Marred Muckraking
WEITZMAN, PHILLIP
Marred Muckraking Death and the Mines: Rebellion and Murder in the United Mine Workers By Brit Hume Grossman. 288 pp. $7.95. Reviewed by Phillip Weitzman Assistant Professor of Economics,...
...This self-interest helps explain why the union has shown such enthusiasm in aiding the larger producers and in curbing activities that might become financially distressing to the industry????Such as pressing for higher safety standards and providing greater relief to disabled miners...
...Not terribly surprised at the disgraceful record of business and the bureaucrats on the issue of mine safety, he lays principal blame on a union gone to fat working in alliance with the big coal companies and the government...
...No move of this kind, though, will eliminate the problem of corruption, which extends far beyond the union hierarchy...
...All occupational diseases are theoretically compensable in West Virginia, but diagnosis of black lung with certainty is often difficult...
...Reviewed by Phillip Weitzman Assistant Professor of Economics, Herbert H. Lehman College Ten Years Ago Harry M. Cau-dill's Night Comes to the Cumber-lands predicted trouble for the United Mine Workers of America, which "shrunk its membership and raised the living standards of those who remain [ed...
...All the elements of an old-style boss-led machine are present: high salaries and generous pensions for union officials and their relatives...
...Since the size of workmen's compensation premiums is proportionate to the number of people receiving it, coal companies sought to block more liberal eligibility provisions and to convince local medical societies to denounce proposals that would permit certification of claims without actual proof of lung damage...
...expulsion or demotion of foes...
...Hume describes how three Charleston-area doctors crusaded throughout the state and galvanized mass support behind a strong black-lung compensation eligibility bill...
...Along the way it has been convicted of conspiracy to promote monopoly in the bituminous coal industry and has expended much time and effort in lobbying against Federal assistance to coal's chief competitors, in the form of oil depletion allowances and subsidies for atomic energy...
...The UMWA's policies toward the growing epidemic of black lung, a progressively debilitating and often fatal disease caused by inhalation of coal dust, exemplify its indifference...
...If the coal industry is to bear these costs alone, then only the largest, most efficient companies will survive, and even more jobs will be lost...
...Though in its advanced stages black lung can usually be verified on X-rays, in the early state it can be identified only by its symptoms????Short breath, chest pains, etc...
...Of the five alleged assassins, two have been convicted, and investigations into their motives and connections with union officials are continuing...
...In doing so it . . . kept abreast of progress because progress is bigness, efficiency, technological advancement and organization...
...for efforts at influencing public opinion and Congress to support expanded health and safety legislation...
...It embraces the Bureau of Mines, with its obligation to enforce safety regulations...
...Boyle's victory was followed by charges of fraud, ballot-stuffing, and other irregularities...
...The consequences of this policy????firmly established under the leadership of the late John L. Lewis and pursued by his chosen successors????have included a succession of fatal mine disasters, fights over workmen's compensation and safety legislation, a pattern of union corruption and apathy, and the sordid presidential election of 1969...
...For normalcy has once again returned: The Bureau of Mines is neglecting to enforce safety standards, and the Department of Labor's attempt to democratize the UMWA is tangled in endless litigation...
...and the Department of Labor, responsible for enforcing the Lan-drum-Griffin Act...
...Boyle also called the Consolidation Coal Company, the largest coal producer in the country and owner of the wrecked mine, "one of the best companies to work with as far as cooperation and safety are concerned"????despite its repeated violations of antiexplosion regulations and its disciplinary action against at least one miner who complained about dangerous levels of methane gas in the pits...
...new technology and consolidation have eliminated some 300,000 coal mining jobs since 1951...
...Death and The Mines is an excellent example of contemporary muckraking, yet its wealth of detail and thoroughness of investigation do not negate its deficiencies in analysis...
...Company doctors, therefore, were quick to attribute the symptoms to noncom-pensable heart ailments, cigarette smoking, or even nervousness and fear of mining...
...Boyle's ex-lieutenant, Joseph Ya-blonski, presented a dramatic challenge to the union's leadership in the 1969 election...
...elaborate patronage...
...Remarkably, the UMWA's safety division consists of one person, and in the past 20 years it has done little to push for more stringent safety regulations...
...Indeed, all of the institutions charged with promoting the miners' welfare have abandoned their responsibilities...
...Elimination of oil depletion allowances and increased attention to the harmful environmental effects of strip mining and atomic power generation could also bolster the miners' economic position...
...One step in the right direction is the government's recent partial takeover of compensation for black lung...
...Hume is able to praise only Ralph Nader and Representative Kenneth Hechler (D.-W...
...While coal output has been reaching record levels, underground mining of the type associated with major explosions and coal-dust inhalation is gradually being replaced by surface operations...
...intimidation by goon squads...
...To transform the industry without further loss of jobs and benefits will require some sort of Federal aid...
...use of the union's newspaper to glorify its president...
...At the very least we must recognize that it will be a costly undertaking to raise work conditions in the mines to humane 20th-century standards...
...Hume recounts the many charges of gross mismanagement of union funds which early last year produced a series of Federal grand jury indictments against high-ranking officers????including one against Boyle for embezzlement and illegally channeling union funds into campaign contributions...
...Still, his insistent advocacy of the miners' cause will be fully justified if it arouses further action in their behalf...
...Hume recognizes but does not fully appreciate that UMWA policies during the 1960s were essentially extensions of Lewis' goal of survival within a rapidly changing industry...
...At the scene of the explosion, however, union president W. A. (Tony) Boyle mimicked the apologetics of both management and government: "As long as we mine coal, there is always this inherent danger...
...Clearly it is inaccurate to place most of the blame for the miners' problems on Boyle and his henchmen...
...Only the deaths of 78 miners in the Farmington disaster of November 1968 generated enough momentum to rouse UMWA officials briefly...
...In Death and the Mines Brit Hume, a 28-year-old reporter on columnist Jack Anderson's staff, examines in detail the deliberate or unwitting neglect of the miners' welfare, primarily in West Virginia...
...But he had little chance of winning, for Boyle enjoyed almost total allegiance from the dues-paying retired and pensioned miners through his control over the welfare and retirement fund...
...Hume's use of caricature and his failure at times to discuss both sides of a dispute mar the effectiveness of the book...
...Nowhere does Hume suggest an exit from this dilemma...
...two weeks later Yablonski and his wife and daughter were murdered...
...maintenance of "bogey" locals to help retain power...
...With an eye to its long-term survival, the UMWA has encouraged this transition...
...The unions, companies and coal-state politicians are acutely aware of this problem and will work for the status quo...
...While the union sought a compromise, wildcat strikes shut down every mine in the state and forced the legislature to enact the bill in 1968...
...politicians with close ties to the coal companies...
...Much of Hume's investigative efforts concern the corrupt practices of the UMWA's political barony under Boyle and his entourage of aging international officers...
Vol. 55 • April 1972 • No. 7
