--- description: War in the Coalfields title: Labor: War in the Coalfields image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # Labor: War in the Coalfields by [TIME](/author/time/) Jun 17, 1985 4:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Jun 17, 1985 4:00 AM CUT So turbulent has been the long-running strike of mineworkers against the A.T. Massey Coal Co. that it recalls the Hatfield-McCoy feud in the same region, around the West Virginia-Kentucky line. Now the conflict, involving some 1,500 members of the United Mine Workers, is evoking even uglier images. “It’s almost like a civil war,” said ex-Mayor Robert McCoy of Matewan, W. Va. Hayes West, a nonunion truck driver, was killed and another driver wounded when snipers opened fire on a convoy on Coeburn Mountain in Kentucky; three other drivers have been wounded in similar ambushes. Since the miners struck last Oct. 1 after Massey and several other firms rejected an industry agreement, hundreds of injuries have resulted from rock throwings, dynamitings and assaults. West Virginia state police have spent about $750,000 in extra manpower to try to keep peace. Said a miner in the picket line at Massey’s Sprouse Creek processing plant in Lobata, W. Va.: “If something isn’t done real soon to end the strike, there is going to be a lot more violence.” Labor: War in the Coalfields ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6704032/labor-war-in-the-coalfields/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6704032/labor-war-in-the-coalfields/"},"headline":"Labor: War in the Coalfields","datePublished":"1985-06-17T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-27T18:42:43.937Z","description":"War in the Coalfields","url":"https://time.com/archive/6704032/labor-war-in-the-coalfields/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6704032/labor-war-in-the-coalfields/","name":"Labor: War in the Coalfields"}}]}] ```