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Pittston Coal Miners' Strike

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Date	5 April 1989 (5 April 1989)  – 20 February 1990 (1990-02-21)
Location	Southwest Virginia
Also known as	Pittston Strike of 1989
Participants	UMWA, Pittston Coal Company, and Nonunion members
Outcome	Health and retirement benefits reinstated to miners
Website	(Website)

(Your "lead" needs to go here, without subheadings), The Pittston Strike of 1989 resulted from the termination of health care benefits for approximately 1,500 retirees, widows, and disabled miners of the Pittston Coal Company, nationally headquartered in Pittston, Tennessee. The strikers also cited the refusal of the company to contribute to a benefit trust established in 1950 for miners who retired before 1974 and refusing to bargain in good faith as grounds for their action.

The strike began on April 5, 1989, and ended on February 20, 1990, and affected production in mines in Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky, mine workers and their families engaged in acts of civil disobedience, work stoppage, protests, and rallies, but wildcatters engaged in violence, after which state troopers were called to arrest some of the miners. At its peak, in ?, the strike involved approximately (how many) miners. An essential element of the strike evolved around the participation of women in the labor action, through the ad hoc formation of the Daughters of Mother Jones, which drew on the mining and mine labor heritage from the early union organization days.

The main goal of the UMW during this strike was to halt coal production at the Pittston Coal Company. The company had problems with production before the strike had begun however. Due to alternative fuels and the economic recession in the United States, coal production was declining. Many coal companies began to lose money and had to fine ways to stay in bussiness. Pittston Coal did a lot of forgien trading and because of this had a very difficult time during the recession.

The Pittston Strike of 1989

The Pittston strike of 1989 occurred mainly as a result of the termination of the health care benefits for around 1,500 retirees, widows, and disabled miners and their families who worked for the Pittston Coal Company. The central mines that were involved in this strike were located in mainly Virginia. The contract that provided the benefits ended in February 1, 1988, miners continued to work for the next 14 months without any health benefit contract. The UMWA declared strike against strike began on April 5, 1989. Many efforts of civil disobedience helped get the message of the mine workers spread across the country. Many groups of women like the “Daughters of Mother Jones” and the “Freedom Fighters” were very involved in the strike as well. Camp Solidarity was also constructed during the time of this strike where miners, housewives, and even some famous activists such as Jesse Jackson and Cesar Chavez joined in the efforts to support the miners. The stike lasted until a settlement was finally agreed upon in February 1990.

Events leading to the strike

Mine workers in a Pittston Coal Company operated mine.

During the 1980s there was a declining demand for coal in the United States due to the recession and the demand for alternate types of fuel. Pittston Coal Company had a large exporting network to other countries and due to the drop in the value of the American dollar overseas, began to go into debt. Many coal companies began demanding non-union workers who would work for less money so that the coal company could gain a profit.

Up until 1987 the Pittston Coal Company worked in cooperation with the Bituminous Coal Operators BOAC. The Pittston Coal Company had their health and retirement benefits regulated by the BOAC to avoid conflict. By 1987 the company dropped from being the seventh largest coal operator in the United States to the 15th and the coal production was at a all time low. The owners of Pittston knew that something must be done in order to keep the company stable. So in 1987 the Pittston coal company terminated its contract with the BOAC in order to set up their own health and retirement benefit contract with the UMWA. Through collective bargaining, the UWA and the Pittston Coal Company were able to set up two different retirement plans for the miners. One for those who retired before 1974 and one for those who retired after 1974.

In 1988 Pittston still felt the strain of providing benefits for its workers. The cost for providing the benefits for the workers increased by $3,746 per miner from 1979. To avoid losing more money, Pittston doubled health deductibles, lowered the coverage from 100% to 80% and discontinued giving any benefits to miners who retired before 1974.

This change in the health care was still not enough for the company to gain a profit, so they decided to keep the mines running 24 hours a day, seven days a week with no overtime offered for the workers. Pittston also got rid of successorship clauses, which means that the miners of Pittston would not have job security or transfer of job rights to mines that would be leased or sold.

The UMWA took action against Pittston's demands and offered to reach a settlement. The coal company stayed quiet, and when the time came to renew the health care and retirement benefit plans for its workers,Pittston refused. The refusal of renewing the contract left about 1,500 people without any health care. These people were not just miners employed by Pittston, but also families, widows, and disabled miners in the Virginia area.

UMWA declares strike

President of the UMWA during the Pittston strike, Richard Trumka.

On April 5, 1989 after 14 months of miners working without benefits, President of the UMWA, Richard Trumka declared strike against the Pittston Coal Company. About 2,000 UMW members who worked for Pittston walked out of the mines and reported to the picket line. Pittston responded to the strike by hiring replacement workers for those union members who went on stike. To ensure that production would continue Pittston had help from the state police to escort the replacement miners and coal trucks across the picket line.

The UMWA used its practice of civil disobedience to gain attention to the needs of the miners. The union stressed that all actions of the strike remain peaceful. However, many miners still used violent methods during the strike to get Pittston to reconsider. This strike was able to gain a lot of media attention, many people came from all across the country to support the UMWA's cause. Around 50,000 people total went to southwest Virginia during the course of the strike.

Due to the strike Pittston's production was reduced to about 2/3 of what it should have been. Pittston still refused to give in to the UMW's demands so the strike continued. The UMWA started to suffer as well. The UMW had strike benefits for its members that it was not able to meet. The members of the union during the strike were only being paid $640 a week, which was less than a third of what the strike benefits promised.

Although the union members were getting less pay than promised, they did not lose their faith in the UMWA. Mainly due to the efforts of Mr. Trumka, President of the UMW. Trumpka was able to keep the spirit and moral up during the stike. He knew that giving into the demands of Pittston would only lead to other mine companies revoking health care benefits. In August of 1989 Trumka was questioned by B. Drummond Ayers Jr. a local reporter from the New York Times about how long he expected the stike to continue. Trumka responded to the question by saying, "People keep asking how long we can hold out. The answer: one day longer than Pittston.

The strike continued until February 20,1990 when a settlement was agreed upon by both parties. The settlement was reached after taking the demands to court several times and after many ratifications were made. The miners of the Pittston Coal Company were able to once again recieve their health and retirement benefits.

Strike tactics

During the Pittston strike the UMWA wanted to only express nonviolent acts against the company. Many union memebers practiced this idea of civil disobedience and found creative ways for their message to be heard. However, many wildcat stirkers ignored the request of the UMW and used violence to express the anger that they felt towards the Pittston Coal Company.

Violent actions

Although the UMW wanted the Pittston strike to remain nonviolent, there were some people who failed to comply. A majority of the people who carried out violent acts were nonunion members. These nonunion people were called wildcat strikers. Many of these acts included destroying the Pittston Company’s mining equipment. Many strikers would throw rocks at coal trucks, breaking their windows. Others would try to stop the transport of coal by slashing the tires of the coal trucks. They were able to flatten the tires by using Jack rocks, which was a sharp tool made up of nails welded together with their points facing out designed to puncture the tires.
Wildcat strikers also began to organize walkouts. Walkouts were illegal for UMW members, but since the wildcats were not affiliated with a union, they continued to organize walkouts throughout Virginia. By June of 1989 nearly 37,000 wildcat strikers became involved with the Pittston strike.
The strike acts soon spread past Virginia and into other parts of the country and other coal companies. Other violent acts included the making of car bombs that would be placed along roadsides that coal trucks would travel. Employees at the Hampton Coal Company were shot by shotgun pellets when they tried to enter the coal mines. Some strikers shot into the windows of cars and houses of the replacement miners and Pittston Coal Company owners.

Civil disobedience

The UMWA tried to focus the strikers to express civil disobedience and often stepped in to stop the wildcat strikers. The union members used many different nonviolent strike tactics. Much of these acts included standing and blocking the roads that the coal trucks would travel. Mass sit down strikes and large groups of people picketing outside of the Pittston coal mines.
Camp Solidarity
Another method of peaceful protesting was demonstrated in the formation of Camp Solidarity. Located in the center of the protesting, southern Virginia, Camp Solidarity was a place for the supporters of the strike to stay. Supporters would come from all over the country to try show their outrage against the actions of Pittston but there was no place that they could stay.

Although many people in the local towns would offer shelter, they could not provide enough beds and food for all the people who came. Union member supporters found a solution to the problem. A local recreational park near Castlewood, Virginia was turned into a place where these people could now stay. A small shelter equipped with bunk beds was built and an already existing snack bar was opened up to provide food for the people staying at Camp Solidarity. Also, since the location was a recreational park, there was plenty of space for others to bring campers and tents into the area.
Moss 3
The most important act of civil disobedience during the Pittston strike was Moss 3. Since the strike had been going on for a few months with no settlement expected in the near future union members began to lose hope. Thousands of people had already been arrested and a lot of money had been spent on a cause that seemed to be never ending.Union members knew that something must be done to regain the spirit of the strike and make it clear to Pittston that they would not give up.
The plan that the Union officers devised was called Moss 3, named after the Pittston’s Moss 3 Preparation Plant which was its number 1 coal processing plant at the time.The officials were very secretive about planning this act of nonviolent strike. They wanted Pittston to know nothing about what was to take place. Officials selected 99 union members out of Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky to participate in Moss 3. The selected miners met in Virginia and were told about the plan.
Moss 3 was set up to be an unexpected mass, nonviolent, sit down strike within the preparation plant. The 99 strikers walked into the plant peacefully and sat down inside the plant to halt production. Meanwhile, thousands of other supporters gathered outside the plant to encourage the strikers inside. An estimated 5,000 supporters at the height of Moss 3 were gathered outside the production plant.
The sit down strike inside Moss 3 lasted from Sunday to Wednesday. After four days the strikers felt they made their point to Pittston and walked out. Local miners said that Pittston had called in the National Guard and state police to remove the miners if they did not leave within an hour’s time. People outside Moss 3 feel that the miners inside were tipped off to this information and that is why they left.

Women’s involvement

Although the Pittston strike involved coal miners, many of the supporters of the strike were not miners at all. A majority of the support that the union members received was from women. These women were either wives or daughters of miners who worked for Pittston. Some women supporters even had no affiliation with Pittston Coal Company or mining at all. Women were a pivotal aspect of this strike. Two famous groups of women supporters arose during this time

Daughters of Mother Jones

Another group that formed was the “Daughter’s of Mother Jones”. They got their name after Mother Jones because they wanted to support the miner’s benefits. The Daughters did a lot of the same actions of other women supporters during the strike. Many organized places for supporters to stay, prepared food, and raised money for the miners.
The one action that the Daughter’s of Mother Jones are best known for is their involvement in the Pittston Coal State Headquarters in Lebanon, Virginia. These women would meet outside headquarters and strike without the UMW having to instruct them or organize their actions. They picketed outside every Monday and Wednesday in the hopes that they could gain more media attention and support for the miners.Birecree, Adrienne M. “The importance and implications of women’s participation in the 19889-1990 Pittston coal strike”. Journal Still the Daughters did not feel that they were doing enough. So they constructed on their own a sit down strike to be taken place at Pittston Coal headquarters.
On April 18, 1989 a group of 39 of these women went into the Pittston Coal headquarters and held a 36 hour sit down strike. The women demanded that they would not leave until a contact was signed. This sit in strike was unorganized by the union. The Daughters gained a lot of media attention to the cause and completely halted production at Pittston for the entire day and a half.

Freedom Fighters

One women’s group that developed in Camp Solidarity was the Freedom fighters. The main mission of these women supporters was to cook and provide the meals that the people staying at Camp Solidarity would eat. The Freedom Fighters set up a phone bank to inform other people of what types of food they could donate and how much of the food they needed.
Because of the Freedom Fighters, many supporters were able to stay at Camp Solidarity for a long period of time because they were being fed for free. The women of the Freedom Fighters group bound together to provide a way to support the miners and the UMWA by forming this group.
The Freedom Fighters formed during the Pittston Strike, but they did not end there. Today the Freedom Fighters still exist as a group of women who help to support the benifits for miners across the United States.

Aftermath of the strike

On February 20, 1990 the Pittston Coal Company and the UMW came to a settlement. Both groups had lost a lot of money, Pittston due to the slowdown of production, and the UMW for the cost of organizing the strike. At the end of the strike the UMW was fined around $64 million because of their actions during the strike. Many of these fines were not just because of violence that erupted, but also for the road blockages and other forms of civil disobedience. Union members were charged personally $13,000 a day for the strike and the union was charged $200,000 for their actions at Moss 3.

Many people opposed the charges that were made against the UMWA and petitioned that they be dropped. Although not all charges were, a vast majority was cleared. Union officials had to do 10,000 hours of community service to compensate for the removal of the fines.
Miners of the Pittston Coal Company were glad that a settlement had been reached and that they would once again be receiving health and retirement funds. However, because they were without benefits for such a long time, many people had gone into financial trouble. During the strike the costs of health care had to be paid out of pocket and many miners did not have the resources to do so. As a result many miners had a lot of debt as well at the end of the strike.
Another direct result of the Pittston Strike was the formation of the Coal Act. This act was established in 1992. This act made it mandatory by law for mining companies to provide health and retirement benefits for its workers.
At the time of the strike Pittston was a strong coal company and the area was full of strikers protesting. Since the strike the coal plants were sold to Alpha Natural Resources which is now in the nation’s top three coal companies. Moss 3 was demolished and a new plant was built and named after it. And the recreational park that became Camp Solidarity has been reclaimed by nature and is now an open field. Though the physical aspects of the area have changed and been forgotten, the strike will be remembered by many people. The union’s actions during the strike made it possible for thousands of miners to receive health care and retirement funds for years to come.

Further readings

Do, Die, or Get Along: A Tale of Two Appalachian Tales

• Written by Peter Crow

A Strike like No Other Strike: Law & Resistance during the Pittston Coal Strike of 1989-1990

• Written by Richard A. Brisbin Jr.

References

Bibliography

• Ayres Jr., B. Drummond. "Coal Strike: Armageddon for U.M.W. and Leader?" The New York Times 15 Aug. 1989: 1-2. Print.
• Beckwith, Karen. Women, Gender, and Nonviolence in Political Movements. Thesis. The College of Wooster, 2003. PSOnline. ProQuest. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. <http://www.apsanet.org>.
• Birecree, Adrienne M. “The importance and implications of women’s participation in the 19889-1990 Pittston coal strike”. Journal of Economic Issues. Lincoln: Mar 1996. Vol. 30, Iss. 1; pg 187, 14 pgs.
• "Coal Strike: First the Calm, Now the Storm." Time [New York City] 24 June 1989: 1. Print.
• Demers, Raymond Y., C. William Michaels, Robert Frank, Kathy Fagan, Melissa McDiarmid, and Theresa Rohr. "Termination of Health Care Benefits for Pittston Mine Workers: Impact on the Health and Security of Miners and Their Families." Journal of Public Health Policy (1990): 474-80. Print.
• Dotter, Earl. "1989 Pittston Coal Strike A Battle." Bistol Herald Courier. 6 Sept. 2009. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. <Tricities.com>.
• Hayes, Sharon. "Twenty Years Later, Impact of Bitter Dispute between Pittston, UMWA Still Felt." Kingsport Times News | Kingsport, Tennessee. 26 June 2009. Web. 26 Mar. 2010. <http://www.timesnews.net/print_article.php?=9014828>.
• McNeil, Bryan. “Do , Die, or Get Along: A Tale of Two Appalachian Tales”. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Richmond: 2007. Vol. 115, Iss. 4; pg 596, 2 pgs.
• Mulcahy, Richard P.” A Strike like No Other Strike: Law & Resistance during the Pittston Coal Strike of 1989-1990”. The Journal of American History. Bloomington: Jun 2004. Vol. 91, Iss. 1; pg. 342, 2 pgs.
• "A Strike like No Other Strike: Pittston Strike Holds Lessons for Today." United Mine Workers Journal 120.2 (2009): 4-12. Print.