Retired coal miners, Claude and Lawrence Amicarella recount their coal mining days. They talk about working and living conditions and give examples of the prejudice held toward miners during the forties and fifties. They share their views on corrupt United Mine Workers officials, the incompetence of mine superintendents, bad management decisions, e.g. bringing in machinery that was too big for a mine. They believe that a free enterprise system should include the right to form labor unions and that all natural resources should be nationalized. They recall buying a company house, paying the weighman to be accurate, and surviving on low wages by working overtime. By comparison, they say, Western miners were highly mobile, while a sense of being stuck prevailed in the Eastern mining towns. It perplexes them why miners are considered "undesirables" when their lives were hard and their services indispensable.
description
Retired coal miners, Claude and Lawrence Amicarella recount their coal mining days. They talk about working and living conditions and give examples of the prejudice held toward miners during the forties and fifties. They share their views on corrupt United Mine Workers officials, the incompetence of mine superintendents, bad management decisions, e.g. bringing in machinery that was too big for a mine. They believe that a free enterprise system should include the right to form labor unions and that all natural resources should be nationalized. They recall buying a company house, paying the weighman to be accurate, and surviving on low wages by working overtime. By comparison, they say, Western miners were highly mobile, while a sense of being stuck prevailed in the Eastern mining towns. It perplexes them why miners are considered "undesirables" when their lives were hard and their services indispensable.
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