and work continue to inform the culture of West Virginia’s coalfields. Coal operators capitalized on separate spheres ideology to influence coalfield cultural relations and increase profits when the coal industry first began operating in the state, and these ideas are still used to influence its workforce today. Mountaintop removal coal mining is a hotly contested practice in West Virginia, and some citizens work just as hard to protect Big Coal as anti-MTR activists do to stop it. Indeed, the controversy over mountaintop removal has taken the familiar path of job protection versus environmental protection, and many coalfield women choose sides in this divide while the coal industry continues to use gender to serve its own interests. Gender is particularly relevant when we consider how some middle-class and working-class women work to protect the coal industry in this era of mountaintop removal coal mining.
In 2007, the conservative West Virginia grassroots organization Friends of Coal incorporated a new weapon into its arsenal to promote the coal industry and educate the public about the industry’s importance to West Virginia: the Friends of Coal Ladies Auxiliary. Friends of Coal (FOC) is a powerful front group for the West Virginia Coal Association (WVCA), even though they claim independence from the industry. For example, they use the same logo as the West Virginia Coal Association, and if one calls the number given on the FOC website to request “information or supplies,” a secretary for the WVCA answers the phone. FOC is also financially supported by the WVCA and its corporate sponsors. Over the last decade, the presence and influence of Friends of Coal have strengthened, with frequent advertisements to promote the coal industry appearing on television and in local newspapers; on signs posted on residents’ lawns and in the windows of local businesses; and on billboards, bumper stickers, T-shirts, and any number of places. They have inundated the region with pro-coal messages that are impossible to ignore. The FOC organization justifies its existence by asserting that West Virginia “finds itself in danger from environmental zealots,” and the organization seeks to offer a “voice of reason” to the policy debates surrounding mountaintop removal coal mining, which they label “mountaintop mining,” omitting “removal” to soften the public image of the practice.77 Arguably, part of the success of this corporate front group is attributable to the ways in which it uses women to promote and protect the interest of the coal industry.
The FOC Ladies Auxiliary was initiated in 2007 by a “group of concerned women” in the private home of a Raleigh County woman.78 According to the FOC website, the ladies auxiliary does not have “direct economic ties to coal companies,” but works to “enhance the image of coal and combat some of the adverse publicity coal receives on a daily basis in the press and from many organized environmental groups.”79 The Ladies Auxiliary is self-described as an “unbiased group” whose mission is to “educate the public and raise the awareness of citizens to the benefits of coal” and its importance “as part of our national energy plan.”80 Perusing the scant amount of literature available on FOC and the Ladies Auxiliary (FOCLA) reveals that members are primarily middle-class white women whose husbands have ties to the coal industry. For example, Warren Hylton, husband of FOCLA member Patty Hylton, is a local businessman from a prominent Beckley, West Virginia, family. Warren Hylton, who recently received the Spirit of Beckley award, is described as a “business owner, civic leader, loving husband, father and advocate for the state’s coal industry and its young people.”81
FOCLA chairwoman Regina Fairchild is the wife of another Beckley businessman, J. D. Fairchild, director of sales and marketing at Terex Corporation, which produces coal mining machinery. His company recently participated in a 2009 elementary school educational campaign initiated by the FOCLA called “Coal in the Classroom.”82 The students at St. Francis elementary, a private school in Beckley, received weekly lessons on the coal industry for six weeks as part of FOCLA’s educational outreach campaign. In addition to Fairchild, Billy Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, spoke to the students about the importance of coal to West Virginia’s economy and US energy policy. While this “Coal in the Classroom” began at a private school, it expanded into the public school system in late 2009.83 Such educational programming is just one way in which the women relatives of coal professionals work to keep Big Coal thriving in the state. Regina Fairchild says:
We know that the entire coal industry will benefit from an awareness we can provide in the local communities concerning coal and its role in our economic welfare. At this time, there are many special interest groups working actively to delete coal from future use. We feel it is more vital than ever to have an active, dedicated group who are willing to stand up and point out all the benefits of coal to both our nation and especially our state.84
This auxiliary, which is a fundamental component in the highly successful industry campaign to control the public message about coal and mountaintop removal in West Virginia, also expresses concerns over the momentum of environmental justice efforts to end MTR in the state.
While the West Virginia Coal Association relies on the work of middle-class women such as the members of the Friends of Coal Ladies Auxiliary to ensure coal’s future in West Virginia, Massey Energy Corporation utilizes working-class women to ensure the loyalty of their workforce and promote the economic interests of the company in small communities throughout the coalfields. Massey Energy (now owned by Alpha Natural Resources), formerly headed by the controversial CEO Don Blankenship, is the largest producer of coal in central Appalachia, and the fourth-largest coal producer in the United States.85 With 66 total coal mines (46 underground and 20 surface) in West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky, Massey reaped a $3 billion profit in 2009.86 The company boasts 5,600 “Massey members” in central Appalachia, making them the largest private-sector employer in the region.87 In the late 1980s Blankenship created a “Spousal Group,” made up primarily of the wives of Massey coal miners, to serve on community projects throughout the region and promote the image of Massey Energy and coal throughout central Appalachia.88
On the Spousal Group page of Massey’s website, the corporation claims “through the nature of their work, miners are a close community; cooperation, communication and trust are high priorities. Outside of the mines these same principles serve as the backbone of communities across Appalachia. At Massey, the spirit of community is also embodied by the Spousal Group.”89 The spouses of coal miners serve their local communities by engaging in “schoolbook fairs, local park improvements, senior citizen appreciation dinners and the annual Christmas Extravaganzas,” among other activities.90 Blankenship has reportedly given Spousal Groups millions of dollars over the years, viewing them as “the conduit through which these funds will be most effectively put to the best use in communities throughout our operating region.”91 By incorporating wives of coal miners and funding company-controlled and approved activities, worker solidarity and commitment is solidified, and the corporation retains a strong public profile across the coalfields. Some of these working-class Massey employee spouses view anti-MTR activists as environmental extremists, seditious “tree huggers” who are jeopardizing the economy and betraying the history of the state, and as a result these two forces have clashed in public places throughout the coalfields.
In June 2009, local environmental groups such as the Coal River Mountain Watch and the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, with the help of the Rainforest Action Network, staged a direct action protest at Marsh Fork Elementary School in Sundial, West Virginia, also home to many Massey coal mining operations.92 This direct action was organized to protest mountaintop removal and coal’s negative influence on the environment, particularly on climate change. The protest received national media attention, as keynote speakers included NASA climatologist James Hansen and actress/environmentalist Daryl Hannah, both arrested during the gathering. In response to this organized action, Massey CEO Don Blankenship gave many Massey employees the afternoon off from work to attend the protest and stand up for jobs and the coal industry in the region. The clash between environmental and labor interests was dramatically apparent as Massey coal miners, along with their spouses and children, staged a counterprotest at the site. Wearing the Massey-issued blue-and-orange work shirts, they chanted “Massey! Massey! Massey!” while carrying pro-Massey Energy
