Did you know that there are women coal miners? Novice Miner Susan Miller, 25, says cold cash prompted her descent from a sewing-machine factory into the depths of Freeman United Coal Mining Co.'s Orient 6 mine at Waltonville, Ill. For her $42.75 daily trainee's pay, double her former earnings, Miner Miller works the coal belt, builds support partitions and sprays rock dust to prevent fires from coal fumes. Co-worker Mary Siefert, 38, a divorced mother of three who was the first woman on the job last August, says she was not trying to prove anything: "I had no choice; I needed...
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