WV Coalminers Shut Down Mine In Protest Over Anti-Obama NRA Visit
By Logan Murphy Tuesday Sep 30, 2008 6:00pm
WBOY:
Coal production at a mine in Monongalia County came to a halt today when every union miner stayed home, as part of a political protest.
It was an idle day Monday at the Blacksville #2 Mine.
More than 440 workers who are members of the United Mine Workers of America took what's called a Memorial Day instead of going to work.
Union officials say they took the day to protest after a film crew from the National Rifle Association showed up at the Consol mine last week to interview union workers.
They say the crew tried to get union coal miners to speak out against Barack Obama. Read on...
The NRA didn't just show up at the coal mine, this was apparently an unprecedented move by mine management, who allowed them in and supported the manipulation and exploitation of their employees. Consol just learned a big lesson - don't f*#k with your union workers.
"Consol doesn't let anybody on their property - never," said Safety Committee Member Mark Dorsey, "And for them to let the NRA come on the property and solicit our membership was totally uncalled for. We made our endorsement to our political process and we didn't bother them and they shouldn't be harassing our membership over this."
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Real Americans! Fearless
I wish American workers had the balls to really unite.
You think you got a crisis now.
What if we ALL stayed home for a few days.
Who has the power? We do. Can we use it? Nope, we might miss Dancing with the Stars!
pathetic........obama isn't going to infringe on people's
rights to have a weapon...get a grip...NRA
Inspiring! That's why we have unions! I'm proud of them all.
As a card-carrying union member, I salute my brothers and sisters of the UMWA at Blacksville #2 Mine!
Damn them unions! Who do these peons think they are standing up to the NRA and management?
This may be one of the best stories of this election.
Wait a minute, you mean that West Virginia+ Coal Miner does not = Obama hater? NRA needs to go back to school.
What i don't get is why the NRA has a stake in this election. I have not heard one word about gun control from either candidate. That is not to suggest i have heard everything said, but i hardly see this as a burning issue of the election.
What gives?
This story made my week. Fantastic.
One of the good things about unions is that the good ones educate their members with regard to voting in the best interests of themselves and their families.
Mick Fowler International Association of Fire Fighters Retired
Wow! I guess not all hillbillies hate blacks.
As a card-carrying union member for 19 years (and counting), I applaud my union brothers and sisters in West Virginia. Solidarity!
constituent @ 3:
Got to remember the NRA started up in the same year as the KKK.
The NRA's original purpose was in lobbying for the suppression of the right of former slaves to own guns.
They succeeded, took decades for African Americans to get the right to own or bear a gun in some southern states.
Gollum @ 11:
Rather uncalled for. Rather obtuse. Rather ignorant.
Rather you had not said that.
Gollum @ 11:
The bubble of whites and blacks separate is bursting, eight years of Bushco has made people see the light.
Everybody outside the Republican elite are economic fodder for the predators.
As a CUPE member in Canada (British Columbia) I salute all UMWA brothers and sisters
RepubliCONs and organizations like the NRA just can't seem to stop trying to infect everything with their dis-ease.
xoites defends Constitution @ 14:
unpalatable but true, theres a ill informed section of society that has been taught by KKK types to hate different peoples.
The Republicans and certain fundie Xtian tap into this ignorance for their power plays.
What do you want to bet this is a coordinated attack by Steve SchmidtRove, the mine management that fears they will have to make the workplace safe, and the NRA to screw with the election? More dirty tricks by the worst ticksters ever to walk the face of the Universe! They don't want fair elections, they want a repubic hegemony.
Has anyone ever noticed that a lot of red states are right to work? It seems that being non-union, uneducated, and republican fit well together.
i love these guys. we have been held hostage by conservative ideology long enough.
xoites defends Constitution @ 14:
Look Pal, in the primaries some counties in WV and KYwho voted 88% Clinton, some voted for Edwards who was out of the
race, rather than vote for a black or a woman. Look at the election maps. Southern states are red. Red. Working people
fucked by tghe Republicans over and over and over again, but the shout heard across the south, "but he's a N________!!!!"
ferrofluid (and counting) @ 18:
My grandfather was a coal miner in Western Maryland on the boarder of West Virginia. Remarkably astute gentleman from all accounts. Once you label people and decide who they are you lose your own humanity.
This is why Raygun and the Pukes went after Unions. Unions empower workers. Bosses hate that.
In 1980, union membership was around 30% of the workforce.
Today, it's around 12%.
A lot of that loss was out-sourced industries.
NAFTA was/is a fucking catastrophe for workers, here and in Mexico.
The guys are working! Trying to get things done.
Get lost!
Leadership @ 22:
And i once heard someone say most black people want to kill whitey. If 52% of a state votes Republican i suppose we should just go ahead and nuke it.
L.A. Confidential @ 25:
summat of an unspecific charge, L.A.C...
woody, tokin librul @ 27:
These guys are miners. They don't have time for bullsh*t and kid games.
Some Union Coal Miner may come across this site and think we are a bunch of prejudiced assholes just as apparently some of us have stereotyped them. There are racists in Boston too. I know, i lived there until i could not stand it any more (i am white). Hate and prejudice is not a liberal value i can stand behind.
To quote Tony Two Toes from "Eraser":
"No one screws with the union."
Has the MSM picked up this story? This is the first I've heard of it and it's an important story.
Leadership @ 22:
I live in Washington St. A friend was having coffee the other day and he has a Obama/Biden sticker on his car. One of his friends that claims to be a democrat told him he shouldn't have the sticker on his car and that he wouldn't vote for a n***er. My friend wrote him the riot act and doesn't consider the guy that much of a friend anymore. Racism is not limited to the red states.
True American heros - every one.
To the United Mine Workers of Americak- from me and my entire family:
You guys ROCK!
*
As a daughter of management, as management myself, I salute these miners for not allowing themselves to be manipulated. Besides, these people are no fools--they know that Republicans couldn't care less about mine safety, black lung, or anyone's economic well-being but their own.
Leadership @ 2:
We might want to employ this tactic after the election "results" -- it's a stunning option.
*
xoites defends Constitution @ 8:
Not long ago, Obama was speaking somewhere at a town hall meeting. A lady told him she had received an e-mail saying that Obama would take everyones guns from them. She asked him if that was true. He said no. He said he knew there were people who liked to hunt, target shoot and keep guns to protect their family and home. He had no problem with those reasons for guns but he did have a problem with all the guns on the streets and in the hands of gangs, etc.
That is the only time I have heard him speak of guns at all as far as I can remember.
xoites defends Constitution @ 8:
The Democratic Party has generally leaned toward handgun control for about the last thirty years.
The NRA started shortly after the Civil War by arms manufacturers who wanted to continue making lots of money.
These arms manufacturers had a lot of percussion caps that were left over from the war. In .22 cal.
Enter the new .22 sporting rifle.
The NRA has supported the sale of arms for over 100 years, using a phony "patriotism and protection of the constitution" angle.
I am still waiting for the NRA to rise up in anger over the loss of the Constitution.
Right.
Anyway, the NRA has been a source of pride for men with modest John Thomases for over a hundred years.
They're, how do you say; protecting their investments.
Don From Canada @ 20:
'Red State' is a modern form of slave state.
Unions in South Africa refuse to unload a shipment of arms destined for Robert Mugabe. Now a union tells the NRA to take a hike. There is hope for this world!
Having just settled a year-long grievance yesterday and commenced a brand new one today with the same damn administrator, I, a lowly job steward in an organization with 49% membership (where the difference between membership and non-membership is approximately 36 cents a month) salute you, brothers and sisters, as the case may be.
If you want a little background on why the coal miners might not want to back the union-busting Republicans, have a look at John Sayles' film "Matewan" or read the chapter from Zinn's "People's History of the United States" on the Ludlow Massacre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre
If only there were a real Labor Party in the U.S.
xoites defends Constitution @ 8:
Arms Merchants Prefer McCain.
pissed off patricia @ 36:
So the NRA is marketing to gangs now? Actually that does not surprise me. After a homeowner has a weapon or two he probably has all he needs so the gun dealers need to expand their potential market which really would explain their resistance to gun laws. Wouldn't it?
Orwell Wasnt Dreaming @ 34:
I take it the mining unions are not too fond with management or Republicans over what happened in Utah last summer.
Why would they be? The Bureau of Mines sold mine safety down the tubes.
Main point is that the NRA won't have sway over miners who are more concerned about their wallets than the right to carry a machinegun thru downtown DC.
Leadership @ 22:
So what? How'd McCain do in West Virginia during the primaries? Does that mean they hate Vietnam vets?
Don From Canada @ 20:
Aye, but it is not necessarily the fault of the uneducated.
As thimking people, it is incumbent upon us to find a way to educate these people.
There are plenty of avenues for the corporate directory to spew their toxic "information."
It is up to us to educate the ignorant.
I don't much like it.
Wow!
This is an AWSOME article.
What a noble show of strength!
Can't tell you what respect I have for you guys. You are the true macho men of this world, not the tough-talking-send-other-peoples-children-to-war-panty-wearing hypocrites running our government and bullshitting on our airwaves.
"The Lord made dinosaurs 4,000 years ago as flawed creatures, lizards of Satan really, so when they died and became petroleum products we, made in his perfect image, could use them in our pickup trucks, snow machines and fishing boats."
Sarah Palin, Republican Nominee for Vice President of the United States of America 2008
xoites defends Constitution @ 41:
I have never understood the NRA. The sale of guns seems to be what keeps them in business. What they get out of it, is beyond me. Maybe they get so much money for every gun that's sold. I have no idea. I guess they are the lobby for the gun manufacturers.
Guns don't kill people.
Bullets do.
Another ploy by Republicans to win over voters one at a time. As I've been telling folks wherever they may be, the only way these predators will get McCain/Palin in the White House is to (again) steal the election through ballot theft. And anyone who sees a Republican with a lead in this election should question whether there's been tampering, as no person with a brain should be voting for these people.
I got to know those people years ago when I was building powerlines at their mines. You can't BS them and they are by large the toughest yet most honorable people in the country. I doubt they have much use for McCain or the NRA.
I highly recommend reading the Autobiography of Mother Jones. She was quite a woman and a hero to the union movement of the 1880's. She faced down machine guns and corporate moguls, while taking on tour children of the textile mills with their missing limbs from the poor working conditions. An american icon.
don't mess with the miners.
they're not your monkeys you right wing ass wipes.
lizards of Satan
I've been looking for a name for my death thrash metal band. There it is.
Margaret @ 47:
O.T. but if the media could ask Dennis Kucinich about UFOs this should be allowed as a question in the debate tomorrow.
Margaret @ 48:
Please tell me this is a real quote and you have a link....please!!
The NRA and the union management really screwed up on this. Schmidt and Rove will be furious. Congratulations and kudos to all the union members at this WV mine for doing the right thing.
It is good to see a union standing for something other than a pay raise or other obvious fiscal benefit. Dignity is a value that it is impossible to put a price on and that the management at this company felt it had the right to take away. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if 60% of the people who walked out are/were McCain supporters. They walked out because they supported their fellow members. They walked because they cared about each other. When Raygun broke the air traffic controller union in the 80's it was the begining of a long painful slide for labor in this country. And make no mistake, even if you have a white collar job like mine you are probably labor. Just because you sit behind a desk doesn't mean you're not an expendible "worker bee" to the company. If you don't make the hiring/firing decisions, if you don't decide what to sell, when or where to sell it then you're labor -- make no mistake about it.
As a gunowner I don't understand the NRA either. I see so many other gunowners with the "from my cold dead hands" attitude yet they support the NRA.
Why the middleman?
Screw the NRA. I'll take care of myself.
theWalrus @ 57:
It's made up, dammit!!
http://www.lizardsofsatan.com/
Damn that is a sweet show of solidarity! Blue collar workers unite to tell the NRA to shove it, and tell their management they won't be manipulated! A very good sign indeed, the pendulum swings left.
And I don't think the South has a monopoly on unenlightened redneck hillbilly mentality, Alaska has jumped to the lead in that regard, IMO.
Che's Lounge @ 53:
Utah Phillips recently retired from this life.
He was a rabble rouser, in the best sense.
It is a good idea to get the Ani Difranco/Utah Phillips album "Fellow Workers" for a crash course on class warfare in Amerikkka.
dumbstruck @ 60:
It's a culture thing. It creates identity.Some of these people want to be dared or threatened....it's the 'tough
guy deal'....obama has NO intentions of taking peoples
guns....it's likes ome of these people get empowered
and need the challenge...it also increases membership
and money.
NRA = Right wing militia whack jobs.
As a former 28 year member of the CAW ( Canadian UAW ) i applaud the brothers and sisters in WV. Americans like to pick on the French for not being stupid enough to follow
Dumbya down the Iraqi shithole but the French know how to make a point. They stick together and shut the whole fucking country down when they need to to make a point.
We shut Ford in Oakville, Ontario down for 2 days on a wildcat back in the 70s over 9 probationary employees getting screwed over by one particular asshole of a foreman.
Lonhshoreman are next target of the NAU crowd now that they have slapped the Teamsters around and given Mexican truckers free reign in the USA. They are building new deep water ports in Mexico to enable them to close US ports where folks make a living wage. They will then run the goods ( Mexican tuckers too no doubt ) up the NAFTA Superhighway straight to Saudi Alberta.
Should dig up Raygun so every outsourced union member can have a chance to piss on him freely. Raygun The Braindead started all this crap back in the 80s.
Sometimes you just have to take a stand in life.
This story reminds me of another example I was this week of Americans rejecting right-wing tactics
Way to go! Everybody needs to push for the Employee Free Choice Act so we can all join unions without the threat of company intimidation and harassment.
my father is an electrical engineer for boeing. he is a
member of a union. he says it's the working man's version of 'too big to fail'. it use to be a blue collar dude
could make enough cheddar to live with the white collar
dudes....that changed when corporations cared more
about shareholders than workers. the trades need to
come back.
ontheleftcoast @ 59:
Fuck that shit. Unions have more to do with job safety and health care.
Ever heard of "Give backs?"
Ever since the Reagan years, which just ended, unions have been fighting for workers to keep what they have.
It is increasingly disturbing, the NRA can inflict it's political views on unsuspecting workers, who found it disturbing to be "used" to smear Barak Obama. However, state voting officials cannot gain entrance to Veteran Hospitals, retirement communities, or Veteran nursing homes to register voters.
My hat is off to those workers who in protest to this gross "political manuever" stayed home rather than be used by the NRA to further any "Republican" campaign to smear Obama.
If only Americans, in 2000, and 2004, stood up in all walks of life to protest the "criminal" voter fraud in Florida, and Ohio, this once respected Nation would still be just that. A respected nation for it's freedom, justice, human rights, and most important, diplomacy.
We have lost our most basic beliefs. We are now a roque, greedy, nation, with no conscience, morales, or consequences.
West Virginia coal miners today, united in brotherhood.
Tomorrow........Walmart?
p.s attention to ppl here who are infected with regional prejudice.
people who happens to be white and happen to live in the south or in the hills do not all hate black ppl.
if you want to see someone who is biased look in the effing mirror.
jerks
PorridgeGun @ 67:
LOL! I saw 1 hand go up for McCain.
dumbstruck @ 60:
Good for you for not getting sucked into the macho club. It's the people in the NRA that worry me because I wonder why they need to be in a club at all. Why do they need reinforcement to do what they believe is right?
That's great...it's overdue for labor to stand up in this country.
upchuck @ 65:
That is a gross oversimplification. Many NRA members join for reasons as simple as being in a club. When I was a kid in MN we joined to learn about proper gun safety. Hell, Michael Moore is a member -- you really think he's right wing? To be fair, the group has a dark side to it and that has sullied the name of it but demonization rarely has the intended consequences, it can fire up the opposition and give them a victory where none should've been had. What these mines did was great, it said loudly that "You can't use us". I don't see how the NRA can spin this as a positive. Unlike the uproar after school shootings when Heston (I hope he's rotting next to the school gunmen) used the negative press to hold rallies and garner more membership. This one doesn't seem to have an upside for them. The miners didn't say they were anti-gun, they just didn't want to be used as props in a commercial.
pissed off patricia @ 74:
Gosh, your comment made me think of religion. People needing reinforcement. Sorry, I know, OT.
Jenny'O @ 72:
Don't let it rattle you, sister.
I live in a red state too.
The only thing that it means: There are a lot of uninformed people around us.
It is up to us to try to educate them to protect their own best interests.
It is a f***ed up assignment; but there it is.
wal-mart allows union in china
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/09/AR200608...
Mick Piobr @ 70:
And they've been doing a crappy job of it. Management just has to say, "offshore" and they fold. They've learned to tear holes in the unions. Separate the Democrats from the Republicans. The Latinos from the Blacks. The men and the women. The unions used to stand together for more than just money. Yes, wages, health care, pensions, these all matter. But if the union workers allow themselves to be divide on one issue then management knows they can make them cave on others. Solidarity isn't just a catch phrase when it's convenient.
Outstanding! This is what Having a Union means!
Damien,
United Steelworkers!
ontheleftcoast @ 80:
The Firefighter's Union did not have that problem, in my experience.
Right on my union brothers and sisters, I stand and salute you.
Coal miners in West Virginia were the founders of union representation. These guys and gals are the real friggin' deal, and always have been. They make all union members proud by examples like this one.
Margaret @ 48:
Is that true? Oh,please let it be. and if it is, link please!!!!
Fanon @ 84:
Oh, damn, it's not :(
Wow, Bet it cost the mine a friggin fortune to be closed down for a day.
Shit like this makes you proud.
Fanon @ 84:
The statement is Mostly true Link
THANK YOU Coal Miners ! You are true patriots. You have given me more pride in America than the whole bunch in DC. The country owes you, big time. Make sure all your brothers and sisters hear your message and get out to vote. We the people must prevail. OBAMA/BIDEN
United Mine Workers of America you ROCK!!! I love this... it's stands as your courageous effort to not be bowled over or strong-armed by the fuckin' NRA (those ba$tards!!) or the mine's white collar workers who let those effers on the property.
I'm so P R O U D of all of you!!!!
"Matewan" was possibly the best pro-union movie ever made, and it was about miners like these.
There once was a union maid, she never was afraid
Of goons and ginks and company finks and the deputy sheriffs who made the raid.
She went to the union hall when a meeting it was called,
And when the Legion boys come 'round
She always stood her ground.
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union, I'm sticking to the union.
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union 'til the day I die.
This union maid was wise to the tricks of company spies,
She couldn't be fooled by a company stool, she'd always organize the guys.
She always got her way when she struck for better pay.
She'd show her card to the National Guard
And this is what she'd say
You gals who want to be free, just take a tip from me;
Get you a man who's a union man and join the ladies' auxiliary.
Married life ain't hard when you got a union card,
A union man has a happy life when he's got a union wife.
Woody Guthrie
Mick Piobr @ 82:
Just wait until privatized fire fighting comes to town. Don't laugh, it's part of the long term agenda of the right. They can't offshore you but they can replace you with a private company. Maybe you'll be retired by then and won't have to worry about it.
What gets me is that management just have to convince enough workers that the scraps they're offering are worth it and the bargaining power evaporates. I've seen this happen in the last 30 years more time then I care to count. I can't think of a single industry/job that hasn't seen they're standard of living go down since the 70's. Worse under the current adminstration then any other but it has had a negative effect on our country. It used to be a single wage earner could own a home, a car, and afford a few things. Now with both parents working many families still come up short. How the hell is that "family values"?
☺☻Bangkok Bob☻☺ @ 87:
Omigod!! Sarah truly is a walking idiot!
constituent @ 79:
fuckwal-mart!
Mick Piobr @ 63:
AMEN, brother!
wow, one moment we are stupid low rent white trash bigots and the next we are okay again... aren't we special. yeah, the people of home state have lived with the narrow little minded views of this great nation for many a decade now, so why should it stop. why should the rest of you stop looking down your liberal minded noses on us now? sure i did not vote for the hillary or even the big O in the primary... why? because i hate women and blacks? HELL NO, it was simply i don't trust either of them as far i... get close to them. who reading this remembers the "i will VETO the fisa bill... ah, i will vote for it" yeah, it became a good idea to spy on me and and give verizon and bush a get out of jail free card for doing it too. with hillary, do we really need to look at her record of selling out everyone? nafta the unions, her selling out to the health care lobby, she is more of a republican than most people in washington with an R by the abbreviation of their states name. the only person who ran this past time on the dem' side worth any salt was Dennis Kucinich. you know i am right about this and if you would allow yourself to be honest you would have to agree with me. big O is as republican as anyone who ran under that name plate since the regan days and well that is not good enough for me to vote for him just because he is black. nor would i have voted for hillary because she is woman either.
damn this post has really pissed off. i love this site but this have left a very bitter taste in my mouth. if wv had voted for obama would everyone said we were all about misogyny? that is how i felt after we were attacked full tilt from media the day after the primary. it came across like we stupid bigots were too slow to vote for real reason like voting records and policies. it had to be that... right?
common america vote for the right reasons. vote for the person and the voting record or at least a history working for your interest and not k-street's. me, i will be voting for nader with pride and not having to hold my nose and lie to myself about what i am doing.
think about it.
>>The Firefighter’s Union did not have that problem
>>Just wait until privatized fire fighting comes to town.
I was about to say they can't offshore the FD, but then the second comment...
I'd like to argue that we've had that and it doesn't work, except that's no reason the small gov't folks still wouldn't try it.
right on! @ 94:
they're what's called "company" unions.
mainly toothless for workers, excellent for the Bosses
bamboozled @ 40:
Watch 'Matewan', one of my favorite movies, but also watch the documentary that strongly influenced Sayles - Barbara Kopple's 'Harlan County, U.S.A.' Also read up on the Battle of Blair Mountain, which was back in the 1920s during the Coal Wars, when for the only time in history the U.S. Army Air Force was used to bomb U.S. civillians. Blair Mountain was the single largest insurrection in the U.S. since the Civil War. This is the shit they don't tell you about in H.S. history class.
Because I love the films of John Sayles, I have one other must-see, particularly if you have kids - check out 'The Secret of Roan Inish.'
Jenny'O @ 72:
Yo' Jenny... knock it off and you look in the mirror. I hate this shit where someone speaks in such generalities and then calls everyone here biased. Get a grip, honey!
I am grateful to hear about this via C&L. I don't have cable or satellite hook up so i have'nt watched TV in over a year. I am wondering if this has been reported on any of the TV corporate news networks. Somehow I doubt it.
Also, I went to the WBOY news site to copy and paste the story for an email directed at my union loving, Obama hating friend. Anyway I was left click, hold and scrolling to copy when i got to the end and noticed the copyright warning:
"Copyright 2008 West Virginia Media. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed."
Does this mean it is illegal to use the quote from the story, as is done in this post?(not criticism, i'm just curious)
And is it illegal for me to copy and paste this into an email?
That's what I'm talking about - real Americans standing up against The Man, taking a real stand for what is right! These men and women are real heros in my book.
Bravo, miners!
xoites defends Constitution @ 8:
As I understand it, the NRA's been bankrolling Sarah Palin since her first run for Mayor. Not many dots to connect there. They're putting "their" people in place just like the anti-choice crowd has been doing for thirty years.
Gary_R: As you already know, West Va broke away from Confederate Virginia during the Civil War. And that was the first thing that popped into my head when I read that article. Good to see the spirit lives on.
Union workers doing what union workers should do. They band together, and do what they think is right.
This is incredible news. Made my week.
Right on, UMW!
The NRA (No Ribbing Allowed) are as bad and possibly worse than the tobacco industry and big pharma. Liars, cheats and cowards who deal with death on a daily basis. And they love it. They will hopefully go the way of the dinosaur and Sarah (Campaign's Failin') Palin.
Hurray UMWA!
I only found one news link so far: http://www.wboy.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=44752 Spread this story around. It'll get picked up the more we spread it.
moniker @ 91:
I think it's unfair to pigeonhole this film as "pro-union."
It's based on true events, and the reason why unions became a necessity was that the U.S. government allowed companies to literally kill their employees without recourse.
If you read more about this time in history, you'll notice the similarities between the way corporations were allowed to act then, and the direction we're headed now.
NRA is nothing but GOP's limp gun that they stroke to get cheap shots at those they don't like.
Jenny'O @ 73:
Insults don't work as you already know.
I understand where you're coming from, but there are over a hundred years of history to be undone and wounds do not heal as fast as they are inflicted. Take South Carolina, for instance, where cities like Charleston had a majority population of African Americans at one time who were mostly slaves.
The history of this country has its shame and it will never be rectified unless it is called out every single day. Unfortunately, regions of people do get dumped into one category. But, hey, I live in the state of "fruits and nuts" and prefer to educate people rather than call them "jerks."
Before I lived here, I lived in the South the majority of my life. I experienced the fear most of my friends who were other than "pasty white" carried with them. They wouldn't even take a road trip through Georgia for fear of facing discrimination.
The fact remains, the South is stigmatized by its own past and still by current failures. People like you want to make a difference which is awesome, but calling each other names won't change people's minds. Just suggesting you try another tactic is all.
McPale's Navy @ 112:
"The history of this country has its shame and it will never be rectified unless it is called out every single day."
Ever heard of forgiveness?
bamboozled@110: As I mentioned, check out 'Harlan County. U.S.A.' and you'll see that the mining companies were still murdering their workers and employing 'gun thugs' in the 1970s. Ar one point of the documentary the union blockades the road to the mine. The 'gun thugs' show up and all the strikers brandish their handguns and rifles in reaction. Violence is only averted by the arrival of the local sheriff. Just 30 years ago people in W. Virginia and Kentucky were still living in dirt-floor houses without plumbing or electricity.
The longshoremen on the West Coast have their own union, separate from the East Coast. The East Coast docks have a supposed long-time mob influence, while the West Coast union has a tradition of being hard core left wing. Supposedly during contract negotiations in 2002, management goons flashed their concealed handguns at the union negotiators in order to intimidate them. The longshoremen didn't bat an eye: they just pulled their coats open and showed the goons that they too were armed.
Solidarity forever!
I know i'm an idiot, but how can i email articles? The share has everything except email, that's all this old gal can understand.
right on! @ 101:
---------------------
yo, dear Honey,
read the posts of the people i was talking to.
and then go fuck yourself.
yours truely, Honey.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=5iAIM02kv0g
Way to go, Union brothers and sisters! Stand firm against injustice! We are proud of you!
"Solidarity, Forever!"
"Solidarity, Forever!"
"Solidarity, Forever!
"For the Union makes us strong!"
We may all be singing this soon as we march up the DC Mall.
blujay @ 102:
For educational purposes, you don't have to pay copyright...but don't try to make money with it.
pissed off patricia @ 36:
And of course, those are some of the gun-maker's best customers :P
You go fellas! You make us proud. Wal-Mart employees should take note.
Holy crap! I think WV just flipped for Obama. That is awesome.
Here's the CEO of Consol. Note his salary.
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/12/33BV.html
Leadership @ 2:
Damn right. This strike is how you get at them, how you get them to pay attention. Standing on a street corner with your book club, waving anti-war signs gets you laughed at or completely ignored or worse.
The 1960's model of civil disobedience just doesn't work in this country any more. It is seen as quaint and impotent, partly because it never gets any media, and partly because it is associated with pothead hippies by the mainstream American, and partly because the First Amendment is almost an afterthought these days.
The way to get at the overlords is by interrupting their revenue stream, by shutting them down with a walkout. Get em where it hurts. No productivity and no bailouts until they cave!
Viva la Revolución!
Obama should hop in his campaign jet and get out there to personally meet and thank that group of union workers.
Anyone notice Palin in her Couric interview saying she and her husband got insurance when they both got good UNION jobs?
Like there's anything wrong with standing for a pay raise or other fiscal benefit. Employers don't have any problem standing in opposition to pay raises or fiscal benefits for employees.
Min @ 129:
Exactly. Standing for pay raises or other fiscal benefits is pretty much a union's raison d'etre.
Damn this is a great story. When Charlton Heston came through West Virginia during the 2004 election scaring up support for another idiotic Bush administration they played on people in West Virginia's fears not on facts.
What slimy McCain techniques. Using Rove and his underhanded techniques is back firing on that campaign. You go Union members You go!
When McCain tries to spin himself as having been in support of the middle or little man it is pure horse shit. These miners are able to see right through it.
Kathleen @ 131:
Heston besides being NRA president, was also a spokesman for the National Right-to-Work (for less) committee, an organization of companies and politicians whose
goal is to eliminate unionism. That and tactics like trying to use the miners for propaganda like this makes me wonder, what is the focus of the NRA? Is is really rights for gun owners? Or is it getting union members to vote for anti-union politicians? Seems like these miners don't want to be used for propaganda, and they had the balls to stand up and say no. I raise my glass to the miners.
There was a time when the unions were infiltrated with race-baiters and race-haters, who amplified racist sentiment against, say, blacks and latinos and women joining the union. The purpose was to limit union growth through inclusion and keep workers pitted against each other. Ultimately, the goal of these tactics is to destroy the unions altogether.
Glad the Union leadership and the rank and file are able to identify this racism and misogyny and reject it now. It didn't used to be.
Glad the Union leadership is able to communicate with its rank and file, and that the rank and file recognize the value of following their union leadership in the fight against racism -- and the fight to get more progressive national leadership elected for the US.
It's in their own interest.
LOL! The Christofascist gun nuts try to depict themselves as average American citizens, not frothingly insane Christian gun nuts. So they went to an "average American" work site, pulled their treasonous stupidity, and got their fucking gun nut extremist heads handed to them. Love it.
"Take your filthy hands off of me, you damn stinking ape!" Love it.
Charleton Heston is turning over in his grave. This is proof that you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
My heart is so much lighter after reading about these wonderful workers.....if only all unions could band together and fight ignorance you all are my heroes. Being a fire fighter's widow I know he is smiling from above at UMWA. Hold on to your belief that America can work and be together as one. Greatest gift to leave to our grandchildren. This was the year of real change. God Bless
Wonderful... if feels really good to see and hear that our Unions are coming back. Reagan started the Union busting during the Air Traffic Controllers strike. This is when the term "Liberal" became a dirty word. No more, no way will we be made to feel ashamed.
Here's another Union speaking up with the truth. It's the United Steelworkers Union.
John McCain should not feel overly confident about the South. Ralph Stanley just endorsed Barack Obama.
Margaret @ 49:
Ok as much as I would like the above to be true. It is not. It is an urban legend. Check it out at: http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2008/09/08/sarah-palin-and-the-lizards-o...
END MOUNTAIN TOP REMOVAL !!! http://www.wisecountyissues.com
I am a former steward for the Social Services Union, Local 535, SEIU (welfare workers), in Santa Clara County, California. In 1975 we held the largest strike by public employees in the history of California. I salute these United Mine Workers for seeing through the bullshit! Solidarity Forever!
Whats funny is that coal companies and unions believe that the republicans and democrats care about them. Well they do care about your votes and money but not your rights or lives. Please bookmark this post and in 5 years come back and read it after Obama and his ilk shuts down your futures. Coal is vilified as polluting and evil and this mindset will only get worse over his reign. You wont be shut down all at once but they will tax and regulate you out of business.
In regards to this walkout I can only say the company was wrong to bring politics into the workplace just as the union was wrong to use politics against the legitimate owners of the company.
Its too often forgotten that there are 2 different kinds of unions..labor unions and trade unions. And its funny that you only ever see labor unions trying to influence society and make law.
Ive been a proud member of my union for 16 years but I believe it isnt my right to use my membership to try to control my neighbors life.
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