Labor: Underground Revolt

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Although the union leadership later claimed credit for the bill's passage, dissident members contend that aging Ray Humphreys, president of U.M.W.'s District 17, reflects the real attitude at the union's sumptuous Washington headquarters. Says Humphreys: "I guess we did let the sons of bitches get us behind the eight ball."

Hats in the Ring. Boyle's, most. serious competition for the union presidency is Elijah Wolford, 43, a miner who has switched to night work so he can spend his days campaigning. "The union," says Wolford, "has moved too far away from its original purpose—to protect the workingman."

So far, U.M.W. headquarters has responded to rank-and-file unrest with articles in the Mine Workers Journal that apply such standard invective as "finks" and "professional fakers" to the dissidents. Boyle has accused them of "trying to lead a fight against the union for their own political expediency." The U.M.W. president, who rarely visits the bleak mine towns where his members precariously earn their living, has decided that he should do some campaigning himself. U.M.W. headquarters announced this week that Boyle will tour West Virginia to tell the miners "what the union has done for them."