Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 18, 1993 TAG: 9307180189
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DANVILLE, W.VA. LENGTH: Medium
Families go to the grocery store less, children don't get money for baseball cards, and backyard gardens become more than just a hobby, according to miners and their families.
"Before it's over with, there'll be a lot of people losing their homes and cars," said Wanda Blevins, 46, of Bim.
Blevins, whose husband works at Peabody Coal Co.'s Colony Bay Mine in Wharton, said she will leave West Virginia tomorrow to work in a North Carolina factory to help her and her husband stay afloat.
More than 200 miners, family members and supporters turned out Saturday for a solidarity rally at Scott High School football stadium. Children milled about, and metal bleachers were set up in front of a stage where gospel and country music was performed.
The United Mine Workers of America union struck selected members of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association May 10 for the second time this year. The union has expanded the strike seven times, and more than 16,000 miners are on the picket line in Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.
Though the rally was free, money still was on the minds of union officials and striking miners.
There were white pails marked "donations" at each of several tents where free food and drinks were dispensed and camouflage union hats, T-shirts and headbands were being sold.
Joan Anderson, 34, of Sharples said saving pennies was getting harder and harder.
"We had made preparations for the strike financially but with kids, it's hard to prepare for something like this," Anderson said. "School's going to be starting here in another month, and that's an added expense."
She said her son, Steven, 11, is enjoying the extra time with his father. The two have spent a lot of time this summer swimming and fishing, she said.
"I get to be around him a lot more, but I think he's getting tired of me," said Steven Anderson, who wore a camouflage green union T-shirt that said "Camp Solidarity" left over from the 1989 UMW strike against Pittston Coal Group.
"We're doing without a lot of things, but it's like a picnic," said his father, James Anderson, 43.
Diane Kish, 41, of Sharples said it was hard making ends meet on the $150 a week miners get from the union strike fund. But she manages.
"You cook more than buy fast food. You don't go on vacations. The kids don't get baseball cards," she said. "They have to learn what we do: sacrifice."
District 17 President Bob Phalen, who represents 92 locals in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, 10 of which are on strike, spoke briefly at the rally.
"Whatever they do, they can't take our hearts away," Phalen said. "We are sick and tired of them raping our lands, taking the coal and leaving and not giving us the jobs . . ."
by CNB