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UMW's Ken Dawes has a tough seam to mine

By Susan J. Smith

THE FUTURE of the United Mine Workers is growing dark, but Illinois UMW president Ken Dawes can remember when it was as bright and shining as a newly mined lump of coal. And for someone like Dawes, whose political aspirations are as great as some of the problems the union faces, it's terribly important that the union's future become bright again.

Dawes, who has been active in international (U.S. and Canadian) UMW politics for years, has been mentioned several times as a candidate for an international office -- perhaps even for president when the not-so-popular Arnold Miller completes his term in 1982.

And much to the chagrin of his detractors, the good-looking, smooth-talking Dawes has managed to get a piece of the UMW spotlight every time it was important to do so in the last few years. Does Dawes have ambitions to move higher up in the UMW? "I think Dawes has got his sights set on something like that," says Dennis Skeldon of Gillespie, president of U M W Local 1613 and one of Dawes' more vocal critics, "but the only time we see his smiling face is around election time."

Ask Dawes about his intentions, though, and his noncommittal answer will make you feel like you're interviewing Teddy Kennedy on the Today Show.

"I'm District 12 [Illinois] president," he says, smiling. "My main thing is to take care of that. If things come along later I can do, I'll feel obligated to do them. But I wouldn't get out on a big scheme or plan. Things have a tendency to change in 15 minutes." This last observation comes from experience. He has seen sweeping leadership changes happen quickly and with little warning. In fact, it was such a change that brought a group of mavericks like himself and Arnold Miller into power in 1972.

Starry-eyed greenhorn
Dawes got involved in the UMW leadership changes in 1968, when he was asked to join the presidential campaign of rebel union leader Joseph Yablonski. At the time Dawes was only 28 years old and had worked only a few years in a southern Illinois mine, but he had already demonstrated his political acumen by becoming financial secretary of his local union. Yablonski was campaigning against what he considered a corrupt and dictatorial UMW regime run by then UMW international president W. A. "Tony" Boyle. Dawes, who by his own admission was a starry-eyed greenhorn, was attracted to the idea of getting rid of Boyle. "When he [Yablonski] stood up and said he'd had enough .... I accepted him as being a change," Dawes said in a recent interview. "We felt any change was better than what we had."

'Dimestore demagogue'
The change came, but Yablonski was not to be a part of it. He lost the 1969 election to Boyle and his life shortly thereafter in the much publicized murder that Boyle was later convicted of plotting. The outraged "miners for Yablonski" quickly formed the Miners for Democracy (MFD), a group with the avowed purpose of introducing democratic practices into the union. Dawes, who by this time was a union local president, was catapulted into national prominence in the union by

becoming one of the national co-chairmen of the controversial MFD group, which backed Arnold Miller for UMW president. Miller won the 1972 court-ordered UMW election. And Dawes, who had been labelled a "dime-store demagogue" by a former Illinois UMW president, was appointed to the Illinois presidency by Miller.

For a while, the 1972 Miners for Democracy victory was like a shiny plaque on Dawes' political wall. But in recent years, Dawes has become critical of Miller as a do-nothing leader. "Five years ago it [the international UMW headquarters] was like a beehive, and they were doing things to help coal miners. Now it's very quiet and nothing's happening; everybody's trying to figure out who's talking about who. I look at the international headquarters now the way I did in '68. The only thing they lack is the armed gate.

"Six months after Miller was in, the old board figured out they could say their piece. Then they totally went wild with themselves, each one making himself out as a hero. As a result, we've had problems in organizing."

A dramatic figure
In the 1977 UMW election Dawes broke company with Miller and supported Harry Patrick, who asked Dawes to be his vice presidential running mate. But Dawes had to decline because he was still recuperating from an automobile accident that almost took his life.

Dawes is now 39 and apparently still ambitious. He won't say he isn't going to run for an international office in 1982. As he observes, his "main thing" for now is taking care of Illinois miners. His biggest political problem may be that some Illinois miners don't think he's done such a great job with his "main thing."

The most common criticism of Dawes among Illinois miners concerns his role in the 1977-78 UMW contract negotiations with the Bituminous Coal Operators' Association. Dawes cut a dramatic figure when he flew to Washington to assist in negotiations after Miller had failed to get the first tentative contract accepted by the miners' leadership; and Dawes was instrumental in getting a second, more palatable agreement with coal operators, doing much of his negotiating behind the scenes in Washington.

But Illinois miners didn't like the second tentative contract. Miners across the state gave Dawes a setback, joining the rest of the nation's miners and voting down the contract. Dawes had said it was probably the best contract they could get. But the union went on to get a better contract, and it was ratified.

Some of the miners in central Illinois believe he is partial to southern Illinois miners. Skeldon says, "We told him, don't forget the miners above highway 10, but we haven't seen him. We should every once in a while. But he's never been at a regular local meeting."

Dawes acknowledges he has paid more attention to the southern part of the state but that there is a good reason: "The fact is, the southern Illinois area is the most highly populated with coal miners. As far as the action goes, that's where it's at. It's not a matter of being partial."

Dawes admits he could have problems if he ran for a higher office in the UMW, but he says it's "a wait and see thing. Lots of things will happen between now and then." He's right. No one knows what will happen when the next coal contract comes due in 1981, and no one knows what western coal is going to do to the union -- and to Illinois.

As Illinois' UMW president, Dawes is in the thick of what may be the most formidable challenge to the UMW today: coping with the increased use of western coal -- which is mined mainly by nonunion miners. Western coal has increasingly replaced midwestern and eastern coal in utilities' boilers because western coal is lower in sulfur and therefore cheaper to burn and still comply with the federal clean air standards.

As markets have shrunk for Illinois' high-sulfur coal, some Illinois miners are worried about their jobs. Even Illinois utilities have been importing western coal instead of using Illinois coal.

That kind of miner?
"Our fear is the loss of 500 jobs," Dawes says, but the shift to western coal is hurting the union as a whole. The spirit of unionism does not prevail in the West, and organizing isn't working well.

What this means is that UMW's percentage of total coal mined is going down, decreasing the union's strength nationwide and raising the spectre of a less powerful, lower salaried future for its members. While the union used to have about 80 percent of the nation's miners, Dawes says that now "we're barely over the halfway mark. And it's like anything else. If you can't go to the bargaining table with a strong position, you're in trouble." Dawes is predicting six more lean years for Illinois and other states with high-sulfur coal. "In 1985, the trend is expected to bottom out.... At that time there will be such a need that midwestern and eastern areas will be back in [business]."

In the meantime, if Dawes can find a way to minimize the effects of the western coal on Illinois, he may well find his ticket to a higher office. Any miner who can figure a way to solve that problem will be able to save the union from a further erosion of strength, loss of jobs and decreasing morale. That kind of miner will certainly be as attractive a candidate as the union could hope to find.

A reporter for Associated Press in Chicago, Susan J. Smith is a graduate of Sangamon State University's Public Affairs Reporting Program and has worked for The State Journal-Register in Springfield.