UMWA remembers Robena Mine disaster
UMWA officials stopped by Rolling Meadows Nursing Home on Coal Miners Day to honor retired miners, wives and families Sunday. From left, UMWA district representative Frank Rutherford, retired miner Bill Lavins, UMWA Vice President Ed Yankovich and retired miner Larry Ross look at the tools of the coal mining trade that included hard hats, safety lanterns and aluminum lunch buckets.
International UMWA President Cecil Roberts, left, was the keynote speaker at the 53rd anniversary memorial service at the Robena Monument to remember the 37 miners who died Dec. 6, 1962 at the Robena Mine.
The dining room at Rolling Meadows Nursing Home in Franklin Township was filled Sunday morning with residents, staff and families who had one thing in common – coal mining.
United Mine Workers of America union officials were there for its first annual Coal Miners Day program at the home just hours before the union traveled to the Robena Memorial Monument near Hatfield’s Power Plant to pay tribute to the 37 miners who died Dec. 6, 1962, in the Robena Mine explosion.
Before that somber memorial service, Vice President Ed Yankovich and District Representative Frank Rutherford took the time at Rolling Meadows to thank the retired miners and their families for the part they played and the sacrifices they made over their careers.
There are many miners wives at the home and some still remember the old days when coal was king and sons followed their fathers into the mine, activities director Sharon Jefferies said.
“We don’t have many miners, but we have a good many widows, wives, mothers, sons and daughters and some of their family members are still working in the mines,” she said.
Anna Eddy held up her UMWA Health and Retirement Funds card that helps pay for her medication and care at Rolling Meadows.
“My husband died of black lung,” she said.
Yankovich spoke of the dangers that miners and their families faced through the years and the disasters it took to create today’s safety standards.
“We share the history of this region, we fueled the industries that won two world wars and miners were always willing to step up and serve their country,” Yankovich said. “We’re here to make sure you’re not forgotten now.”
It was the deadly year of 1907 when hundreds of explosions rocked mines across the nation that was the spark that lead to the United Mine Workers of America, Yankovich said.
“You didn’t know at all whether you’d come home from the mine every day,” he said. “Those safety rules we have today were written in the blood of our relatives.”
Because of the Robena explosion, Dec. 6 is now recognized nationally as Miners Day, Yankovich pointed out, giving these homebound residents a taste of what would be spoken at the 1 p.m. memorial service Sunday.
The name of the each miner who died was read at the Robena Mine Memorial service and union representatives and family members laid wreaths.
International UMWA President Cecil Roberts served as the keynote speaker and discussed the sobering facts concerning the dangers of mining – an industry count of more than 100,000 miners lost to accidents and more than 100,000 killed by black lung, with more dying every day.
Yankovich read the names of the miners and the families and thanked each one personally. Names of the mines, some long gone began to stir memories – Robena, Vesta 5, Crucible, Nemacolin.
“I worked with you at Gateway!” Rutherford exclaimed as he gave a hug and a UMWA T-shirt to retired miner Bill Lavins.
Gateway Mine, near Ruff Creek, closed in 1993 and its bathhouse on Dunn Station Road is now shared by Greene Arc Inc. and the Mine Training and Technology Center.
Lavins remembers working full time night shift in 1949 as a high school senior. He also remembers his father being run over and killed by a coal truck while on the picket line in 1965.
“My dad and uncle got me in,” he said.
Retired miner Larry Ross, 96, worked at Nemacolin Mine and lost his own father to a cave-in in 1955, daughter Lynn Beatty said. She grinned as Ross took the old miners lunch bucket in hand and opened the lid like he had done so many times before.
“Sometimes he’s not sure who I am but he can still remember being a miner,” she said.