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.
1.1 A miner who cuts coal from a seam. Example sentences. 1  We also know that On the Origin of Species was tackled by a miner, a grocer, and a coal hewer; and that both volumes of Macaulay's History of England were checked out to an engine driver.