Weekday
The weekly feature page of the University Daily Kansan March 1. 1978
When union miners walk off the job independent mine operators know they can depend on their non-union work force-the men striking miners call
Matthew Summers. Oswego, a miner at the Fuel Dynamics Golden Eagle mine near Pittsburgh, is one of a handful of non-union miners in southeast Kansas. Many non-union miners complain about disruptions of their work by striking United Mine Workers.
Striking miners threw spikes into the roadway leading to the Golden Eagle mine tipple.
These miners have continued to dig coal through the 80-day United Mine Workers strike in spite of open conflict.
The men at the Golden Eagle mine, darkly tanned and unbothered by the cold wind, dig coal in the open pits of southeastern Kansas. They speak proudly of the manpower coal operations getting bigger and better everyday.
And, along with the union miners, these men are aware of the part they play in the growing tensions felt in the mining communities of Pittsburg, Cherokee and Fort Scott. But, they would not do anything differently.
Proud of their work record, they have definite ideas about their role in the mining industry. "I haven't missed a day yet," one said. "I would not go on strike. You can sell it we need to just keep on mining."
They are the scabs, the independent coal miners who have refused to join a union because they think unionism is bad for them.
"It's a free country. We can work. We're going to keep it that way if we can."
Robert Poor, tiple foreman for the Fuel Dynamics Golden Eagle mine said Saturday that at the beginning of the month a fuel system was installed.
Story by Peg Spencer
the tuple, where coal was loaded and weighed, to try to independent miners to close down their operation.
Poor said that a bus load of strikers had come to picket the operation. Most of the men just stood near the bus stop, which they had taken.
"They started throwing names around," he said.
"They said they would swip my ass and invited me out.
I was very nervous."
Poor said that later when he did get out of his truck a fight started in the ditch near the access road to the building.
"I took nine stitches in the ear," he said.
Harold Swigart, a Pittsburgh member of the UMW said that his local had picketed in the area against the new laws.
"There's been trouble," he said. "There's no doubt about it.
"And it's easy to see why. They continue to dig coal, selling coal to our power plants, taking bread off our hands."
Foor said that union miners also had thrown three-pronged spikes on the roads by the tipple. The spikes always land with a sharp side up. As a result the Fuel Dynamics operation had to repair 32 flat tires.
However, in an open letter to the employees of the independent mine, John Lois, president of UMW local 580, said that his union members would not threaten them with a lawsuit against businesses with the intention to force them to cease business.
But Poor's stories of troublemaking went on. He said that a three-fourth inch belt was hard to wear. It wasn't as difficult as it looks.
"If there had been a passenger," Foor said, "he'd been injured, if the fledgling filled complaints they butked him."
"Maybe," he said.
But Rick Price, foreman of the Golden Eagle pit mining area, said that his crew had not had any trouble with the mine.
"I guess the strikers don't mind us digging," he said.
"They just don't like us shipping."
Price said that the Golden Eagle mine produced about 15,000 tons of coal a day.
"Now our coal is selling faster," Price said.
A spokesman for the Fuel Dynamics office said that the company keep the name of the purchaser of their cars.
Photos by George Millener
"Somebody might be after our business," he said. "But we're not selling to contracts that UMW had."
The coal mined at Golden Eagle sells for $18 to $30 a ton, depending on the sulfur content.
Price said that when Fuel Dynamics opened the mine about a year ago, the company had to change its delivery system to delivery operators
"They guys here are really happy," he said. "They voted a union down less than a year ago."
Andy Pierson, an operator for the mine, said that he thought it was wrong for the UMW miners in Kansas to
"All the strike has done is mess up the economy and not a lot of people out of jobs," he said.
In a lot of people this year, Paul said that recent trouble from UMW members
had reinforced independent miners' opinions about unions
"People here don't want to join the union, because of stuff just like this trouble. They think the union is so crooked that they don't want anything to do with it," Poor said.
UWM region 14 officers were at contract negotiations in Washington, D.C., and were unavailable for com-
*roor and the other independent miners think that their recent troubles will end when the UMW strike is
"But, you know," Poor said, "I'm getting tired of trying to tell me what we can work. I same right."
Robert Poore, foreman at Fuel Dynamics Golden Eagle mine tipple, was injured in a scuffle with striking miners. Fuel Dynamics founder Gary Clower was also injured when a strike miner hit his hand with a 2-by-4.