHA said that states with the highest numbers of working coal miners, including West Virginia, have relatively low rates of COVID-19.

A government official with knowledge of coal mining, who asked to remain anonymous over concerns for their job, said comparing rates of disease in a state to the risk of contracting a disease in a mine is “not incredibly useful.” According to the official, it only takes one case to spark an outbreak in a confined working environment. “Just take the meat-packing industry, for example. The explosion of cases in those facilities occurred in states that had relatively few cases. But the nature of the work, close quarters, little ability to social distance and no PPE caused the virus to infect upwards of 40-60 percent of employees.”

West Virginia news outlet WBOY reported this month that a Murray Energy mine in Harrison County had four cases of the virus, qualifying it as an official outbreak, according to health department procedures.

“Miners are particularly vulnerable to respiratory illnesses,” said a spokesperson for Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who has supported efforts to force MSHA to intervene. “The fact that the agency tasked with protecting them is saying that the risk miners face from COVID-19 is similar to or less than the general population is extremely concerning.”

MSHA said existing permanent standards are sufficient to protect miners’ health. But even before the arrival of coronavirus there were indications of serious shortcomings in health protections. Reporting from NPR and the Ohio Valley ReSource found epidemic-levels of black lung disease among working and retired coal miners, demonstrating that existing safety regulations and enforcement procedures still leave miners at risk of respiratory illness. Respiratory disease, in turn, can make people more vulnerable to serious effects from COVID-19 infection.

“Our miners work in close proximity to one another from the time they arrive at the mine site,” said Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America. “They get dressed, travel down the elevator together, ride in the same man trip, work in confined spaces, breathe the same air, operate the same equipment, and use the same shower facilities.”

The UMWA has worked with individual mines to implement uniform safety precautions, including additional disinfection between shifts and limiting the number of miners who enter the mines in confined “man trips.” The union also asked MSHA to issue an emergency temporary standard, even going so far as to file suit in a Washington D.C. circuit court asking a judge to force the agency to act. The judge dismissed that suit.

MSHA said it has implemented reporting procedures for miners who are concerned about COVID exposure in their workplaces. MSHA said it has received complaints through its tip line and, from March 1, 2020 to Aug. 14, 2020, has issued 122 citations for violations of various regulations regarding sanitary conditions that could contribute to the spread of COVID-19.

Mine Safety Officials Won’t Do More To Protect Coal Miners From COVID-19, Letter Says

The Mine Safety and Health Administration is declining to issue an emergency temporary standard that could protect coal miners whose jobs make them vulnerable to the coronavirus.

In the letter, Wheeler writes, “At this time, MSHA has determined it lacks evidence that COVID-19 poses a grave risk specific to miners.”

To bolster its point, MSHA said that states with the highest numbers of working coal miners, including West Virginia, have relatively low rates of COVID-19.

July 31, 1958: Labor Leader Bill Blizzard Dies at 65

Labor leader Bill Blizzard died on July 31, 1958, at age 65. The Kanawha County native was the son of two passionate union activists.

During the 1910s, Blizzard quickly rose in rank in the United Mine Workers of America labor union. In 1921, he played a key role in the armed miners’ march on Logan County and personally led some of the front-line fighting at the Battle of Blair Mountain. He was charged with treason and murder for his actions. He was tried in the Jefferson County Courthouse in Charles Town—ironically, in the same building where John Brown had been convicted of treason six decades before.

Although Blizzard was acquitted of all charges, he lost leverage in the union. In 1931, however, he won favor again by helping to defeat a rival miners’ union. He served as president of UMWA’s District 17 from 1945 until 1955, when he was forced out by national president John L. Lewis.

Bill Blizzard was one of the most influential labor leaders in West Virginia history and one of the main reasons the UMWA became a political powerhouse in the state.

January 30, 1920: UMWA Mobilizes to Unionize W.Va.

On January 30, 1920, the United Mine Workers of America launched a concerted effort to unionize southern West Virginia. Relations between the UMWA and coal operators had regularly turned violent over the previous 30 years.

However, the two sides had reached a tenuous truce during World War I. During the 19 months the United States was involved in the war, coal production soared and miners’ wages rose.

When the fighting in Europe ended, though, there was too much coal for the available demand. Prices plummeted, and coal operators began cutting wages. Conflicts between UMWA organizers and coal operators again turned violent in 1919.

The UMWA’s 1920 campaign to unionize southern West Virginia focused on Logan and Mingo counties—which had one of the largest nonunion mining workforces in the country. This push to organize southern West Virginia escalated tensions with coal operators, leading to the Matewan Massacre and a virtual state of war in Mingo County, which raged for more than a year.

Ultimately, the UMWA’s campaign ended after the miners’ failed march on Logan County and their defeat at the Battle of Blair Mountain.

January 23, 1890: United Mine Workers of America Formed

On January 23, 1890, the United Mine Workers of America was formed in Columbus, Ohio. Three months later, UMWA District 17, encompassing most of West Virginia, held its first meeting in Wheeling.

District President M. F. Moran immediately launched what would become an extraordinary struggle to unionize the state’s coal mines over the next four decades.

Coal operators bitterly fought unionization, insisting that the costs of mining coal were greater in West Virginia. As such, they couldn’t afford to pay the higher union wages being negotiated in other parts of the country. To combat the UMWA, coal operators hired heavily armed mine guards, many of whom were also deputy sheriffs.

Beginning in the 1890s, West Virginia became a battlefield of the labor movement. Increasingly violent strikes culminated in two of the deadliest labor confrontations of the 20^th century: the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike of 1912-13 and the armed miners’ march on Logan County, ending with the Battle of Blair Mountain, in 1921.

The tide didn’t really turn in the UMWA’s favor until New Deal legislation of the 1930s guaranteed workers the right to bargain collectively.