Store
Manager (1928) $75 per month
Postmaster (automatically the Store Manager) according to number of letters
mailed (1 cent per letter), usually $10 per month
Miners An average day’s pay for eight hours was $2.50 - $3.50.
Teachers (1933-1938): $54.51-$72.55 per month
Principal (1928): $115.00 per month
J.C. Pemberton's pay stub for one month's work J.
C. Pemberton's Forge
(Thumbnail. Click photo for full version)
Appears to be C. J. Ellison's
pay stub for one month's work
Unions at Bon Jellico
Although
there were attempts to organize and maintain a union, the management
at Bon
Jellico usually
prevailed against the attempts. In 1917 Bill Turnblazer, a representative
of the United Mine Workers union, came to Bon from Jellico, Tennessee
and tried to organize the miners into the United Mine Workers of America.
Several men in favor of the union living near the camp were fired and
never worked for Bon again. In the late 1920’s the union tried
to organize the mine again, and for a short time the union won. In the
early 1930’s the company and the unions were in conflict again
concerning wages and conditions. Earl Lovitt relates the following account:
“
Neither side would give in. The coal company wanted to cut wages and three
or four weeks had gone by. Mr. Jack Taylor made a speech on the Commissary
porch, “This is it, Men. Take it or leave it.” And to emphasize
his short speech, he had Mr. Jim Pemberton to haul a wagon load (1 ton)
of coal, open the back door of the store, and unload the coal in the middle
of my clean floor behind the counter. (As much as to say, “We have
our coal ready; so it could be a long winter.”) Of course, thanks
to the depression, the good old miners of Bon gave in, took a cut and went
back to work.”
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