>> Once you shut the coal mines
down, you're hurting the
backbone of this country.
I've been registered Democrat
all my life.
But I crossed over this year.
I voted for Donald Trump.
Because he promised to help
the coal miner.
And for this region, we need
help.
(train whistle blows)
There's good men out here just
walking the streets.
Their families are getting
desperate.
Welfare can't keep people
forever.
These men need to go back to
work.
(crowd cheering)
>> TRUMP: So I just left parts
of Virginia and West Virginia.
And the coal industry is
decimated.
The miners are out of work.
They are totally out of work.
I mean, there's, there will be
no such thing as coal in this
country pretty soon.
What we're going to do, folks,
is going to be so special.
We're going to bring back our
jobs.
We are going to win.
(chains clanking)
We are going to be America
first.
We are going to make America
great again.
(crowd chanting "U-S-A")
(crow caws)
(man singing on recording)
>> Is that loud enough?
 ♪ All ye who must toil
 with the pick and the drill
 ♪ And sweat for your bread
 in that hole in Oak Hill
♪ It goes down, down, down... ♪
>> I really want to be a coal
miner, always have been, ever
since I was in high school.
Everybody had their dreams about
being a basketball player,
a football player...
I always just wanted to be a
coal miner.
(indistinct voices on video)
>> (on video): After about an
hour, the teams and the command
center and everybody else, they
 start to become more serious
 about it and then they start
 working across.
>> How do we rod this?
By hand and by machine.
>> The only thing that I've
really given thought about
is Trump getting in office and
going back to work.
My American dream would just be
to watch my kids grow up
happy and healthy.
That's the only thing I could
ever ask for.
I didn't have anything very
long, you know.
Not a whole lot anyway.
Didn't make enough.
Didn't work long enough.
They said that things went dry.
It made it really, really hard
to take care of a baby and a
wife.
>> In 2000, it was booming.
We wouldn't have a class unless
we had 15, and we had to cut
away at 25, and it stayed full.
>> Pass it around.
That's the heaviest unit, that
is the best unit.
>> And then, in the last couple
years, it slowed down to where
we actually voted several times
whether to just lock the door or
not.
But since the election, a lot of
lights have came on in mining.
>> What we call compressed
oxygen...
>> ...is that it doesn't feel
like you're breathing air, but
you are.
It's just a chemical reaction.
When I first started in mines,
this is what I had right here,
a little W65 dragline...
>> Most of them have a job
waiting on them.
Or they wouldn't be here to
spend that money.
Getting outside with nobody
hurt: now, that's what pays the
bills, and pays it the right
way.
Now, we don't want no blood on
that coat.
Nobody does.
We want you to work safe, smart.
You've got a lot more to learn,
and we will review to where
you'll be very comfortable, and
we don't have anybody fail, all
right?
Well, if that's all, we'll see
you in the morning at 8:00.
>> What year is this truck?
>> '14.
>> '14.
>> I just got it two months
before I got laid off.
>> So, you need to hurry and get
back to work.
>> I guess I basically seek it
because it's hard work.
I've always been a fan of hard
work.
It's the way I was brought up.
Family man, I guess.
What are you doing, buddy?
Callie, she's four days old.
She was just born on Friday.
Colton, he's...
he'll be two in February.
My father never was really there
to the picture, you know.
I only got to meet him twice.
I never would let my kids down.
I always told myself that.
>> Whoa!
>> Grandpa and Grandma, they
adopted me.
But they was never really able
to work.
They was already medically
disabled.
You never could really save
anything, you know?
You little traitor.
(food sizzling)
I've always liked the thrill,
adrenaline rush.
When things get a little bit
hairy, you know, I love being
in those situations.
(baby crying)
Coal mining, I don't think it's,
I don't think it's that risky.
My family's done it for
generations.
But I think it's well worth it.
You know, there's risk
in everything you take.
>> Because your response could
 save a life.
>> Respirable dust is on the
test.
You can't see that with your
naked eye.
The dust you see, you'll cough
up.
It gets caught in your throat
and in your nose, and in your
mouth.
If we'll do our job, we can
eliminate black lung.
That's something you don't want
as part of your chest.
>> If I had been in my Dad's
shoes, my son would have never
went in the mines.
But my Dad wanted me to be
around him some, so I came home
to be with him.
Coal mining's a rough job.
I was very seldom off.
I worked six days a week and
sometimes seven.
I worked 16 hours a day instead
of eight.
When I first went in the mines
in 1969, the risk factor of
black lung diseases wasn't
mentioned a whole lot.
I was one of them young coal
miners, I'd never get it.
No, not me.
I mean, it'll happen to a lot
of these older miners, but not
me-- that's what I thought.
The doctor told me, he said:
"You've contacted it, now you
need to do something about it."
But buying a home, buying two
automobiles.
I had my daughter in school.
I couldn't go out and just
quit work, and go hunt a job
somewhere in another field that
you wasn't even trained for.
So, you just had to keep
working.
You had to keep going.
Until one day you realized,
"Hey, I've done went too far."
(machine humming)
(coughing)
Our new administration is
talking about repealing
Obamacare, and doing away with
Obamacare, and starting a new
one, and one of our greatest
fears now is, if you take the
provisions out for the coal
miners.
I spent four and a half years
in litigation to get my black
lung benefits started.
I wouldn't want my wife to spend
four and a half years trying to
get hers started, if something
were to happen to me.
I realize a lot of coal mines
are shut down.
They file bankruptcy.
But taking a man's benefits
shouldn't be part of that.
>> But it's okay.
You're going to be okay.
>> And everything that was
promised unto him to go to work
should be there waiting on him
when he gets ready to retire,
without any controversy.
He earned that.
When they take that away,
they're taking your livelihood
away.
I'm getting too hot.
>> Okay.
How hard are you working?
>> Four and a three.
>> Focus on your breathing.
Okay, alright.
Good job.
>> So, we've got to recondition
every muscle in our body, so
that just the simplest task,
such as vacuuming, washing the
dishes, carrying in the
groceries, doesn't really put a
strain on our system, so we've
got to strengthen all of our
muscles, not just our legs and
our breathing muscles as well,
we've got to strengthen our arms
too.
>> I thought I was ten foot tall
and bulletproof.
It didn't take long for me to
realize I wasn't.
Now, I find myself as a
69-year-old, broken-down coal
miner.
>> Out and in, out and in...
>> I think it's going to be the
one to take me out in the end.
They can say, "Well, this man
died of black lung."
Come on, baby.
Come on.
My baby, I'm proud of you,
honey.
I'm proud of you, I am.
You're my buddy.
You're my baby.
>> Easy.
You've got to be easy with
sissy.
She's new, bubby.
If it picks up and it starts
booming, that's probably all
I'll do for the rest of my life.
Until I retire anyway.
I'd love to do that.
Be a coal miner, support my
family, make good money.
You know, have something in
life.
(dog barking)
>> I cherish the days I got to
spend with my dad and work with
him.
I miss him.
I really do.
Those memories, I wouldn't want
taken away.
And if I could give any advice
to any young miner right now,
I'd say run.
Find you another occupation.
When you see a coal mine, turn
around and go the other way.
Just go, leave.
