W.T. Turner

Published on December 30, 2018

"I quit school and over my father’s objections I kept on till I got a job in the mines, and he was assistant superintendent in charge of the night shift. He could get me a job if we wanted to, but he didn’t want me in the mine, but he finally gave in and gave me a job loading coal 42 cents a ton, and they put me in a water hole and made just as hard as they could possible make on me, so that maybe I would quit and come back out. But I didn’t."

Chapters

Starting Work in the Mines and the Beginning of the Union

W.T. Turner describes the formation of the union in Docena.

Play Segment

Jobs in the Mine and Safety

W.T. Turner describes his job as an electrician in the mines and explains safety procedures before and after the formation of the union.

Play Segment

Changes in Docena from the Union

W.T. Turner talks about some of the changes that the union has caused over the years.

Play Segment

Strikes

W.T. Turner describes the details of strikes in the Docena mine.

Play Segment

Boy Scouts

W.T. Turner recalls his involvement with the boy scouts in Docena, and common scouting activities.

Play Segment

Relations with the Company and Closing Remarks

W.T. Turner describes the workers’ relationship with the company, and makes some closing remarks.

Play Segment

Transcript

DON SULLIVAN: This is Don Sullivan doing an interview with Mr. W.T. Turner
on March the 3rd, 1979. The interview is taking place at his house.

DON SULLIVAN: Mr. Turner, when did you first work for, when did you first begin
working for the coal mines?

W.T. TURNER: Well, I went in the mines in April 1929.

DON SULLIVAN: How long did you work for them?

W.T. TURNER: Well, I left the mines in March 31, 1966.

DON SULLIVAN: And when you first began work, were the unions already there?

W.T. TURNER: No. Nope.

DON SULLIVAN: Really? When did they come in?

W.T. TURNER: In the forties.

DON SULLIVAN: When they did come in, was there any... strikes and stuff like
this? How did they come in, essentially how did they, did they...

W.T. TURNER: Well, they started organizing down in the Walker County area and
then they moved into the Jefferson County area. There was a lot of fighting,
disorders, strikes. Quite a number of people, you know, were killed down in
Walker County.

DON SULLIVAN: Was that a big strike?

W.T. TURNER: Oh, yes.

DON SULLIVAN: Do you know anything about that strike?

W.T. TURNER: No, I wasn't down in there, I was here. But in here when they
started organizing, the companies resisted it. They hired extra guards, extra
deputies. But, there was some violence at this mine. You know, about strike
breakers, they (the companies) would send some men into the mines that was
willing to go, you know, to try to cut coal and stuff like that. I can remember
an incident down here where they had put two men in the mine on a Sunday night
to cut coal and when they tried to come out, why the organizers and the men
gathered at the pit mouth down here and like to have killed both of them.

DON SULLIVAN: They wouldn't let them out?

W.T. TURNER: They wouldn't let them out. They brought them out on the skiff down
here where they didn't ordinarily come out that way. But they brought them out
on the skiff, but the men was too fast for them. They figured out where they was
coming and met them. And whipped them into the ground with all the deputies and
everything else and nobody done anything to help them.

DON SULLIVAN: Really? And all those deputies were standing around?

W.T. TURNER: Just stood there and watched it.

DON SULLIVAN: Well.

W.T. TURNER: That's what made a lot of union men.

DON SULLIVAN: Really? When it first came in did you join it at the first or did
you wait around?

W.T. TURNER: No, we stayed out of it. Most all the whites, the blacks went in
it, most all the white men stayed out. Then the company backed and formed what
they called a company union. We call them popsicles. Most of us went in that.
And really we were told that would be it, there would be no strong United Mine
Workers. But they lied. And the company just reversed their selves when it got
strong. We were forced to join the other union.

DON SULLIVAN: Really? Did they bring outside people in to organize the unions?

W.T. TURNER: Oh, yes.

DON SULLIVAN: Do you know where they came from?

W.T. TURNER: Well, most of them came from Pennsylvania--

DON SULLIVAN: Pennsylvania?

W.T. TURNER: Kentucky, West Virginia, and some from Tennessee.

DON SULLIVAN: Did they, on the strike breakers, did they bring them from out of
the country?

W.T. TURNER: No.

DON SULLIVAN: They used the ones here?

W.T. TURNER: They used what they had.

DON SULLIVAN: When you finally joined, was there any pressure on the men, was it
against their rights?

W.T. TURNER: I worked in maintenance and they just notified all the employees
that they would be, have to join, sign up a card and join the union to hold
their job. That they [the company] had a contract with the union [U.M.W.].

DON SULLIVAN: Were you against this when it first happened?

W.T. TURNER: No, I was neutral. I would've went either way.

DON SULLIVAN: Who was the head of the union at that time?

W.T. TURNER: Well, John L. Lewis was head of the union.

DON SULLIVAN: After the unions came in, was there any more strikes and violence?

W.T. TURNER: Oh, yes.

DON SULLIVAN: Did you ever participate in any of the strikes?

W.T. TURNER: No.

DON SULLIVAN: Did you ever take part as a strike breaker or anything like that?

W.T. TURNER: No, we just, when a strike was called we would always be notified.
They had a secret way of notifying you. And when the strike was on we just
stayed at home.

DON SULLIVAN: How did they notify you?

W.T. TURNER: That's a secret that will remain secret.

DON SULLIVAN: Remains a secret?

W.T. TURNER: It is today.

DON SULLIVAN: It is? They still use it today? Are you still a member of the union?

W.T. TURNER: I am a retired active member, I pay my dues.

DON SULLIVAN: Really? Well, did you, you just, in a sense, honored the picket
lines that went up?

W.T. TURNER: Oh, yes. The other day.

DON SULLIVAN: Even if there's a strike in another area.

W.T. TURNER: I will not cross a picket line. Teach my family that.

DON SULLIVAN: Really? Is it, as the mines gained strength, did it become pretty
a strong union around this area?

W.T. TURNER: Yes, it went a hundred percent.

DON SULLIVAN: A hundred percent? Now, getting to your jobs, what type of jobs
did you have when you...

W.T. TURNER: Well, when I went into the mine I went in, and people, like I say,
I went in April 1929. I quit school and over my father's objections I kept on
till I got a job in the mines and he was assistant superintendent in charge of
the night shift. He could get me a job if he wanted to, but he didn't want me in
the mine, but he finally gave in and they gave me a job loading coal 42 cents a
ton and they put me in a water hole and made just as hard as they could possible
make on me, so that maybe I would quit and come back out. But I didn't. I stayed
with it. But most of my time in the mine was in maintenance, electrical maintenance.

DON SULLIVAN: Electrical maintenance? What--can you talk about what some of the
jobs you did as part of electrical maintenance?

W.T. TURNER: Well, we had different sections, an electrician was assigned to a
section. Where they had one section foreman, although we didn't work under the
section foreman, he was in the mining end of it, we worked under a maintenance
foreman who was over the electrical mechanics who we were responsible to, but
the electrician was responsible for keeping the equipment going, keep it operating.

DON SULLIVAN: Did you, is this...You mainly stayed with them as...

W.T. TURNER: I stayed with the maintenance underground till June 7, 1941, when I
got covered up with rock and got my back broke and I was off two and a half
years with an injury and then I went back to work on the surface in the shops.

DON SULLIVAN: What happened with that? When you had your back broke. Was it a
mountain cave in?

W.T. TURNER: It was a rock fall.

DON SULLIVAN: A rock fall? What were safety conditions like?

W.T. TURNER: They were good.

DON SULLIVAN: They were good?

W.T. TURNER: They were good. There had been a-- My accident happened on a
Wednesday and the Saturday before my accident they had an explosion in the mine,
Which was not on the same area that I was injured in, but it's a known fact that
anytime that you have a gas explosion or an explosion a major explosion in the
mine, it loosens rocks and moves way away from where your area is. Of course, my
accident, I don't think there's no point in not saying, I blame mine on supervision.

DON SULLIVAN: Why-- Did they not...

W.T. TURNER: Well, they had a mining machine, it was called a cutting machine,
it cuts under the coal. It cuts back under the coal about 7 and a half feet.
Then they drill holes in top of the coal seam and blast it down. And this
cutting machine was, had quit operating. The assistant mine foreman and a
section foreman had been there, and I was on another breakdown somewhere else,
While I was in the transit getting there, they took the side off the machine and
was going to fix it. And when I showed up, they left. And naturally, I didn't
check the roof, I thought they had. And the rock fell on me while I was sitting
down there working on the machine.

DON SULLIVAN: Were you there by yourself?

W.T. TURNER: I was-- there were some men working within 20 or 30 feet of me.

DON SULLIVAN: Was it union at that time, were the unions there at that time?

W.T. TURNER: Oh, yes.

DON SULLIVAN: Yeah. One question-- was your father still working in the mines
when the unions came in?

W.T. TURNER: Yes, he was working here as a supervisor then.

DON SULLIVAN: Did it end up that you were on opposite sides or did he join the
unions too?

W.T. TURNER: He wasn't allowed to join.

DON SULLIVAN: He wasn't allowed to join?

W.T. TURNER: No supervisor could belong to the union.

DON SULLIVAN: Do you think he would've if they could have?

W.T. TURNER: I doubt it. He had never belonged to a union, he had been a
supervisor, oh, back when they organized, when they had so much violence and
trouble, back in the twenties. He was supervisor, so he wasn't in the union.

DON SULLIVAN: Is there...

W.T. TURNER: I'll make another statement on that. My daddy, later on in years,
retired. During the war, he came back and worked on a day rate job. In other
words, he operated the steam engines, which generated electricity. We called the
big old turbine engines, over in the powerhouse. He had done that when he first
put them in, he would operate it there some. So he came back and worked there
and worked in the lamphouse, where they issued the lamps to go underground, and
that, automatically, he went in the union, And those two years that he was in
the union changed my father completely.

DON SULLIVAN: Really?

W.T. TURNER: He reversed his thinking.

DON SULLIVAN: Did he become a strong union man?

W.T. TURNER: Not a strong union man, because he was too old, and he didn't, you
know, want to get involved. But, if he was living, I think he would tell you
today, the two years he was in the union, he got more, better results from them
than the fifty-something years he worked for U.S. Steel. I'm talking about in
pension and medical.

DON SULLIVAN: The safety conditions before the unions came in, were they, did
they improve a lot after the unions came in or were they...

W.T. TURNER: They automatically improved a whole a lot because, under the union
contract, the union had members that they elected, that served on a safety
committee. When you had an accident in the mines, they were included in the
investigation, after. They weren't to start with, because the company didn't
want them there. But like it is today, that's all an employee has to do, if he
thinks it's not safe, he reports it to his safety man. If his foreman won't do
anything about it, then they will call a meeting and they'll go investigate it.
It's improved.

DON SULLIVAN: Well, like you were saying that the conditions were good, you
know, in the mines. Were they good before the unions came in?

W.T. TURNER: They were fairly good, not as good as they were after the unions
came in.

DON SULLIVAN: Were you ever on a, on the safety committee?

W.T. TURNER: No, sir. Like I said, I never took an active part, I attended some
of the meetings, but I never geld an office or never really active in it.

DON SULLIVAN: You just paid the dues.

W.T. TURNER: Paid my dues and was a member. I voted.

DON SULLIVAN: Were there, were there--did you know any of the safety committee
men, did they live in Docena?

W.T. TURNER: Most of them live here in the village.

DON SULLIVAN: Really? With the--as far as the black and white situation goes,
was it, was the union pretty much integrated?

W.T. TURNER: No, in the union halls the blacks sat on one side, the whites sat
on the other, but they always elected blacks to the committees and to the
offices in the union.

DON SULLIVAN: So it tended to be... as far as the committees went, it tended to
be integrated.

W.T. TURNER: That is still today.

DON SULLIVAN: Still today?

W.T. TURNER: It's still today. Not too much in the union, I wouldn't think, but
you can sit where you want to now. You don't segregate them. Actually, I don't
know whether they segregated then or not. The whites just sat together on one
side and the black on the other and they still do it today a lot of times. I
think there were less problems then than there are today.

DON SULLIVAN: More people didn't worry about it then?

W.T. TURNER: Well, you got along.

DON SULLIVAN: Did--as far as the company reaction, did they learn to live with
the unions or did they always have a hard time working with them?

W.T. TURNER: Well, I think they finally realized that the company really would
gain by signing a contract and going ahead and recognizing it and working,
because they had some order then, when you didn't have a union you had more than
one faction and you had disorder all the time because the men were actually
fighting one another. After you got them all in one organization, that's it. I
still maintain that today. The union's good for them. It organizes and signs a
contract, and they can produce coal. They can go ahead and operate, if they got
their contract and go by it, you got no problem.

DON SULLIVAN: Can you tell me what kind of benefits you had, you know, a man had
before the union came in, like did he have any retirement benefits or anything
like that?

W.T. TURNER: He absolutely had nothing.

DON SULLIVAN: Nothing?

W.T. TURNER: We had hospitalization, we paid for it. And we had to go to the
company hospital which is Lloyd Nolan now. And members of your family, you paid
so much a month. And they were supposed to give you a reduced rate, if you had
to enter the hospital, be admitted. You paid so much a month, you did have a
doctor in the village, who was on call and he would pay a home visit. They kept
a doctor here. One lived right next to me. And you could get medication, such as
aspirin, that was about all they had back in those days was aspirin I guess.
(laughs) But, and they had dental care, but if you had to go have a dental care,
work on your teeth, you had to pay for that and if you was admitted into a
hospital, you paid for that, which was good in a way.

DON SULLIVAN: Did you have any type of insurance?

W.T. TURNER: That's the only insurance you had, well, we had insurance that we
carried. We had to pay for it.

DON SULLIVAN: After the union came in, what kind of contract did they, what kind
of premise did they...

W.T. TURNER: Well, I don't remember exactly when it was out into effect, but
after it was organized, the union, and they put in the medical bill, the union
took it over.

DON SULLIVAN: Did you get any retirement, did they work that out?

W.T. TURNER: Oh, yes. You had a retirement pension, which we didn't have,
absolutely a day-rate man didn't have anything.

DON SULLIVAN: Did the company every try to put in a clause when they're working
out the contract that there would be no wildcat strikes?

W.T. TURNER: Oh, they tried that all the time. That's always been, I did not, I
have never studied in any of the contract negotiations, but I've read them, I'm
just--like I told you, I burned up a bunch of papers, I just burned up the
contracts, several of the that I had, copies of the contracts, I burned up the
one that the miners rejected this past year.

DON SULLIVAN: Did you have any vote in that or did you, could you have voted in that?

W.T. TURNER: What the contract? No, a retired miner doesn't vote on the contract.

DON SULLIVAN: But can you still participate in the meetings?

W.T. TURNER: We vote on the officers, international and local.

DON SULLIVAN: Where do they meet nowadayas?

W.T. TURNER: Well, a few years ago the locals, like we belonged to here from
Docena-Edgewater, membership was real low so the international combined that
thing and our locals were discontinued and we had to transfer to a local that's
active. The union hall at Graysville.

DON SULLIVAN: Getting back maybe to the strike situation and, did they ever
really get real violent as such, Were they ever...

W.T. TURNER: Not in this area.

DON SULLIVAN: Not in this area? Just mainly the picket lines?

W.T. TURNER: Never put up picket lines.

DON SULLIVAN: Never put? How did y'all, was the strike, did you just not go to
work or what?

W.T. TURNER: Just didn't work.

DON SULLIVAN: Didn't work? There was never really any violence?

W.T. TURNER: Really, when the unions first started in the coal mine, they still
do it. If they had a grievance at the coal mine before they went underground, if
one man poured his bucket of water out, everybody went home.

DON SULLIVAN: Really?

W.T. TURNER: That was the signal it was on.

DON SULLIVAN: Did that--could that happen anytime?

W.T. TURNER: Well when they first organized it, it could. And they had a lot of
wildcat strikes, then you know. Most of the people the miner and the company
neither one, knew what was going on, till they could get them back into a
meeting. But that was the signal you didn't go. You got your ears beat off, I
guess if you had tried it, but, that's one thing about United Mine Workers.

DON SULLIVAN: What did the miners think of, the union men think of those people
who tried to go to work while there was a strike on? Was there much ill feeling
toward them?

W.T. TURNER: Well, as of today, he's still a scab.

DON SULLIVAN: A scab?

DON SULLIVAN: Was he, did the miners, now I'm using, not in the sense of, in the
general sense, maybe what you can describe as the feelings towards the scab.
When the strike was over, did they still have ill feelings towards the man?

W.T. TURNER: Oh, certainly. We have some scabs here in Docena that haven't been
in a mine in twenty something years, but he's still a scab.

DON SULLIVAN: Still a scab? Still thought of as of as one.

W.T. TURNER: Still a scab.

DON SULLIVAN: What about the company sheriffs and deputies, did y'all ever have
any trouble with them?

W.T. TURNER: I never did. What this company had here in Docena, of course, I'll
have to state that since my father was one of the officials, it had some effect,
as far as I am concerned, I know that. But, like I said, I never did take any
active part in any of their violence, anything like that, I always tried to do
what I thought was right, but when there was a strike, it was officially called,
I stayed away, just like the rest of them.

DON SULLIVAN: Did you ever have any trouble with Mr. Mizelle as when he was TCI sheriff?

W.T. TURNER: Who, Hilburt? No. Hilburt was my neighbor.

DON SULLIVAN: Did he ever--It was his job to protect the mines, right, as offer
security for it.

W.T. TURNER: Well he never, as far as I can remember I know of no problems he
ever had, because when the miners went on strike he stayed away from it.

DON SULLIVAN: He honored their strike too.

W.T. TURNER: He'd go no further than the bathhouse, the change house.

DON SULLIVAN: Then you would say that the unions have done a lot for the mines
as from you know that time when they first came in, that they paved the change
to make it better, wouldn't you say?

W.T. TURNER: Oh, yes. As I grow older and I see more and more things it makes me
a stronger union man. As I say, when the union started organizing, I was not a
part. I was raised the other way. But down through the years, it made me
stronger and stronger because I see what goes on.

DON SULLIVAN: You were saying that, like at the first, that the blacks first
went into the union.

W.T. TURNER: That's right.

DON SULLIVAN: And when they, did they go on strike first, the blacks?

W.T. TURNER: Oh, yes.

DON SULLIVAN: Would you say the men, that the white men that didn't, weren't
participating in the union?

W.T. TURNER: The white men kept working.

DON SULLIVAN: They kept working? Was there any violence?

W.T. TURNER: Between whites and blacks?

DON SULLIVAN: Because of that?

W.T. TURNER: No. I never witnessed any here.

DON SULLIVAN: And then you said that when the company made a contract with the
union, that the white men, the whites, became union men. Is that right?

W.T. TURNER: They joined the union because they had to. They had belonged to
what they called a, it was a company union, there was no question about it. The
company dominated it, they told them what to do. But then it changed and the old
men that did belong to the company union, that what we called it, that what we
referred to it as. But when they did recognize United Mine Workers as a
bargaining agent, then we were required to join, sign a check off card where we
paid dues. Whether you wanted to or not, you went in it.

DON SULLIVAN: Can you tell me how that came about, how did the company, you
know, why did the company recognize United Mine Workers as the bargaining agent?

W.T. TURNER: Well, I really wouldn't know. I mean, that would have to come from
some company official, but they didn't have no alternative because they were
closing all their mines down.

DON SULLIVAN: Did they ever--do you know if they ever felt--I'm not sure whether
you know this, whether you would know this or not, but did they feel any
pressure from the federal government to uh?

W.T. TURNER: Not to organize. They did down through the years after they were
organized. Especially during the war.

DON SULLIVAN: Now you mentioned that the unions came in during the forties. Was
it during...

W.T. TURNER: I think so, I'm not sure. I'm not sure of the date. I don't even
have that information because, like I say, I wasn't that involved in it I worked
and took no active part in it until later on when we were all forced in it. We
were actually forced in it, A great majority of us was forced in it. But, like I
say, now I'm glad it happened that way. We were wrong.

DON SULLIVAN: Now, I wanted to jump to something else, you mentioned and I read
it in your interview with Mrs. Rikard that you were part of Boy Scouts.

W.T. TURNER: Oh yes, I worked with Boy Scouts for years.

DON SULLIVAN: Were you a member of the Boy Scouts when you were younger?

W.T. TURNER: I was a member when I was a school boy, yes.

DON SULLIVAN: In this town?

W.T. TURNER: In this area. Here in Docena.

DON SULLIVAN: Was it a pretty good troop?

W.T. TURNER: Good troop.

DON SULLIVAN: Good troop?

W.T. TURNER: Very good troop.

DON SULLIVAN: How many boys participated in it when you were in it, can you remember?

W.T. TURNER: Yes, I was looking up the information here just a while back, I
think we had on an average, about as high a membership, I think, was in the
forties. And then about as low, I think, somewhere around twenty, something like
that. We usually run between twenty and thirty. I served as chairman of
activities for the Warrior District which is this whole area in here. Rayburn,
Alder, Flattertop, Brookside, Bayview. I served on that one several years and I
was chairman of activities for the Warrior District when we were building the
big camp out here in the valley. And our district held the first activities in
the big hall out there. We had our Warrior District activity meeting out there.
The first meeting were ever held in the building hall out there and we had we
would eat out there, I love that place, you ever been out there?

DON SULLIVAN: Uh uh. No.

W.T. TURNER: It's beautiful.

DON SULLIVAN: And as for the Boy Scouts went, they were pretty strong in this area?

W.T. TURNER: Real strong.

DON SULLIVAN: Real strong? As far as some of the activities that they did, do
you remember any activities that you participated in?

W.T. TURNER: Oh, we had quite a bit of activities that that one thing about the
U.S. Steel, they cooperated with us one hundred percent. I leased several
different areas in here for Boy Scout camps from U.S. Steel and never had any
problems at all. They even helped lease it after I left the Scouts, newer people
coming in. This highway over here goes through where we use to have a big camp
over there. And the swimming holes, and we all rigged up swimming holes over
there. I used to camp right with them. I wasn't Scout Master. I was chairman of
the troop. You know, took the lead on the committee and organizing and getting
the benefits and things like that, but I wore out a good automobile and spent
what money I had. (laughs) My son was a member of the boy scout troop while I
was in it. And my grandson, who is twenty-five now, when he came along, why he
was a member of the same troop. Till he was seventeen here.

DON SULLIVAN: How far did you get in it?

W.T. TURNER: In the troop?

DON SULLIVAN: Yes.

W.T. TURNER: Well, like I said, I served as chairman of the activities for the
Warrior District, that was as high office that I...

DON SULLIVAN: I mean, well like, you know when you were a Boy Scout yourself?

W.T. TURNER: I was first-class.

DON SULLIVAN: Really? You got all the way?

W.T. TURNER: That was hard to do back when I was a boy.

DON SULLIVAN: Yes, it was.

W.T. TURNER: It was rough when we were Boy Scouts. You had to be tough as a pine
knot to stay in it. Because they used the old paddle machine stuff you know,
which later on that I forbid in out troop, we wouldn't allow that when I was in.

DON SULLIVAN: What was that?

W.T. TURNER: Well, if a boy was guilty of some infraction of the rules or
something, you know, when we had a Scout meeting, you all would line up and bend
over. And he had to go through it crawl through it. And, of course, they worked
on his back end with belts and anything you could get on, And it got too bad,
You know, you know how it is, you pick a young boy and he gets, he gets in bad
with a group of boys, they beat him half to death. They frame up on him to get
him through the paddling machine, so we stopped that. It was too rough.

DON SULLIVAN: But it was a pretty strong troop? When you were a boy?

W.T. TURNER: Oh, yes. We used to be up here in the old school house.

DON SULLIVAN: Really?

W.T. TURNER: And later on, there used to be a clubhouse down here was that owned
by the company. And we held our troop meeting down there. And then later on in
years, after I got out of it, why that building had all torn down, and you know,
the company discontinued anything to do with it at all. And so we held it at the churches.

DON SULLIVAN: Did you get to do a lot of camping?

W.T. TURNER: Oh, a great deal of camping.

DON SULLIVAN: You probably went out all the time?

W.T. TURNER: Oh, yes. We carried out troop all the way to Atlanta city, down
here across from Windcreek Campgrounds now.

DON SULLIVAN: Did y'all do a lot of hiking?

W.T. TURNER: A lot of hiking. A lot of swimming.

DON SULLIVAN: As far as, from what you've experienced out of Boy Scouts, did you
learn a lot about-- Were you able to learn about camping and hiking and gain a
lot of valuable experience about the woods?

W.T. TURNER: Well, I had to, because I always served on the committees that
passed the troop going. And when you serve on the committee, I learned to start
with, you better have knowledge of what you was doing or cause some of the
children will throw you in a knot, sure enough. Some of them are smart. I
enjoyed it, I'll have to say that. I wish I was physically able to get back in
it again.

DON SULLIVAN: is there still a troop out here now?

W.T. TURNER: No, they don't have a troop here. It's been gone for quite. I had a
nephew that was the last Scout master here. That's another thing that I will
say, that locally, as far as the company, we had a superintendent back then when
we going pretty strong who was a good friend of mine and he helped us, times was
kind of hard, we was working slack work two or three days a week, Money was hard
to get a hold of. And the supervisors were working so the superintendent called
them all in and told them he expected them to give a good donation to the troop.
And which they did. And we bought equipment with it. We bought--I know, I'll
never forget, we bought eleven pup tents for our troop.

DON SULLIVAN: Really?

W.T. TURNER: Sleep two boys to the tent. And a lot of other equipment, lanterns.
I built a special trailer to go behind my car to haul equipment in.

DON SULLIVAN: Well, that brings up another question, you were mentioning
supervisors donating to that, did supervisors live in the town, in with Docena too?

W.T. TURNER: At one time, they were required to live here. Later years they
changed that ruling and they could live elsewhere.

DON SULLIVAN: How well did the miners get along with supervisors?

W.T. TURNER: Fine.

DON SULLIVAN: Fine? Pretty good relations?

W.T. TURNER: All went to church together. The children went to school together.
You had no private schools. The only private school back in those days, you
know, was maybe your Catholic schools, something like that, your church school,
like that. We didn't have any private schools.

DON SULLIVAN: Supervisors, did they work right beside you? Did they or were
their jobs mainly just observing and supervising?

W.T. TURNER: They were supervising.

DON SULLIVAN: How did the men feel towards the company, do you think, what was
the general feeling towards them let's say, the head office, the main office?

W.T. TURNER: I think the general feeling towards the company was good, it always
was. There had been times when it was strained, in labor troubles, and things
like that. That's normal. I really, myself, and I would have to be true, I tell
them so, since I've retired I've had less respect for U.S. Steel than I've ever
had in my life and I worked for them 38 years. Some things that they've done.
Like this last contract.

DON SULLIVAN: They...

W.T. TURNER: Well, they made so many changes. The information we get, if it's
correct-we're never sure, but that's what our officials tell us, that's what the
president of the distract tells us. And I would have to take his word for it,
because I know him fairly well. And my son-in-law and his daddy, his daddy
worked with the president of this district for years and years. They're close
friends, And I don't think he would lie. He says that the big companies did
everything they could, they entirely cut the retired old miner out. With
nothing. No pension or nothing. And they come very near doing it. That was one
of the reasons and we still didn't get a fair deal. The day the miner that
retires in 76--I have a brother-in-law that retired after January, when he was
off on the long strike. He didn't go back, he retired. And he's got two more
years actually with U.S. Steel mining than I have. Yet his pension double over
what I get. Which is not fair I don't--they say that the big companies, that's
the news they give us. I'll have to buy it. They got a whole lot better medical
than we have now, they changed ours. They changed theirs for the better. Of
course, I know why, one of the reasons they did that, is to try and recruit new
men for the mines. Giving them a whole lot better contract then we've got. But,
that is the problem, regardless of what the news media said, that was the
problem mostly with the union contractors and the officials fighting for the old
retired miner.

DON SULLIVAN: And were they able to...

W.T. TURNER: Well, they improved what they were going to start out with. They
would have cut us out completely. That's the information we've received.

DON SULLIVAN: I'll ask you, I want to ask you, I'm going to ask you one more
last question. If you had it all over to do again, would you become a coal
miner? Would you do it again?

W.T. TURNER: I don't think so.

DON SULLIVAN: You don't think so?

W.T. TURNER: No, I would do what my father tried to get me to do, finish school
and go to college and get a good education and go into something else. The
advantages, as a whole are greater. I do everything I can to discourage my
grandchildren from going to the coal mines. I got one now, he was here last
night. He's got an application in, he wants to go to the coal mine. It's not
like it was. It's improved, the safety improved a hundred percent. You know, I
made a remark to you yesterday that they reported on the news that there was a
mine man killed.

DON SULLIVAN: Yes, I read that in the newspaper.

W.T. TURNER: But, that wasn't a coal miner, that was rail transportation man,
that actually wasn't a coal miner. I still maintain that the mines, if they go
by safety rules and safety regulations they got on, there would be very few
accidents. There would be almost no fatalities at all. If they'll obey the rules.

DON SULLIVAN: Well, I appreciate it, Mr. Turner. I think I got a lot of good
information. This will help me out a lot. I appreciate it.

W.T. TURNER: Don, that's the way I feel. And like I say, I never was much of a
union man, but since I have retired, and I have seen the things that's happened
to the old miners and some of the things, it's turned me around. It has to. It
has all the other senior citizens around here. They have turned around.

DON SULLIVAN: Well, I appreciate you talking to me Mr. Turner.

W.T. TURNER: Okay.

DON SULLIVAN: Thank you.

W.T. TURNER: Glad to do it.

Audio Information
Attribute	Value
Interviewer	Don Sullivan
Interviewee	W.T. Turner
Repository	Samford University Oral History Collection
Accession	SUHist/TCI/007

W.T. Turner

Chapters

Starting Work in the Mines and the Beginning of the Union

Jobs in the Mine and Safety

Changes in Docena from the Union

Strikes

Boy Scouts

Relations with the Company and Closing Remarks

Transcript

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