The UMWA: Its Presidents in Historical Perspective -- Part IV

Sam Church, the man who succeeded Arnold Miller, has been described as "a hulking man with a hot temper." His father was a disabled coal miner. Church, from Matewan, West Virginia, began work as an electrician in the mines when he was 29 years old and spent only eight years as a miner. During that time, he held several local union offices. As an aide to Tony Boyle, he developed a reputation as "strong-willed," and like Thomas Lewis, was "not adverse to settling an argument with his fists."

According to one contemporary writer, Church's election was "a matter for quiet celebration. In contract to the chaotic style of retiring UMW President Arnold R. Miller, Church . . . is expected to be a forceful and orderly leader -- and a man who can be reasoned with." Another claimed that Church's election gave the union "a chance to reverse the precipitous decline in influence that it suffered during Miller's seven years."

Church claimed he wanted to "rehabilitate the union's image." However, several years after he left office, one industry source described him as "a parody of the public image of coal miners. He chewed tobacco ('I once went to talk with him, and he was spitting in a tin cup') . . . [and] dressed in blue jeans and suspenders."

Church was succeeded in 1982 by Richard Trumka. That election was billed as "the new vs. the old -- an election that pitted a 33-year-old lawyer with a fondness for three-piece suits against a 45-year-old who liked to call himself 'just an old miner.'" Trumka won; his margin of victory was the largest in recent union history. Some contemporary observers believed that it gave him the "strongest mandate any UMW leader has had since the union deposed the dictatorial W. A. (Tony) Boyle in 1972." Business Week claimed that Trumka's victory might be an historical turning point: It marked "the ascendance to power of a generation of well-educated militant young workers who came to the mines in the mid-1970s."

Trumka was the son and grandson of coal miners. His grandfather helped organize the union in his hometown of Nemocolin, Pennsylvania. When he asked one grandfather what he could do to help the miners, his grandfather replied that Trumka should "get an education, become a lawyer and represent them." Said Trumka, "I never wanted to be lawyer. I wanted to be a UMWA lawyer."

Trumka was a miner for more than seven years, entering the mines at the age of 19. After he completed his education, he served as a staff attorney in the union's legal department and served on various union committees.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic