Joseph Albert "Jock" Yablonski (March 3, 1910 – December 31, 1969) was an American labor leader in the United Mine Workers in the 1950s and 1960s known for seeking reform in the union and better working conditions for miners.
On New Year's Eve, Yablonski, his wife, and 25-year-old daughter were murdered, fatally shot at home by three gunmen found to have been hired on orders of Tony Boyle.
[5][6] From the beginning of his administration Boyle faced significant opposition from rank-and-file miners and UMWA leaders.
[8] On December 18, 1969, he asked the United States Department of Labor (DOL) to investigate the election for fraud.
He alleged that: Boyle and UMWA had denied him use of the union's mailing lists as provided for by law, he had been removed from his position as acting director of Labor's Non-Partisan League in retaliation for his candidacy, the UMW Journal was being used by Boyle as a campaign and propaganda mouthpiece, UMWA had no rules for fair elections, and had printed nearly 51,000 excess ballots which should have been destroyed; and UMWA had violated its fiduciary duties by spending union funds on Boyle's reelection.
In September 1969, UMWA executive council member Albert Pass received $20,000 from Boyle (who had embezzled the money from union funds) to hire gunmen to kill Yablonski.
He hired Paul Eugene Gilly (September 5, 1932 – July 6, 2021), an out-of-work house painter and son-in-law of Silous Huddleston, a minor UMWA official, and two drifters, Aubran Wayne "Buddy" Martin (May 7, 1948 – March 12, 1991) and Claude Edward Vealey (July 9, 1943 – January 31, 1999).
After three aborted attempts to murder Yablonski, the killers completed the assassinations, deciding to kill everyone in the house.
They met with attorney Joseph Rauh and drew up plans to establish a reform caucus within the United Mine Workers.
[12] The day after the bodies of the Yablonskis were discovered, 20,000 miners in West Virginia walked off the job in a one-day strike, protesting against Boyle, who they believed was responsible for the murders.
On January 17, 1972, the United States Supreme Court granted Mike Trbovich, a 51-year-old coal mine shuttle car operator and union member from District 5 (Yablonski's district), permission to intervene in the DOL suit as a complainant, which kept Yablonski's election fraud suit alive.
[5][11][14] The Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) of 1959 regulates the internal affairs of labor unions, requiring regular secret-ballot elections for local union offices and providing for federal investigation of election fraud or impropriety.
[20] (Both Annette Gilly and her father Silous Huddleston pleaded guilty in 1972, receiving life sentences to avoid the death penalty.
Its members included most of the miners who belonged to the West Virginia Black Lung Association and many of Yablonski's supporters and former campaign staff.
The chief organizers of Miners for Democracy included Yablonski's sons, Joseph (known as "Chip") and Ken, Mike Trbovich, and other union supporters.
Barbara Kopple's 1976 documentary Harlan County USA included a segment on Yablonski's murder and its aftermath.
The complex problem of the coal mining industry and the distribution of profits between the corporation and its labor force is covered well in this documentary.
Wilford Brimley played Boyle and Charles Bronson (a native of Ehrenfeld in the western Pennsylvania mining region) portrayed Yablonski.
Cillian Murphy will star in and produce a film based on Bradley's book for Universal Pictures.
[32] Robert K. Tanenbaum's 2023 book Coal Country Killing is about the murders and subsequent trials from the point of view of the special prosecutor appointed for the cases.