To the Editor,
I am responding to an event set for June 6-11 called the “March on Blair Mountain: Appalachia Rising,” Brandon Nida quoted the mission statement as: "We march to preserve Blair Mountain, strengthen labor rights, abolish mountaintop removal in Appalachia and invest in sustainable job-creation for all Appalachian communities."
In 1999 acreage on this mountain was given to the UMWA to use for a memorial to the miners. If they want to preserve Blair Mountain why have these people not worked with the UMWA to use this land to make something to honor the miners who fought there? Would this not be a way to preserve this mountain? They could have at least given a few days of the years they have spent saving this mountain to show it some love and save its beauty by cleaning up the rusting cars, broken furniture and household garbage from this historic land site.
What labor rights in West Virginia needs strengthened? Wages for miners are significantly higher than the average for all industries. The people have a choice to apply for union or non-union jobs as it should be. If they were forced to work in one or the other then would that not be taking away their labor rights?
These organizers are not concerned about job creation in Appalachia. This group is focused on one goal – ending surface mining and in doing so robbing us of our jobs, our homes and our way of life. This event is nothing but a ploy by anti-coal radicals, who are trying to use the proud legacy of our region to destroy the very thing the men who fought on Blair Mountain were trying to win. Jobs! The miners did not march to prevent the mining of coal. They did not march to put families out of work, and they did not march to do away with a way of life that spans generations of West Virginians.
Read more: Logan Banner - Blair Mtn march
http://www.loganbanner.com/view/full_story/13487642/article-Blair-Mtn--march?instance=secondary_stories_left_column
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