Wildcat Miners Strikes Spread Across 10 States
More than 42,000 coal miners in 10 states took part in wildcat strikes Wednesday that spread in Appalachia and the Midwest. Reports of violence and blockades mounted as coal companies sought relief from the courts.
“It looks like the bulk of the industry is shut down,” said Taylor Pensoneau, vice president of the Illinois Coal Assn.
More than 7,000 miners in Illinois and 700 in Ohio joined the wildcat strike Wednesday in sympathy with about 1,900 United Mine Workers members striking Pittston Coal Group Inc. in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky. More than 4,000 workers in Pennsylvania also walked off the job. Miners also were idled in Indiana, Missouri and Tennessee.
Bullets Fired
In Alabama, two coal companies filed complaints against UMW members over the firing of bullets into a truck operated by a non-union driver. West Virginia police said there have been sporadic reports of minor violence in the state’s southern coal fields in the past few days.
In Illinois, a strike that had been limited to a Wabash County mine owned by AMAX Coal Co. spread to at least 40 sites, affecting 12 major coal companies, union officials said.
Danny Wells, an incoming executive board member of Charleston, W.Va.-based District 17 of the UMW, said miners were upset with huge fines levied against the union in Virginia and the lack of negotiations between Pittston and the UMW.
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