Cancer has claimed the life of Steve Earle, a United Mine Workers of America vice president and longtime Kentucky labor leader.
Earle, 74, died at home in the Depoy community in his native Muhlenberg County.
“Steve Earle devoted his life to making other people’s lives better,” said former Kentucky State AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan. “Steve was my friend and my mentor,” said Jeff Wiggins, state AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer.
“When I think of a trade unionist, I think of Steve Earle and what his leadership brought to the rest of us in organized labor in the state of Kentucky,” said Kirk Gillenwaters, a United Auto Workers retiree and president of the Kentucky Alliance for Retired Americans.
Probably nobody knew Earle better than fellow UMWA member Joe Holland, who retired as the national AFL-CIO’s Kentucky director.
Holland and Earle started working together in 1977 at Peabody’s Alston Number 3 mine in Ohio County. “We were underground miners. I was president of the local [UMWA 1893].”
Earle soon began climbing the local’s leadership ladder. Holland named him to the safety committee; the membership elected him their vice president under Holland.
UMWA national officials recognized Earle’s work on behalf of the union in coal-rich western Kentucky. He became an organizer and during a 1978 strike, he defended the UMWA in the Greenville Leader-News, the Muhlenberg County seat paper. “How many times have you heard the phrase, ‘Is a coal miner worth what he or she makes?’” he asked, and answered, “definitely yes.”
Added Earle: “Every week on the average, death takes 77 miners who had lived painfully through the last days of their lives totally disabled by Black Lung, and the battle for safe, healthful working conditions in the mines is still being fought. Most coal operators give safety a much lower priority than productivity and profit. ... As long as there are some coal companies looking to weaken or destroy the United Mine Workers, we are going to have to stay united, because there is strength in unity, and we have proven that.”
Earle was promoted to legislative field director for the Midwest in 1992. In 2008, he was elected Madisonville-based UMWA District 12 vice president, the office he held until his death on May 23.
In 2013, he joined as many as 4,000 active and retired miners, their families and supporters from at least seven states at a UMWA-sponsored rally in Henderson. The union called the rally to protest the bankrupt Patriot Coal Corporation’s decision “to reduce pension and healthcare benefits,” the Henderson Gleaner reported. “The United Mine Workers never walked away from a fight, and we won’t start now,” the paper quoted Earle. After the speeches, Earle, Londrigan, then UMWA President Cecil Roberts, then-Tri-County Central Labor Council President John Coomes and a dozen others were arrested for staging a peaceful sit-down protest in a downtown intersection, according to the Gleaner.
Earle, who also served on the state AFL-CIO’s Executive Board, spent hours lobbying for coal miners in Washington and in Frankfort, where he often teamed up with Londrigan. “We worked together on legislation, including the strongest mine safety bill in the country, and black lung and workers comp legislation. Steve knew how to talk to people and get things done,” Londrigan said.
“Steve was a good union leader,” Holland said. “He made it a point to treat people well. But the main thing was that he really believed in the Mineworkers and the labor movement.”
Gillenwaters said nobody better embodied the old union movement motto, “Stand up, Fight back!” than Earle. “He always stood up and fought back, not just for his members but for all of organized labor.”
Earle walked picket lines in UMWA strikes and strikes by other unions. He also worked on behalf of labor-endorsed political candidates.
Wiggins recalled that he and Earle hand-billed at plant gates and walked picket lines together. “Steve was special to me. I loved him to death, but I never met a Mineworker I didn’t like.”
Funeral services are set for 2 p.m. Wednesday at Tucker Funeral Home in Central City. Roberts is expected to deliver the eulogy. A UMWA service will follow.
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