Centralia Mine Disaster

Here's a late post to commemorate the Centralia Mine Disaster. The mine exploded on March 25, 1947, in Centralia, Illinois killing 111 miners.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor reported:

"The explosion was caused when an underburdened shot or blown-out shot ignited coal dust. The mine was exceedingly dry and dusty. Heavy deposits of coal dust were present along the roadways and on the roof, ribs, and timbers in working places and entries. At the time of the explosion most of the men were at the man trips on the entries waiting for the shot firers to complete lighting the shots so they could ride to the shaft bottoms on the man trips. At the time of the explosion 142 men were in the mine. Of those, 65 were killed by burns and violence and 45 by afterdamp. Eight men were rescued but one died from the effects of afterdamp. Twenty-four escaped unaided."

UMWA President, John L. Lewis testified before Congress on the disaster. Here's a short video clip of some of his testimony:

Following the disaster UMWA President John L. Lewis invoked the union's right to call memorial days. The miners did not work for six days, beginning March 29, 1947.

In United We Stand: The United Mine Workers of America 1890-1990, Maier B. Fox writes, "The disaster was of such magnitude that both the House and Senate held committee hearings on mine safety. Lewis used those forums to castigate both the operators and the government. He told the representatives that historically the operators philosophy was, 'We kill them, you (the union) provide for their widows and orphans.'"

Lewis' leadership on mine safety during this time is one of the reasons he was held in such high esteem by many miners. In some ways, his actions then make an assessment of his career difficult.

Undoubtedly Lewis was an autocrat that had little use for democratic mechanisms to govern a union. And there seemed to be no limits to the actions he would take to consolidate and hold power. The names of the PMA martyrs etched on the side of the Mother Jones Monument are testament to how dangerous it could be to oppose him.

While he contributed greatly to the growth of industrial unionism through the formation of the CIO, Lewis' need for control ensured top-down structures which left workers reliant on the paternalistic favor of union leaders and bureaucratic processes of the legal system for protection, rather than building rank and file power through democratic unions.

As the decades wore on those legal protections eroded. Arguably those bureaucratic processes now do more to serve business interests, undercutting the rights of workers to speak, organize and act.

That being said Lewis' leadership in the 1940's resulted improved mine safety as well as a welfare and retirement fund. The Centralia Mine Disaster provided the catalyst to force the government to act and the mining industry to acquiesce. The UMWA Welfare and Retirement Fund continues to this day.

Here's Woodie Guthrie's "Dying Miner", to commemorate the tragedy.
Provided courtesy of the excellent Archive.org.