| Subject: Sam Church, Who Led United Mine Workers, Dies at 72 |
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July 14
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Date Posted: Thursday, July 16, 2009, 05:36:11pm
Sam Church, a burly, bearded coal miner from the hollows of West Virginia who led the United Mine Workers of America during a tumultuous time when the union was growing more democratic while its numbers were dwindling, died Tuesday in Bristol, Tenn. He was 72 and lived in Pennington Gap, Va.
He died after a long illness, said his wife, Patti.
Mr. Church, who had been vice president of the United Mine Workers, succeeded to the presidency in November 1979 when Arnold R. Miller resigned because of poor health.
He inherited a struggling union. Before becoming president in 1972, Mr. Miller had led an insurrectionist movement called Miners for Democracy that ousted a dictatorial leader, W. A. Boyle. Mr. Boyle, known as Tony, was later sentenced to life in prison for ordering the killings, in 1969, of Joseph A. Yablonski, a former opponent, and Mr. Yablonski’s wife and daughter.
The union faced serious difficulties under Mr. Church. It was a time of factionalism and wildcat strikes; efforts to unionize mines that were opening in the West were failing. With its membership shrinking, from 400,000 in his heyday to 160,000 by the end of the ’70s, the union was left representing miners producing less than half of the nation’s coal.
Mr. Church was president until November 1982, based at the union headquarters in Washington. (It is now in Fairfax, Va.) He was credited with ending the era of wildcat strikes, lobbying for improved mine-safety regulations and negotiating benefits for victims of black-lung disease.
But he also negotiated a contract that was rejected by the membership in 1981. A 72-day strike followed. The ultimate settlement raised union pay above $100 a day, added dental insurance and extended pension rights to the widows of miners.
Mr. Church’s bid for a full five-year term as president failed in 1982 when he lost to Richard L. Trumka. Mr. Trumka is now secretary-treasurer of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. Mr. Church remained active with the union and returned home to Virginia, where he went back to the mines as an underground electrician.
Born in Matewan, W.Va., on Sept. 20, 1936, Samuel Morgan Church Jr. was one of eight children of Samuel and Helen Cook Church. His father was a coal miner who became a barber after his foot was crushed while working in the mine.
Mr. Church’s first marriage ended in divorce. Besides his wife of 31 years, the former Patti Page, he is survived by his son from his second marriage, Nathaniel; three children from his first marriage, Samuel 3rd, Melissa Lawson and Suzanne Church; two sisters, Barbara and Patricia; his brother Gary; and six grandchildren.
When he was 8, Mr. Church’s family moved to Virginia. Young Sam was a shoeshine boy, then a pinsetter at a bowling alley, for 5 cents a game. That was the start of his union activities.
“There was a head pinsetter who got 7 cents, so the rest of us said we were going on strike if we didn’t get 7 cents, too,” Mr. Church told The New York Times in 1979. “The boss said he’d do it to keep the lanes open, and then the next day he fired us and got in new kids at 5 cents.”
In 1951, Mr. Church took a job at a sugar plant in Baltimore. Fourteen years later, he returned to Virginia and worked for the Clinchfield Coal Company. He rose through union ranks until 1975, when Mr. Miller asked him to join the staff at headquarters.
Mr. Church’s maternal grandfather, Wirt Cook, was the superintendent of a coal mine in West Virginia in the early 1900s.
“I always kidded him,” Patti Church said on Wednesday, “that one chromosome and he would have been the company guy.”
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