Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 27, 1990 TAG: 9005270193
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: BIG STONE GAP LENGTH: Long
The boys each were getting 5 cents per game but the head pin-setter got 7 cents, "and we struck for 7 cents, like the head pin-setter," Church recalled.
They picked a night when the bowling alley was packed, and the owner, although angry, gave in.
"He agreed. And then the next day, he fired us all . . . but the head pin-setter," Church said, laughing.
Church, pro-union and pro-Democrat for as long as he can remember, went on to become international president of the United Mine Workers of America.
Now he is a field representative for Subdistrict 3 of District 28, the UMWA region covering Southwest Virginia, and he works out of the Big Stone Gap office.
Much of his workload these days involves grievances still pending from the union's 10 1/2-month strike against Pittston Coal. Church says he's just as glad that Richard Trumka, the UMWA president who ousted him in 1982, was the man on the spot for those negotiations.
Church was elected UMWA vice president in 1977 and became president when his predecessor retired for health reasons in 1979. The high-pressure job is not one he would want again, he said. "No, I've served my time."
He was UMWA vice president during an 111-day strike for an industrywide contract in 1977-78, and president during the 72-day strike in 1981. He said he is glad to be home.
"I enjoy it back here - people I know, and the pace has slowed down a great deal," he said. Maybe so, but Church - a fishing enthusiast with a marlin mounted on his office wall along with various certificates and photographs of him with a couple of presidents - only got to use his lake camper three times last year: one day to set it up, one take it down and one to fish.
He has kept his interest in politics, even running for a seat on the Wise County Board of Supervisors three years ago. "I lost by 31 votes," he said, out of about 8,000 votes cast.
He and his wife, Patti, are bringing up their 8-year old son, Nathaniel, the same way Church grew up. Church said he takes Nathaniel to meetings and rallies, teaching him to be a good union man and a good Democrat.
"He started shaking hands when he was about a year and a half," Church said proudly. "Gov. Wilder knows him by name when he sees him."
Church's election as field representative in 1983 brought him "back to the old job where I started," he said.
He joined the UMWA in 1966 after coming back to his native Southwest Virginia following 10 years of working in Maryland. At his union local, he rose from financial secretary to safety committeeman to local president and, in 1973, was elected as a field representative for the first time.
That led to a job at union headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he became the union president's executive assistant and then his vice presidential running mate in 1977.
During the Pittston strike, he was charged with impeding traffic to slow down Pittston trucks, possession of jackrocks, trespassing, preventing people from going about their professions, and misdemeanor assault. The last three charges brought him a total of $200 in fines; the others were taken under advisement for 90 days by the court and later dismissed.
"I spent my vacation on the picket line," he said. "Even though it has cost us, it's been a real experience that has helped the labor movement all over the country," he said of the strike. The UMWA had become complacent over the years since 1981 but the way its members stuck together this time "certainly showed these companies that we're tough . . . even though we have our differences from time to time among ourselves."
It was the night of Sept. 16 when he learned about the plans of nearly 100 union members to occupy Pittston's Moss No. 3 coal preparation plant the following day. A caller wanted Church to create a diversion to draw state troopers away from the Russell County plant.
Without telling anyone why he was doing it, Church and his wife and a few local officers organized what turned out to be 30 or more carloads of demonstrators to drive to Pittston's McClure mine in Dickenson County. It was a Sunday and, sure enough, State Police cars began arriving at McClure one by one to handle whatever might be about to happen - especially after Church took his convoy through the parking lot at the Norton Holiday Inn where many of the troopers were staying.
"We just milled around and we walked down to the creek and we went up to the gate," Church said. "We were as conspicuous as we could be."
Eventually he told the others what was going on and, after the occupation, "we dispersed and we had our little laugh and we went on to Moss 3."
Despite his Democratic leanings, Church has one photo on his wall showing him and other labor leaders chatting with Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Church recalled expressing concerns at that meeting about black lung cases, less than two weeks before the administration issued a report claiming that many beneficiaries of black lung benefits should not be getting them.
That report led to Church's involvement in a protest demonstration outside the White House just 10 days after his meeting with Reagan.
"And he never did invite me back," Church said, chuckling.
by CNB