Joseph Yablonski

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Joseph "Jock" Yablonski was an American labor leader who was murdered in 1969 by assassins hired by a union political opponent, W.A. "Tony" Boyle.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on 3 March 1910, Yablonski began working in the mines as a boy, and became active in the United Mine Workers after his father was killed in a mine explosion. He was first elected to union office in 1934. In 1940 he was elected as a representative to the international executive board, and in 1958 was appointed president of UMW District 5.

He clashed with Tony Boyle, who became president of the UMW in 1963, over how the union should be run and his view that Boyle did not adequately represent the miners.

In 1965 Boyle removed Yablonski as president of District 5 (based on Boyle's reforms, district presidents were appointed, not elected). In May 1969, he announced his candidacy for president of the union, and as early as June Boyle was discussing the need to kill him.

The United Mine Workers was in turmoil by 1969. Legendary UMWA president John L. Lewis had retired in 1960. His successor, Thomas Kennedy, died in 1963. From retirement, Lewis hand-picked Boyle for the UMWA presidency. A Montana miner, Boyle was as autocratic and bullying as Lewis, but was not well-liked.

From the beginning of his administration, Boyle faced significant opposition from rank-and-file miners and UMWA leaders. Miners' attitudes about their union had also changed. Miners wanted greater democracy and more local autonomy for their local unions. There was a widespread belief that Boyle was more concerned with protecting mine owners' interests than those of his members. Grievances filed by the union often took months -- sometimes years -- to resolve, lending credence to the critics' claim. Wildcat strikes occurred as local unions, despairing of UMWA assistance, sought to resolve local disputes with walkouts.

In 1969, Yablonski challenged Boyle for the presidency of UMWA. In an election widely seen as corrupt, Boyle beat Yablonski in the election held on December 9 by a margin of nearly two-to-one (80,577 to 46,073). Yablonski conceded the election, but on December 18, 1969, asked the United States Department of Labor (DOL) to investigate the election for fraud. He also initiated five lawsuits against UMWA in federal court.^[1]

On December 31, 1969, three hitmen shot Yablonski, his wife, Margaret, and his 25-year-old daughter, Charlotte, as they slept in the Yablonski home in Clarksville, Pennsylvania. The bodies were discovered on January 5, 1970, by Yablonski's son, Kenneth. The killings had been ordered by Boyle. Boyle had demanded Yablonski's death on June 23, 1969, after a meeting with Yablonski at UMWA headquarters had degenerated into a screaming match. In September 1969, UMWA executive council member Albert Pass received $20,000 from Boyle (who had embezzled the money from union funds) to hire assassins to kill Yablonski. Paul Gilly, an out-of-work house painter and son-in-law of a minor UMWA official, and two drifters, Aubran Martin and Claude Vealey, agreed to do the job. The murder was postponed until after the election, however, to avoid suspicion falling on Boyle. After three aborted attempts to murder Yablonski, the killers did their job. But they left so many fingerprints behind, it took police only three days to catch them.^[2]

A few hours after Yablonski's funeral, several of the miners who had supported Yablonski met in the basement of the church were the service was held. They met with attorney Joseph Rauh and drew up plans for a reform caucus within the United Mine Workers.^[3]

The day after the killing, 20,000 miners in West Virginia walked off the job in a one-day strike—convinced Boyle was responsible for the murders.

Yablonski's murder sparked action. On January 8, 1970, Yablonski's attorney waived the right to further internal review and requested an immediate investigation of the election by DOL. On January 17, 1972, the United States Supreme Court granted Mike Trbovich, a 51-year-old coal mine shuttle car operator and union member from District 5 (Yablonski's district), permission to intervene in the DOL suit as a complainant—keeping the election fraud suit alive. The Department of Labor had taken no action on Yablonski's complaints while he lived, as if preserving the rights of union members were not important or urgent. But after his murder, Labor Secretary George P. Shultz assigned 230 investigators to the UMWA investigation.

The Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) of 1959 regulates the internal affairs of labor unions, requiring regular secret-ballot elections for local union offices and providing for federal investigation of election fraud or impropriety. DOL is authorized under the act to sue in federal court to have the election overturned. By 1970, however, only three international union elections had been overturned by the courts.^[4]

Miners for Democracy (MFD) formed in April 1970 while the DOL investigation continued. Its members included most of the miners who belonged to the West Virginia Black Lung Association and many of Yablonski's supporters and campaign staff. MFD's support was strongest in southwestern Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, and panhandle and northern West Virginia, but MFD supporters existed in nearly all affiliates. The chief organizers of Miners for Democracy included Yablonski's sons, Joseph (known as "Chip") and Ken, Trbovich and others.^[5]

DOL filed suit in federal court in 1971 to overturn the 1969 UMWA election. On May 1, 1972, Judge William Bryant threw out the results of the 1969 UMWA international union elections. Bryant scheduled a new election to be held over the first eight days of December 1972. Additionally, Bryant agreed that DOL should oversee the election, to ensure fairness.^[6]

MFD nominated Arnold Miller, a miner from West Virginia who had challenged Boyle on the need for black lung legislation, as its presidential candidate.

On December 22, 1972, the Labor Department certified Miller as UMWA's next president. The vote was 70,373 for Miller and 56,334 for Boyle.

Boyle was convicted in April, 1974 and sentenced to life in prison. He died in prison in 1985.

The murders were portrayed in a 1986 HBO television movie, Act of Vengeance. Charles Bronson portrayed Yablonski and Wilford Brimley played Boyle.

[edit] References

"The Fall of Tony Boyle." Time. September 17, 1973.
Lewis, Arthur H. Murder By Contract: The People v. 'Tough Tony' Boyle. New York: MacMillan Publishing, 1975. ISBN 0025705202
"Oral History Interview with Dr. Donald Rasmussen." B.L. Dotson-Lewis, interviewer. Nicholas County Schools, Summersville, West Virginia. March 1, 2004.[1]
Peterson, Bill. "The Tragedy of the Miners; Arnold Miller and the Disarray of the Reform Movement." Washington Post. January 16, 1977.
"Vindication for Jock Yablonski." Time. March 16, 1970.
"The Yablonski Contract." Time. May 15, 1972.