Brian's+Interview+with+Eddie+Gibson

Retired Former Employee of Clinchfield Coal Company Machine Shop**
 * Interview with Eddie Gibson

Brian Brown: Mr. Eddie Gibson, what was your experience of working in a mine’s machine shop like? Mr. Gibson: Ok, working at the shop was a good experience for me. I had previously worked in a ship yard at Newport News, VA and uh, I worked there 6 years and had a lot of training there but my experience at the, uh, at the, uh mine shop was in the, uh, mostly the things that come to my mind is safety. We did not have, uh, uh, as much safe equipment that we’d had where I’d worked before. For instance, uh, we uh, when I first started to work at the shop, uh, we were not required to wear, uh, safety glasses, uh, uh, hard hats, or safety toe shoes, but later on as we began to see more accidents and things happen, we finally were required to wear safety glasses, hard hats, and safety toe shoes. And, uh, so my experience at the shop, uh, as the, as the years went by, uh, was pretty interesting because I could see that, that, uh, why so many people were injured in the past in the machine shop that I worked in because of safety. So I would say my experience, uh, with, with safety was my number one priority. And, uh, of course, in the uh, in the shop that I worked for Clinchfield Coal Company, we done, uh, mostly repair work and, uh, when something was broke down at the mine, uh, and it was brought in there, we usually had to stay until this job was finished or the night shift man took over and, uh, so it was, uh, not only, uh, a good experience for me, but, uh, it was good experience, uh, uh, actually for, uh, all the men that worked in there. And, uh, you had to keep your, uh, uh, mind open and make sure that, that uh, you didn’t make any mistakes because if you did, uh, you could lose and arm or something else like that. So you wanted to make sure at all times that your mind was, uh, totally on the job that you were doing. I could go into a lot more things but I guess we’d better get to the next question. Brian Brown: Ok, Mr. Gibson, uh, what were your working conditions like in the machine shop? Mr. Gibson: Ok, in the machine shop for, uh Clinchfield, uh, when I first started there in about 1966, uh, the conditions there were not too good because a lot of the machinery that we, uh, worked with was, uh, uh, a lot was left over from the second world war, a lot of old machinery. And the older the machinery, uh, the more dangerous it is. Uh, the uh, conditions there was poor, but, uh, as time went on we improved that and then, uh, when we got in the new shop, uh, near uh, the uh, Moss 3 Preparation Plant, uh, we uh, the conditions were better. We still had some of the old machinery, but, uh, uh, as time went on the men got together and improved the working conditions. But, uh, we really had to be careful because, uh, in a mine shop, uh, a lot of times, uh, there’s a lot of dangerous things in there that we’d work on, so you’d really have to be careful. Brian Brown: Ok, Mr. Gibson, what can the average everyday worker do in order to improve the conditions in the mines and machine shops and how should they go about doing so? Mr. Gibson: Ok, the best thing to do is to, uh, create a good safety program and, uh, by doing so you can get all the men, uh, working together and, uh, trying to do their jobs better. And uh, so, uh, usually, we usually had a safety meeting in the mornings and, uh, and, uh, by doing a good safety, uh, uh, talk every morning would help during the day for different things that, uh, we had to do and the main thing was just being careful and watching what we, how we handled our jobs. Brian Brown: Mr. Gibson, what would some of the negative effects of the coal mines and machine shops have on their workers? Mr. Gibson: Well, the uh, the uh, best thing I could think of would be to keep the men in good humor. And uh, and if you’re nice to a person usually you’ll get more work out of them, and uh, by doing so you’re going to have a good quality of work also. One thing that, uh, the mine shop done was they, uh, sent off a lot of work that we could have done ourself, and, uh, a lot of the work that was sent off, uh, was actually not done as good as we done it ourself. So, uh, I think that the, uh, company ought to stress more of their men and, uh, keep them in good humor, and, uh, and make sure that, that they work safely and accurately, because the job that I done when we, uh, when we, uh, operate these lades, or, uh, boring mill or drill presses, milling machines and all these things, uh, the work that we done had to be highly accurate. For instance, if, uh, I was making an armitor shaft or a motor or something like that, uh, the tolerances on the baring fits and all would have to be + or - 1000 or even closer of an inch. So, uh, you had to keep your mind on the job you were doing and make sure that nobody distracted you or anything like that and sometimes a boss or a foreman can distract you from what you were doing and you could not only mess a job up you’ve been working on all day but you could actually get injured. Brian Brown: Ok, Mr. Gibson, uh, what could be done to help miners or machine shop workers who are at risk or already have some health complications from working there? Mr. Gibson: Ok, you can pick up a lot of, uh, health problems by working even in the shop. One of our biggest problems was, uh, dust, uh, and smoke, uh, loud noises. Also, in our shop, there was a lot of chemicals that you could, uh, get into, like when a machine is running and, uh, if, uh, a lot of times if you’re turning the shaft in a lade and you have to have coolant on it all the time and it throws off smoke, you want to make sure, that a lot of times, that you wear a dust mask or something to that effect to keep the dust, from breathing so much dust, so, uh, or smoke. So, uh, a lot of times, uh, complications can set in from these things and you have to really be careful.