Vol. 79/No. 36 October 12, 2015
October 12, 1990
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — The United Mine Workers of America held its first convention since joining the AFL-CIO last year. Delegates celebrated 100 years of the miners union, inspired by their recent victory over Pittston Coal Group.The strike against Pittston Coal in Virginia, Kentucky, and West Virginia lasted 11 months. The convention reflected the pride and increased confidence of many mine workers. Virtually all the delegates participated in some form of strike support activity. UMWA members from the Decker and Big Horn mines in Wyoming and Montana drove nonstop for 36 hours to participate in the Pittston strike.
Outside the meeting hall a half dozen videos and slide shows recounted the four-day occupation of the Moss No. 3 coal preparation plant.
October 11, 1965
On Sept. 30 in Hayneville, Ala., a jury of local racists acquitted Tom Coleman, admitted killer of civil rights worker Jonathan Daniels. But the real responsibility for this miscarriage of justice lies primarily with the Johnson administration and the federal government.Contempt for the lives and rights of Negroes and civil rights workers in the South was expressed by Johnson’s Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach when he heard of the acquittal.
Echoing the arguments of Coleman’s lawyers, Katzenbach said, “There is a good deal of feeling particularly in rural areas in some parts of the country. If something happens, there is a sort of feeling, ‘Well, they came down here, they are outsiders and they are agitating.’”
October 12, 1940
MINNEAPOLIS Oct. 2 — In a 54-page ruling, District Judge Paul S. Carroll today terminated the two-year-old “fink suit” against Minneapolis General Drivers Union, Local 544. The Judge denied to the plaintiffs, four tools of the Associated Industries gang, their main demands — for the removal of the union’s officers, the appointment of a receiver for the union, and the holding of a special election.The case against the outstanding union local in the Northwest, a local which had been the spearhead since 1934 in establishing Minneapolis as the best organized town in the country, began on February 16, 1938. It was filed in the name of five independent truck owners, who at one time held membership in Local 544’s Independent Truck Owners Section.
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