Jack Battuello Memoir #1 - University of Illinois Springfield

Jack Battuello 66
and they allowed them to shoot in the mines while men were there.
All this powder, smoke and fumes and this is a violent Goddamn violation
of the contract and the mi-ning laws, the IllinoTs and the Federal,
and nobody could stop that but we got Ray Edmunds and we went up there
in the department of mines, went to the governor, we got that stopped.
Multiply shooting, compensation laws, all these thfngs we stopped and
we only had from the time they tried us until the time they expelled
us. TJe only had a few months in there but yet we accomplished tremendous
Eoddamn cooperation between the two unions, And we got to the point
where by God we had a feeling of unity agairi. We were acting.
Let me give you another example. Gillespie coal miners number one
local union--twenty-four hundred members one day were confronted with
the decision they had to make or else lose some more conditions, bad
conditions for them. The coal company decided that anybody could
repair electrical circuits and conduits. Anybody. And we said no.
Bill Capone was the president at that time. I was the executive board
member and so when the company tried to force this condition oa to
the miners of Number 1 local they rebelled and they struck.
They struck by slowing down not striking. They slowed down the production
and the coal company was forced to close the nine down. Now,
here's miners locked out, figuratively speaking, because the miners
didn't strike. They cut down production, of course, that was supposed
to he sub rosa and all. Well, Dave Reed and I went over to the
United Mine Workers Mr. Ray Edmunds and we said, "Ray, the miners
are striking in Gil.lespie for a damn good cause, they're Progressive
miners but the United Mine Workers should recognize this as a legitimate
strike for a good cause and you should not permit the Taylorville
Peabody Coal Company to load Superior Coal Company carst'--which they
inten.ded to ship over thcre and get them loaded, to supply their own
domestic use. Ray Edmunds said, "l'm with you, We'll not Load their
damn cars. We'll support your strike."
Now, just think of this, figuratively speaking, two weeks before that
we were killing each other. That's figuratively. And here now we're
supporting each other in a strike agai.nst a coal opeator that was
trying to worsen our condition. And we released a statement to that
effect, The next morning the papers come out and here Jack McCleggan,
Dave Reed, Progressive Miner official, board member and president
respectively agree with Ray Edmunds and district president of the
United Mine Workers that they are going to cooperate in a cause benef
icial to the miners .
Well, you can imagine what Clyde Percy and them said the next day,
"Gee," Their eyes told everything. We were charged with treason,
Treason! Who is these two guys, they have no right to go up there
and make an agreement with the United Mine Workers and so on and so
on. I got the whole damn thing. It's in there. It's in there.
There, it 's in thcre. Well.
Jack Battuello Memoir -- Archives, University of Illinois at Springfield