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.
verb (used with object), hewed, hewed or hewn, hewing. 1. to strike forcibly with an ax, sword, or other cutting instrument; chop; hack. 2. to make, shape, smooth, etc., with cutting blows: to hew a passage through the crowd; to hew a statue from marble. 3. to sever (a part) from a whole by means of cutting blows (usually followed by away, off, out, from, etc.):