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DM inter Mary & Tom Ferko
-20-
Tape 6 8/7/72

on account of that I guess
TF Same as Holly Maguire she was supposed to get everthing just like[?] her husband but he didn't get it and was pissed up right away they were supposed to get everything and everybody else was supposed to get nuthin' that's the kind of people they are the sonofabitch he promised me a job that I was goin' to get a job up here at the breaker he told me about it and after I took it to the district office he denied it I should have grabbed him by the throat and threw him out the window
MF He was an official in the union at the time and he went up to the district office with him first he told him he was goin' to get him a job and then when he took him up to the office he denied everything
MF My own uncle did the same thing, don't worry you're goin' to get the job
TF He said you're from Eckley you deserve the job he said I'll stick with you and we went up to the district office and he never opened his mouth and I told him about it
MF They're both dead now
DM Now was age a factor whether you got a job or not
TF Yeh, you had to be 18 yrs. old to get a job in the mine because the insurance wouldn't cover you see if you were under 18 you wouldn't get a job
DM But once you got the job it wasn't how old you were, if you were 19 or 20 could you get a job contract mining if you were good at it
TF If you were good and providing you had the papers and if there was jobs open like say they opened another gangway well 10 or 12 jobs open, well if you wanted a job you got the job because the other guys had jobs there was always more jobs developin' all the time as they were goin'
DM Well now say, not you in particular, but say somebody in town, if they had a low job and got advanced to a higher job would they try and move in to a different house or would there status in the community rise