Considering its current definition (see below) and the wish to be politically correct, I wonder whether the word has come to acquire any racist overtone.
What is a coal miner hewer-Ask.com. Coal miner hewer is a person who hews or cuts the coal from its natural situation. The hewer is the actual coal-digger removing it from the coal face.
Coal is mined using giant machines to remove the coal from the ground. There are two basic methods to remove coal: surface mining and underground mining. Surface mining is used when the coal is typically less than 200 feet below the surface.t is also used to recover part of the coal left from underground mining. In the western United States, auger mining is used in conjunction with strip mining. Coal mining by the auger method entails boring horizontal or near-horizontal holes in an exposed face of the coal, and loading the coal removed by the auger.