Coal Mining

COAL MINING companies have a long history of crimes against employees, and the state and federal government, that dates to the 19th century. Crimes against employees included illegal cheating in coal weights, excessive hours, the company towns' gouging and scrip, unsafe working conditions, and government-assisted violence. Crimes against the United States came later and included violations of labor laws, safety laws, and environmental laws.

The coal regions in the 19th century tended to be remote, tied to the market by the railroads that were the prime consumers of coal. As the United States industrialized between 1880 and 1930, the mining companies entered regions occupied by selfsufficient farmers and enticed the farmers to the mines and the company towns.

Companies built towns, including churches, services, and shops for their mine employees. Miners could rent as long as they were employed, but if they were on strike or otherwise off the payroll they could expect eviction with a 5-day notice. The miners received at least part of their pay in scrip redeemable at the company store. Miners complained about unsanitary conditions, restrictions on their lives, and higher prices in the company stores. Miners sometimes had no right to bring non-employees into company housing, and companies could ban independent stores and peddlers. Company police patrolled the towns and the roads. Company towns largely disappeared by the 1920s.

Companies neglected safety in the mines and cheated on coal weights. Companies influenced state governments to allow convict labor in the mines, even to the point of creating mines within the prison system. Convicts were a controlled labor source that allowed owners to depress wages, repress unions, and break strikes. Sympathetic judges commonly issued injunctions against organized labor, and the owners influenced state governments to call out the militia to crush unionist disturbances. Companies spied on workers and established their own armies. The Pinkerton agency was the most prominent of the company armed forces. Baldwin-Felts guards enforced owners' law in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Colorado early in the 20th century.

In one state, West Virginia, absentee ownership became the rule after the Civil War as outsiders bought control of timber, coal, oil, and gas rights. They spent money, they brought jobs, and they created a political system that looked out for their interests. The cost was the people's life and limb, education, and dilapidated infrastructure because of the inadequate tax base and inadequate enforcement of tax collection. Between 1883 and 1969, 21,311 miners died on the job in West Virginia. When the miners asserted their rights, the companies fought back. Even after the 1930s, when the New Deal labor laws gave legal backing to the United Mine Workers union, the companies maintained their stranglehold over coal country.