Remarks of AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka at the AFL-CIO Book Series: Kevin Corley--Sixteen Tons, read by United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts.
Washington, District of Columbia
June 10, 2014
"Thank you for joining us today at the AFL-CIO for the AFL-CIO Book Series for a discussion of the book Sixteen Tons, by Kevin Corley. This is a novel about immigrant workers, set in the American coal fields of a century ago. It is an important story. And it comes to us at a critical time.
Kevin Corley has written a book that is full of historical insights and information. Although it is a work of fiction, it is largely grounded in thorough research, including interviews with and recollections of people who lived through the events Kevin discusses.
In addition to Kevin, we have with us for this discussion one of my personal heroes, a man born in the coal fields of West Virginia and raised by the men and women who fought the coal wars of the first decades of the Twentieth Century. I'm talking about my brother and the president of my union, the United Mine Workers, who taught me more than I can tell about unionism and life.
This is going to be a great conversation, and I am terribly sorry to miss it. Yet I'd like to say a few more words about Kevin’s novel. It was interesting for me to review because I also have a fair amount of knowledge of these same events and conditions, coming from stories I heard from my father and grandfather and my uncles and others from my hometown.
It's great to see this material in a novel, because Kevin’s words bring to life the dreams and aspirations of the men, women and children who lived our labor history, a history which has been pretty well pushed aside and papered over in America.
Most of us know the inspiring words from the Declaration of Independence—words about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—but few people today know the lengths that some families have gone in search of a decent life, true liberty and a chance at happiness. They traveled across oceans of water and over expanses of land. They dug and blasted deep into the earth. They endured cave-ins and hard manual labor, sometimes in coal mines only three-feet high. In fact, the descriptions of the mine work itself is fascinating, because it’s written so anyone today can get an understanding of a miner's work day back then. It wasn’t easy, but it was work for people who needed it.
Kevin’s book covers another important and too-often-overlooked aspect: the unionism, and the extreme backlash against any and every form of solidarity. This is a part of American history that needs to be remembered. A lot of this stuff is heartbreaking, and it should break hearts. Company gunmen hounded and killed men, women and children for no crime other than trying to earn a living. Yet there were far more crimes, perhaps less dramatic in scope, but more devastating. I'm thinking of the casual story in the novel, as related by a shift boss, about a man whose long legs were caught in a roof fall. To get him out, one leg was cut off above the knee. After the amputation, the boss joked, the miner was better in the lowest tunnels.
It's this struggle against dehumanizing forces that this novel is really about. We see similarities today as so many people talk casually about "illegal aliens," while authorities arrest and deport immigrants today, tearing families apart, for the crime of looking for work. That’s wrong, and it needs to stop.
I could go on about this book all day, and in fact I had planned on it, but other demands on my time have made it impossible.
Instead, I’ll wrap up by saying I’m proud the AFL-CIO is hosting a discussion of this novel. I’m glad it’s part of the AFL-CIO Book Series, and I hope this novel reaches a broad audience.
Please join me in welcoming author Kevin Corley, and President Cecil Roberts. Thank you."
Washington, District of Columbia
June 10, 2014
"Thank you for joining us today at the AFL-CIO for the AFL-CIO Book Series for a discussion of the book Sixteen Tons, by Kevin Corley. This is a novel about immigrant workers, set in the American coal fields of a century ago. It is an important story. And it comes to us at a critical time.
Kevin Corley has written a book that is full of historical insights and information. Although it is a work of fiction, it is largely grounded in thorough research, including interviews with and recollections of people who lived through the events Kevin discusses.
In addition to Kevin, we have with us for this discussion one of my personal heroes, a man born in the coal fields of West Virginia and raised by the men and women who fought the coal wars of the first decades of the Twentieth Century. I'm talking about my brother and the president of my union, the United Mine Workers, who taught me more than I can tell about unionism and life.
This is going to be a great conversation, and I am terribly sorry to miss it. Yet I'd like to say a few more words about Kevin’s novel. It was interesting for me to review because I also have a fair amount of knowledge of these same events and conditions, coming from stories I heard from my father and grandfather and my uncles and others from my hometown.
It's great to see this material in a novel, because Kevin’s words bring to life the dreams and aspirations of the men, women and children who lived our labor history, a history which has been pretty well pushed aside and papered over in America.
Most of us know the inspiring words from the Declaration of Independence—words about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—but few people today know the lengths that some families have gone in search of a decent life, true liberty and a chance at happiness. They traveled across oceans of water and over expanses of land. They dug and blasted deep into the earth. They endured cave-ins and hard manual labor, sometimes in coal mines only three-feet high. In fact, the descriptions of the mine work itself is fascinating, because it’s written so anyone today can get an understanding of a miner's work day back then. It wasn’t easy, but it was work for people who needed it.
Kevin’s book covers another important and too-often-overlooked aspect: the unionism, and the extreme backlash against any and every form of solidarity. This is a part of American history that needs to be remembered. A lot of this stuff is heartbreaking, and it should break hearts. Company gunmen hounded and killed men, women and children for no crime other than trying to earn a living. Yet there were far more crimes, perhaps less dramatic in scope, but more devastating. I'm thinking of the casual story in the novel, as related by a shift boss, about a man whose long legs were caught in a roof fall. To get him out, one leg was cut off above the knee. After the amputation, the boss joked, the miner was better in the lowest tunnels.
It's this struggle against dehumanizing forces that this novel is really about. We see similarities today as so many people talk casually about "illegal aliens," while authorities arrest and deport immigrants today, tearing families apart, for the crime of looking for work. That’s wrong, and it needs to stop.
I could go on about this book all day, and in fact I had planned on it, but other demands on my time have made it impossible.
Instead, I’ll wrap up by saying I’m proud the AFL-CIO is hosting a discussion of this novel. I’m glad it’s part of the AFL-CIO Book Series, and I hope this novel reaches a broad audience.
Please join me in welcoming author Kevin Corley, and President Cecil Roberts. Thank you."