Writing Persuasive Pieces
First the document displays that the two mines' leadership refused to work with the union. Not only did they breach their contract by changing conditions for their workers. Howat is never terribly specific about what these changes are, but in his argument to his constituency, it doesn't matter. The fact of the matter is that the mines are operating under contract with the UMWA, which includes a stipulation that the working conditions cannot be changed without both parties agreeing; however, instead of discussing the matter with Howat, the leadership of the mines "deliberately walked away and left [him], and refused to discuss the question in dispute." This is something that Howat is seeking aid from the national organization in upholding, which is part of their duties.
The second issue this document illustrates is between the national- and district-level leaderships, which stems from Howat and all of district 14's leadership being removed from their positions by the national president, John L. Lewis. The district has been suspended, meaning it cannot fulfill any of its duties. Due to what he saw as inappropriate and incompetent reactions to two coal mines breaching their contract, Lewis chose to remove all of district 14's leadership and suspend all of the district's activities, which is the root cause of Howat writing this letter to his constituency. He is attempting to reclaim active status for the district by making a strong case that it was not he who handled the situation poorly but Lewis who made a choice against the union's interest by removing him from office. He tells his membership that he received no response to a letter that was sent to two members of the international executive board and includes a copy of the letter. In doing so, Howat shows that the executive board is not properly looking after the affairs of the union; they are ignoring important letters on the issue of two mines breaching their contracts, and later as a result, Howat suffers the consequences.
The third communication seen in this pamphlet is the one it was actually written for, Howat convincing his membership of his correctness. The way that Howat goes about describing this situation to his membership is loaded with strong union rhetoric. On the fourth page of this document, Howat asks his district to "stand by" him while attempting to claim that President Lewis is a "tyrant." He paints Lewis as a horrible, undemocratic (which is equated to being anti-union) leader who is not seeking the best interest of the union. Directly following this portrayal of Lewis, Howat focuses on describing their struggle against these mines and against the national organization as a "fight that is being made by the mine workers of our district to maintain the rights of free labor," which will require the sacrifice of the members to uphold "the principles of free men and free women." These appeals to the ideology of freedom would have been particularly powerful within the context of a labor union. Howat is painting a picture where he is close to the workers, one of them. On the other side of a fence is Lewis standing by the mine owners who have breached their contract. In this way, Howat hopes that this bulletin which would be given to the membership of his district would garner him support against the national organization to fight for reinstatement of the district as a whole with him still as president.
Although the first two sets of interpersonal communication happened outside the scope of this document, Howat's writing on the subjects displays how such a situation appears when viewed through the lens of union rhetoric. The changes the mine owners were attempting to make might not have worsened the conditions of the workers at all even, but the very act of attempting to make changes was a breach of contract, which requires a fight from the UMWA or else such contracts will never hold any power. Regardless of Howat's footing or lack thereof in terms of the outcome he desired in this case against the two mines, Lewis saw his actions as inappropriate and took away the entire district's power to operate, which caused Howat to write this persuasive piece demonizing him in an attempt to inform his membership of the situation in such a way that prompted action from them to fight against Lewis's decision.
