REBELLION IN THE RANKS of!lce workers as may In the presldent's Judgment be necessary' . . . The presldent lnterprets the meanlng of the constltutlon and can appolnt trustees to control errant locals and dlstrlcts. At one time, fully 21 of the 3313 dlstrlcts In the UMW lost thelr autonomy and were run by an appolntee of the presldent, John L. Lewls ... (the offlclals) who owed thelr Jobs and thelr l!vel!hood to Lewls (would follow) hls dlrectlons llke a vassal from hls feudal lord ... • (The crisis of American labor, p. 56-57). Boyle pledged that the UMW w!ll not abrldge the rlght of the mine operators in runnlng the mines. We follow the Judgment of the coa! operators-rlght or wrong. . . Boyle dld nothlng about safety In the mines and the fatal «black lung> dlsease. The miners repl!ed wlth wlld-cat strlkes whlch the unlon could no longer control. Fortune Magazine, In a long artlcle declared that the . . . Unlon was no longer under unlon dlsclpl!ne. . . The wlld-cat lnvolved 42,000 of West Vlrglrúa's 44,000 coa! mlners and thousands of miners In Pennsylvanla, Ohlo, Virginia, Kentucky and other hlgh productlon coa! produclng places. (Jeremy Brecher: Strike!, p. 276-277). Under the new admlnlstrat!on, for the !lrst time, the provlsions of a contract was dlscussed and rat!tled by a referendum vote of the mlners; offlclals dlrectly elected by the members; wages of ali offlcials from the President down reduced; the headquarters of the unlon to be removed from Washington to a coal-field locatlon, local autonomy, and many other reforms were enacted. For the flrst time a contract negotlated by the new President and representatlves of the dlstrlcts, was voted down by the members, because the contract did not contain a provision !or local strlkes to settle local lssues. The members demande<! not only the rlght of Individual workers to refuse to work In unsa!e areas, but the right o! formal union-sanctloned strlkes to force operators to correct dangerous condltlons and other grievances of the workers. The mlners thus served notlce on the new admlnlstratlon that they would not agaln tolerate the dictatorial proceedures lnstltuted by Lewls and hls successors. The admirable mllltant mood of the rank-and-!lle 1n respect to unlon and worklng affalrs Is unfortunately accompanled by reactlonary preJudlces. Thus, the mllltant rankand-fUe mlners of Kanawah County --West Virginia-, demanded censorshlp and ellmlnatlon of • subverslve• llterature and teachlng of • subverslve• doctrines In the elementary and hlgh schools o! West Virginia! 103
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