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GROWING UP IN COAL MINING COUNTRY

By Woody Oakes

Recently, I wrote an article critical of the eastern Kentucky coal mining industry.  Maybe a few words about myself will help you understand why I am so interested in what happens in that area.

Born and spending my first 23 years in Matewan, West Virginia, a small coal mining town of about 850 residents on the border of Pike County, Kentucky, I saw first hand what the coal companies did and are still doing to the people in that part of our country.

My Father, who was a sharecropper in Virginia, migrated to that area with my mother and two sisters in the late 1920’s to be a coal miner.  He was paid by the ton for the coal he would load, not by the hour.  When the company tried to cheat him and he complained, he was fired, and after the news of the conflict that ensued was in the local newspaper, he was blacklisted from working in the mines in that area. 

But being stubborn and proud, he stayed there, even though the coal companies tried to scare and starve us out.  Our family of six survived on what was called “welfare” of fifty cents a day.  Sure did eat lots of pinto beans and cornbread.  But he hung in there and used his notoriety to become a door-to-door salesman.

Shortly after being blacklisted, a man using a large axe attacked the front door of our home in the middle of the night.  I’ll let you guess who and why anyone would want to frighten a family in such a way.  But that was a different era and things are done more subtly today.

What words do you use to describe a coal company that uses every possible means at its disposal to squeeze every last dollar out of the people in a one-industry area?  And when that last dollar is obtained, they go for the last dime?

Of course that is an exaggeration, but the coal companies exaggerate their financial condition, threaten to close down the coal mine until some politicians and bureaucrats, who are looking out for themselves, rather than the people they are suppose to represent, give in, don’t enforce the laws and rules, allowing these coal operators what they want. 

So,…I hope you will forgive me if I become irate when I read of such happenings in the newspaper, such as what was reported in the July 19th issue of the Courier-Journal.

It was reported that 21 months after the 300 million gallon coal sludge spill in Martin County near Inez, Ky., Massey Energy has spent $40 million on the clean up, while local residents say they don’t believe it will ever be cleaned up.

 I calculate this to be not quite 3/4 of one cent per 55-gallon bathtub full of this tarlike substance.  Imagine that in your mind.  3/4 of a penny spent to clean up a bathtub full of this gooey, thick, toxic chemical laden substance.  

In the same issue of the C-J it is reported that Kentucky State regulators eased restrictions on a slurry pond dam at a Harlan County coal mine, a dam that is already over its limit, despite safety concerns of environmentalists and area residents.

The article said that Harlan Cumberland Coal Co. has already been warned by the state Department of Surface Mining and Reclamation and Enforcement that failure of the impoundment dam could flood nearby homes and “has the potential to be much more catastrophic that the Martin County spill.”

WARNED?  That is what you do when a child misbehaves.  How about some punishment?

There was a movie made several years ago entitled “Matewan.”  Being from such a small town, I was shocked to hear they were making a movie about my hometown.  The story takes place in the 20’s and 30’s.

Want to get and idea of what it was like back then?  Rent this four star movie.  Although it is a movie, not a documentary, it sure hits home to my old memories.

Editor's note:  For additional thoughts on the cozy relationship between government regulators and business, see Kathy Lyons' article on "Infection" in this issue.

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