Work-Bites Readers’ Spotlight: ‘The Strike That Changed Maryland’s Wilderness County’

Len Shindel’s The Strike That Changed Maryland’s Wilderness County is one of the most engrossing labor chronicles you’ll read this year.

By Joe Maniscalco

As author Len Shindel says in the introduction to The Strike That Changed Maryland’s Wilderness County, he was “intent on getting some of the real dirt and gravel on the 1970 strike.”

Indeed, there is real “dirt and gravel” contained on every page of Shindel’s fantastically forensic investigation into the grueling eight-month strike in Garrett County, Maryland. And it says as much about the 55-year-old labor standoff itself as it does about the uniquely American character of all those engaged in it.

By 1970, poorly-paid crews who worked year-round to keep 700 miles of Garrett County roads well maintained and traversable for local commerce and the community were fed up with barely scraping by. They’d also had their fill of anti-union town commissioners Ross Sines and Hubert Friend who wanted those roads maintained but who were rabid about keeping taxes low—complaints about potholes and hard-pressed families be damned.

At the time, the entire length and breadth of Garrett County, the second-largest in Maryland, was a dichotomy. Deeply Republican, it had also been the beneficiary of 23 separate New Deal projects.

However, Garret County was also imbued with something else—the fervor of courageous veterans who had beaten the fascists in WWII and were now ready to continue the fight back home against the Big Coal Barrons as members of the United Mineworkers.  

The Garrett County Road Workers were ready to unionize as AFSCME Local 1834, and they weren’t about to let the Garrett County commissioners stand in their way. It may have only been 1970—but these were workers who knew how essential they were. 

Shindel quotes Jack Sowers, “the wiry, tobacco-chewing president of the county road workers’ new union,” from a Baltimore Sun article saying, “Yup, we’re all a bunch of mean hillbillies…Hell, we’re not violent people, but we’re going to draw some blood if the commissioners try to send some men out to work on those roads.”

Shindel’s meticulous research into the strike’s complex dynamics plops readers right down in the middle of the action. Not only was Shindel able to track down Sines, but he got him to talk—candidly.

“There couldn’t be a deeper or wider chasm between me, a suburban-raised veteran of the anti-war movement of the late 60s, and a Christian fundamentalist farmer who says higher education is the ‘ruin' of America and still opposes public employee unionism,” the author writes. “But Ross and I made a connection and crossed the divide, committed to telling the whole story and legacy of eight months in the life of a county.”

That journalistic coup allowed Shindel to convince other sources reluctant—even all these years later—to open up and speak freely about the explosive eight-month Garrett County strike as well. 

“My message to the guys who were giving me five minutes became very simple,” Shindel writes, “‘Ross Sines is giving me hours! If you want your side of the story to be told, I need more time.’ They gave it to me.”

And that’s what really makes The Strike That Changed Maryland’s Wilderness County the wholly absorbing labor chronicle that it is, while also setting it apart from any other labor histories you’ll likely read this year. It delivers the real “dirt and gravel.” 

Shindel’s work also demonstrates the power and importance of outstanding labor journalism—and why we need it. The Strike That Changed Maryland’s Wilderness County transports us all back to a very pivotal time in the nation’s history. In doing so, it helps us understand those events and directly compare and contrast them to the feelings of stagnation and helplessness many working class people are experiencing today.

Fifty-five years ago, hard-working men and women living in Garrett County, Maryland found the courage and strength to stand up and demand more than they were getting. And they didn’t quit fighting until they got it. Shindel has done the entire labor movement a great service chronicling it all in such a compelling and highly engaging fashion.

Read it, and empower yourself in your own workplace struggles today.   

The Strike That Changed Maryland’s Wilderness County is available now at Hard Ball Press.