A Coal Miner’s Political Transformation

The Daily

The New York Times

News, Daily News

4.5 • 97.8K Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2022

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For more than 500 days, coal miners in rural Alabama have been on strike. Around 900 workers walked off the job in April 2021, and they haven’t been back since. As the strike drags on, the miners are discovering that neither political party is willing to fight for them. For Braxton Wright, 39, a second-generation coal miner and, until recently, a Republican, the experience has altered his view of American politics.

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0:00.0	Okay, Cheryl, come into the party late and I don't know who that might be, but we do
0:10.1	have some reporters in the ground all the way from New York to what I hear in other places
0:15.5	far near.
0:16.5	Get yourself a UN!
0:17.5	Okay!
0:18.5	UN!
0:19.5	Okay!
0:20.5	UN!
0:21.5	Okay!
0:22.5	UN!
0:23.5	Okay!
0:24.5	From the other times, I'm Michael Baboro.
0:28.1	This is a daily.
0:31.1	For more than 500 days, coal miners in rural Alabama have been on strike in one of the longest
0:39.0	work stoppages in American history.
0:41.4	The difference between us and the people who are keeping us out here who don't want
0:47.7	to give us a free contract is one.
0:50.7	We're the ones that gave them a right to meet billionaires.
0:55.6	And as the strike drags on, the miners are discovering that neither political party is
1:01.8	willing to fight for them.
1:03.8	I can see some light.
1:05.8	For the first time, I can see some light.
	...

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