The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-12-15
Misery Among Coal Miners
BY BURCK.

workers SO cents or more for insurance" At
least three companies were deducting SO cents
or rs cents for "relief."
One big deduction from tonnage workers pay
never appears in figures on the pay check. 1t is
difficult to prove. But several miners among
those employed by IL OF the 10 companies were
outspoken against the unfair short-weighing of
their coal They estimate that they are losing
from 20 per cent to 30 per cent of the pay that
belongs to them at present wage rates. Miners
working under recent u M. W. A. agreements in
the Scots Run district (northern West Virgtnia)
stated that the newly set-up checkweighrnen are
playing up to the operators and cheating the
workers by allowing short-weighing of miners
coal
Unfair docking for dirty coal and the fact
that tonnage workers get no pay for dead work
were also frequently mentioned as standing
grievances.
Much of the miners pay goes back into the
company's hands-or never reaches the miner
at al-because rent for a company house and
purchases at high prices from a company store
are deducted from his pay check. Not all Of the
workers In this region live in company houses
or get their supplies at company store. But at
least So of the al workers interviewed were not
only living in a company village but were tied up
to the company by burden of debt. More than
half of these So owed the company sums ranging
from $25 to just under $780, and eight of them
owed the company from 500 to 5000.
Burden of Debt Increases
The fact that SO workers were in debt to the
company is only part of the story. Debt or
starvation-or slow starvation along with a bur-
den Of debt--this is the hard situation in most
of the mine workers families.
The 141 workers included 124 families and IT
single men without dependents The mine
worker was the only wage-earner in SO families.
Only ten of these SO were not in debt but even
this figure is more favorable than the facts
One of the 10 had almost doubled his income by
bootlegging. Another family had had $50 help
from relatives whom they did not have to repay.
A third had saved up when wages were higher
and had drawn out several hundred dollars--all
he had-to pull through the year
In 81 families the wife or mother of the mine
worker was helping out by keeping boarders or
dodgers In one OF these families and in "A
others at least one person besides the mine
worker was also Z, wage-earner outside and shar-
ing in family support. For all of them, as for
the miners themselves, work had been irregular
and earnings extremely low. So most of these
65 households which we're not depending entirely
on one coal mine worker also carried burden
of debt Only Is had been able to make out
had had gifts of money from relatives or friends
Thinking back over the past year most of the
workers said they had had no savings left to
draw upon. With the exception noted above
the II who had recently drawn their last penny
of savings had not been able to keep themselves
clear of debt The small number of workers who
owned their homes saw no prospect of paying off
their mortgages, and most of them stated that
taxes were overdue.
chickens, but most Of them got too little from
these efforts to make real addition to the FAM
lily income. Rough estimates of the value of their
produce during the past year were follows:
SIS or less-10 families
Over SIS but less than $25-33 families.
$25 but less than $50--15 families
$50 or over--6 families.
10 to 12-Hour Day at Some Mines
Only one of the 100 tonnage workers reported
the mines usually less than four days a week.
coal operators are expecting the miners to put
in day of or 10 hours. A day longer than
10 hours, running up even to IL, was reported by
three or more workers at several mines, includ-
ing the Rosedale and Maiden mines of the VAL
ley Camp Coal Co., Pursglove No. l and No g.
and the Cedar Grove mine of the Carnegie Coal
Co.
When no fixed day is required Of tonnage
workers, operators often set stint which must
be finished before the machine miner or the
loader leaves the mine. Also, low tonnage rates
and very irregular work by themselves drive the