United Mine Workers - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The United Mine Workers of America (UMW or UMWA) is a North American labor union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

best known for representing coal miners and coal technicians. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the United States and Canada. Although its main focus has always been on workers and their rights, the UMW of today also advocates for better roads, schools, and universal health care.

The UMW was founded in Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

, on January 22, 1890, with the merger of two old labor groups, the Knights of Labor

Knights of Labor

The Knights of Labor was the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s. Its most important leader was Terence Powderly...

Trade Assembly No. 135 and the National Progressive Miners Union. Adopting the model of the American Federation of Labor

American Federation of Labor

The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...

(AFL), the union was initially established as a three-pronged labor tool: to develop mine safety; to improve mine workers' independence from the mine owners and the company store; and to provide miners with collective bargaining power. After passage of the National Recovery Act in 1933, organizers spread throughout the United States to organize all coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

miners into labor unions.

During the 1930s, the UMWA was involved in Washington politics, a controversial involvement which generated such alternative unions such as the Progressive Mine Workers

Progressive Mine Workers

The Progressive Miners of America was a coal miners' union organized in 1932 in downstate Illinois. It was formed after United Mine Workers President John L. Lewis, sided with coal operators and subverted a contract referendum which would have reduced a miner's daily wage from $6.10 to $5.00.In...

Coal mining in the 19th Century

The main goal of the UMWA was to provide safer and better working conditions, and higher wages because mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

was and still is a dangerous job.

Life of a miner

Miners were often dependent upon the company store, a store that miners had to use because they were often paid only in company scrip

Scrip

Scrip is an American term for any substitute for currency which is not legal tender and is often a form of credit. Scrips were created as company payment of employees and also as a means of payment in times where regular money is unavailable, such as remote coal towns, military bases, ships on long...

, redeemable at the store, which often charged higher prices than other stores. Many miner's homes were also owned by the mines. Although there were company towns that raised the prices of all goods and made eviction a constant threat, these conditions were not the norm for all coal towns. But for the towns that did use the currency to their advantage, mining families often faced hardships in living conditions.

Safety and health in the mines

Being a miner in the 19th century meant long hours of continuous hard labor. For many workers, it was not unusual to be accustomed to long hours in the dark mines. Since miners were paid per ton of coal they produced each day workers would arrive as early as possible and stay till they physically were exhausted. Because of working in the mines, many health issues arose. One problem was that a majority of the areas being mined were on average 3–5 feet high. This meant that most miners worked all day without standing upright. Because a lot of the coal mines were hard to access by an average man, the demand for young boys to work in the mines grew. More inexperienced miners led to more accidents. Another health concern was the amount of dust that a miner breathed in each day. Now we know that it causes the disease black lung, but then, few miners knew what effects that this job would have on their bodies. Safety was also a big concern, most coal companies wanted to produce the cheapest coal, so in return they would not update or replace old existing tools and carts. This led to miners becoming injured on a daily basis. However, most companies did not get into conflict over the deaths because miners would typically work alone or in pairs, meaning that an accident would only harm two people and not a large quantity. As mining became more of a demand, the workers started to understand that something could be done to improve the working conditions, and that something must be done soon before any more lives were lost. The health and safety concerns of miners in the early 19th century were what prompted the labor movements to begin.

Women in the mines

Although mining was typically thought of as a man's job, women were in the mines as early as the 1920s and 1930s in some places. However, most early women miners worked during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

and World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, when many men were overseas, or they worked for their family who owned the mine.

The UMWA pushed for equal pay and work opportunities for women. As time went on women began to do more hard labor and did the same work as men. In the 1970s the number of women who worked as actual miners and who received wages rose to historic highs.

Development of the Union

The UMW was founded in Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio

, on January 22, 1890, by the merger of two earlier groups, the Knights of Labor

Knights of Labor

The Knights of Labor was the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s. Its most important leader was Terence Powderly...

Trade Assembly No. 135 and the National Progressive Miners Union. It was modeled after the American Federation of Labor

American Federation of Labor

(AFL).The Union's emergence in the 1890s was the culmination of decades of effort to organize mine workers and people in adjacent occupations into a single, effective negotiating unit. At the time coal was one of the most in-demand natural resources, used to heat homes and to power machines in industries. The coal mines were a competitive and dangerous place to work. And with decreasing amounts of pay occurring on a regular basis, miners sought a group to stand up for their rights.

Early efforts

American Miners' Association

The first step in starting the union was the creation of the American Miners' Association

American Miners' Association

The American Miners' Association was the first national union of miners in the United States. It was formed in 1861 at a convention in St. Louis, Missouri, by delegates from the bituminous fields of Illinois and Missouri....

. This creation put into motion the labor movement in America. The popularity of the group grew immensely. "Of an estimated 56,000 miners in 1865, John Hinchcliffe claimed 22,000 as members of the AMA. As a result of the growing union, the mine owners sought to stop the AMA from becoming more powerful. Members of the AMA were fired and blacklisted from employment at other mines. After a short time the AMA began to decline until it was no more.

Workingman's Benevolent Association

Another early labor union that arose in 1868 was the Workingmen's Benevolent Association. The main difference between this labor union and many others of the time was that it was an anthracite labor union. The laborers formed the WBA to help improve pay and working conditions. The main reason for the success of this group was the president, John Siney, who sought a way for both the miners benefits to increase while also helping the operators gain a profit. The way that both parties could benefit was to limit the production of anthracite. Because the efforts of the WBA benefited the operators, they did not object when the union wanted to take action in the mines; actually, they welcomed it because they knew that they would profit. Because the operators trusted the WBA, the first written contract between miners and operators was established. As the union became more responsible in the operators' eyes, the union was given more freedoms. As a result the health and spirits of the miners significantly improved. The WBA could have been a very successful union had it not been for Franklin B. Gowen

Franklin B. Gowen

Franklin Benjamin Gowen served as president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in the 1870s and 1880s....

. In the 1870s Gowen owned the Reading Railroad, and bought several coal mines in the area. Because he owned the coal mines and the transportation of the coal, he was able to slowly destroy the labor union. He did everything in his power to produce the cheapest product and to ensure that members who were not in the union would benefit. As conditions for the miners of the WBA worsened, the union broke up and disappeared.

After the fall of the WBA miners created many other small unions, including the Workingman's Protective Association (WPA) and the Miner's National Association (MNA). Although both groups had strong ideas and goals, they were unable to gain enough support and organization to succeed. The two unions did not last long, but provided greater support by the miners for a union which could withstand and help protect the workers' rights.

1870s

Although many labor unions were failing, there were two predominant unions that arose held promise to become strong and permanent advocates for the miners. The main problem during this time was the rivalry between the two groups. Because the National Trade Assembly #135, better known as the Kights of Labor, and the National Federation of Miners and Mine Laborers were so opposed to one another, they created problems for miners rather than solved key issues.

National Trade Assembly #135

This union was more commonly known as the Knights of Labor and began around 1870 around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The main problem with the Knights of Labor was the its secrecy. The members kept very private their affiliation and goals of the Knights of Labor. Because both miners and operators could become members, there was no commonality to unite the members. Also, the union did not see strikes as a beneficial means to attain rights. To many people of the time, a strike was the only way that they believed they would be heard.

The Knights of labor tried to establish a strong and organized union, so they set up a system of local assemblies, or LAs. There were two main types of LAs, trade and mixed, with the trade LA being the most common. Although this system was put into place to create order, it did the opposite. Even though there were only two categories of LA's there were many sub-divisions of them. For the most part it was impossible to even tell how many trade and mixed LAs there were at a given time. Local assemblies began to arise and fall all around and many members began to question whether of not the Knights of Labor was strong enough to fight for the most important issue of the time, achieving an eight hour work day.

National Federation of Miners and Mine Laborers

This Union was formed by members of the Knights of Labor who realized that a secret and unified group would not turn into a successful union. The founders, John McBride, Chris Evans and Daniel McLaughlin, believed that creating an eight hour work day would not only be beneficial for workers, but also as a means to stop overproduction, which would in turn help operators. The union was able to get cooperation from operators because they explained that the miners wanted better conditions because they felt as if they were part of the mining industry and also wanted the company to grow. But in order for the company to grow, the workers must have better conditions so that their labor could improve and benefit the operators.

The first main concern of this union was to get a fair weighing system within the mines. Although, during a conference between the operators and the union, the idea of a new system of scaling was agreed upon, the system was never implemented. Because the union did not deliver what it had promised, it lost support and members.

1880s

During this time the rivalry between the two unions increased and eventually led to the formation of the UMW. The first of many arguments arose after the 1886 joint conference. The Knights of labor did not want the NTA #135 to be in control so they went against a lot of their decisions. Also, because the Knights of Labor were not in attendance at the conference they were not able to vote against actions that they thought should be taken to gain rights for workers. Most of the actions required the Knights of Labor to lose their secrecy and make public its members and locations. Because such a problem arose when one union was not permitted to attend a conference, the National Federation held another conference in 1887 with both groups. Like the first, it was unsuccessful and the parties could not agree on what actions to be taken to provide better conditions in the mines. Throughout 1887-1888 many joint conferences were held to help iron out the problems that the two groups were having. Many leaders of both groups began questioning the morals of the other union.

One leader, William T. Lewis thought that there needed to be more unity within the union, and that competition for members between the two groups was not accomplishing anything. Because of his thoughts, he was replaced by John B. Rae as president of the NTA #135. This removal did not stop Lewis however; he got many people together who had been also thrown out of the Knights of Labor for trying to belong to both parties at once, along with the National Federation and created the National Progressive Union of Miners and Mine Laborers (NPU). Although the goal of the NPU in 1888 was to create unity between the miners, it instead drew a heavier line distinguishing members of the NPU against those of the NTA #135. Because of the rivalry, miners of one labor union would not support the strikes of another, and many strikes failed. In December 1889, the president of the NPU set up a joint conference for all miners. John McBride, the president of NPU suggested that the Knights of Labor should join the NPU to form a stronger union. John B. Rae reluctantly agreed and decided that the merged groups would meet on January 22, 1890.

Constitution of the Union: The Eleven Points

When the union was founded the values of the UMWA were stated in the preamble;

We have founded the United Mine Workers of America fo the purpose of...educating all mine workers in America to realize the necessity of unity of action and purpose, in demanding and securing by lawful means the just fruits of our toil.

The UMWA constitution listed eleven points as the union's goals:

The first point was a salary commensurate with the dangerous work conditions. This was one of the most important points of the constitution.
The second point, related to the first, was that the workers wanted to be paid fairly in legal tender, not with company scrip.
The third point was to provide safety for the miners, necessitating that all operators use the latest technologies so that they could preserve lives and keep the workers as healthy as possible.
The fourth point also had to do with advancing the technologies of the mine by providing better ventilation systems to decrease black lung disease, and better drainage systems.
The fifth point was to enforce safety laws and make it illegal for mines to have inadequate roof supports or contaminated air and water in the mines.
The sixth point stated that the workers wanted an eight-hour work day.
The seventh point demanded an end to child labor, and strict enforcement of the child labor law.
The eighth point demanded that the scales used to weigh the coal work correctly, so that miners would be paid the correct amount. This was a big problem for miners because many times operators would try to underpay workers by having the scales show a lighter weight than what was produced. Miners were paid per pound of coal that they produced.
The ninth point was linked to both the eighth and second points, that demanded that wages be paid in legal tender.
The tenth point wanted an unbiased police force for the mining community. Many operators of the mine would hire police to harass the mine workers. In company towns the operators owned all the houses and controlled the police force, the operators could evict workers and arrest them unjustly. The tenth point was to eliminate this problem by having an impartial local police force that was not employed by the operators.
The eleventh point was a statement from the workers to the operators claiming that they would try to come to a reasonable conclusion but that if they thought that they were being treated unfairly, the workers would strike to protect their rights.

Achievements

An eight-hour work day in 1898. The first ideas of this demand were outlined in point six of the constitution.
The union was able to achieve collective bargaining rights in 1933.
Health and retirement benefits for the miners and their families was made possible in 1946.
In 1969, the UMWA convinced the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

to enact the landmark Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act which provided compensation for miners suffering from Black Lung Disease.

Strikes throughout the UMW history

The union's history is filled with examples of members and their supporters violently clashing with company-hired strikebreakers and government forces:

Bituminous Coal Miners' Strike of 1894 - April 21, 1894. This nationwide strike was called when the union was hardly four years old. Many of the workers salaries had been cut by 30% and with the demand for coal down, workers were upset that there were not more opportunities for work. The national guard was mobilized in several states to prevent or control violent clashes between strikers and strike breakers. The workers intended on only striking from work for three weeks in the hopes that when they returned the demand for coal would increase as would their wages. They developed the plan that they would continue to strike for three weeks and return to work for a short period of time until the hopes of wages increasing turned into a reality. However, many miners in the union did not wish to cooperate with this plan and did not return to work at all. This made the union seem weak. While many refused to return to work, many workers did not strike at all, and with the demand for coal being so low the remaining workers were able to produce enough to satisfy the demand. By being efficient in the mines, the operators saw no need to increase the wages of all the workers, and did not seem to care if the strike would end. By June the demand for coal began to increase and some operators decided to pay the works their original salaries before the wage cut. However, not all demands across the country were met and some workers continued to strike, which caused harm to the young union. The most important goal of the 1894 strike was not the restoration of wages, but rather the establishment of the UMWA as a cooperation at a national level.
Lattimer Massacre
Lattimer massacre
The Lattimer massacre was the violent deaths of 19 unarmed striking immigrant anthracite coal miners at the Lattimer mine near Hazleton, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 1897. The miners, mostly of Polish, Slovak, Lithuanian and German ethnicity, were shot and killed by a Luzerne County sheriff's...

- September 10, 1897. 19 miners were killed by police in Lattimer, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

during a march in support of unions.
Battle of Virden
Battle of Virden
The Battle of Virden was a labor union conflict in Virden, southern Illinois, involving the United Mine Workers of America in October 1898. The battle left four security guards and seven striking mine workers dead, with more than 30 people wounded....

- October 1898. Part of the larger mine wars that established Illinois as the leading union state in the country, and a reason that Mary Harris "Mother" Jones is buried at Mount Olive, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

.
Colorado Labor Wars
Colorado Labor Wars
Colorado's most significant battles between labor and capital occurred primarily between miners and mine operators. In these battles the state government, with one clear exception, always took the side of the mine operators....

- October 1903. The United Mine Workers conducted a strike in Colorado, called in October of 1903 by President Mitchell, and lasting into 1904. The strike, while overshadowed by a simultaneous strike conducted by the Western Federation of Miners
Western Federation of Miners
The Western Federation of Miners was a radical labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and smelter workers brought it into sharp conflicts – and often pitched battles...

among hard rock miners in the Cripple Creek District
Cripple Creek Historic District
Cripple Creek Historic District is a historic district including Cripple Creek, Colorado, USA and is significant for its gold mining era history.It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.Many Cripple Creek buildings post-date the gold mining era...

, nonetheless contributed to the labor struggles in Colorado which came to be called the Colorado Labor Wars. The United Mine Workers effort was notorious for beatings inflicted upon traveling union officers and organizers, which ultimately helped to break the strike. These beatings were a mystery until the 1907 release of The Pinkerton Labor Spy
The Pinkerton Labor Spy
The Pinkerton Labor Spy is a nonfiction book published in 1907 as an exposé of intrigue and abuses by the Pinkerton Detective Agency in general, and by chief agent James McParland in particular....

by Morris Friedman
Morris Friedman
Morris Friedman was, until 1905, the private stenographer for Pinkerton detective James McParland. Friedman came to the attention of the public when he published an exposé of anti-union actions by the private detective industry which was called The Pinkerton Labor Spy.The book focused in particular...

, which revealed that the organization had been infiltrated by labor spies
Labor spies
Labor spies are persons recruited or employed for the purpose of gathering intelligence, committing sabotage, sowing dissent, or engaging in other similar activities, typically within the context of an employer/labor organization relationship....

from the Pinkerton agency
Pinkerton National Detective Agency
The Pinkerton National Detective Agency, usually shortened to the Pinkertons, is a private U.S. security guard and detective agency established by Allan Pinkerton in 1850. Pinkerton became famous when he claimed to have foiled a plot to assassinate president-elect Abraham Lincoln, who later hired...

.
Westmoreland County Coal Strike
Westmoreland County Coal Strike of 1910–1911
The Westmoreland County Coal Strike of 1910–1911 was a strike by coal miners represented by the United Mine Workers of America. The strike is also known as the "Slovak strike" because about 70 percent of the miners were Slovak immigrants....

- 1910-1911, a 16-month coal strike in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

led largely by Slovak
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

miners, this strike involved 15,000 coal miners. Sixteen people were killed during the strike, nearly all of them striking miners or members of their families.
Ludlow Massacre
Ludlow massacre
The Ludlow Massacre was an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado on April 20, 1914....

- April 20, 1914. 20 people, including women and children, killed when armed police, hired guns, and Colorado National Guardsmen
United States National Guard
The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. Militia members are citizen soldiers, meaning they work part time for the National...

broke up a tent colony formed by families of miners who had been evicted from company-owned housing.
Matewan, West Virginia
Matewan, West Virginia
Matewan is a town in Mingo County, West Virginia, USA at the confluence of the Tug Fork River and Mate Creek. The population was 498 at the 2000 census...

- May 19, 1920. 12 men were killed in a gunfight between town residents and the Baldwin Felts Detective Agency, hired by mine owners. This is depicted in the John Sayles
John Sayles
John Thomas Sayles is an American independent film director, screenwriter and author.-Early life:Sayles was born in Schenectady, New York, the son of Mary , a teacher, and Donald John Sayles, a school administrator. He was raised Catholic and took to labeling himself "a Catholic atheist"...

film Matewan
Matewan
Matewan is an American drama film written and directed by John Sayles, illustrating the events of a coal mine-workers' strike and attempt to unionize in 1920 in Matewan, a small town in the hills of West Virginia....

.
The 'Redneck War' - 1920-21. Generally viewed as beginning with the Matewan Massacre, this conflict involved the struggle to unionize the southwestern area of West Virginia. It led to the march of 10,000 armed miners on the county seat at Logan, ending in the Battle of Blair Mountain
Battle of Blair Mountain
The Battle of Blair Mountain was one of the largest civil uprisings in United States history and the largest armed insurrection since the American Civil War...

in which the miners fought state militia, local police, and mine guards. These events are depicted in the 1987 novel Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina and the 2005 novel Blair Mountain by Jonathan Lynn.
the 1920 Alabama coal strike
1920 Alabama coal strike
The 1920 Alabama coal strike was a statewide strike of the United Mine Workers of America against coal mine operators. The strike was marked by racial violence, and ended in significant defeat for the union.- Conditions :...

, a lengthy, violent, expensive and fruitless attempt to achieve union recognition in the coal mines around Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...

left 16 dead, including one lynching.
The Herrin massacre
Herrin massacre
The Herrin Massacre took place in June 1922 in Herrin, Illinois. Three union miners were killed in a strike-related confrontation on June 21. The following day, 19 of of fifty strikebreakers and union guards were killed, many of them in a brutal way...

occurred in June 1922 in Herrin, Illinois
Herrin, Illinois
Herrin is a city in Williamson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 12,501 at the 2010 census. It is home to Country Musicstar David Lee Murphy, the hometown of baseball's Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman, and the hometown of San Diego State University men's basketball coach Steve...

. 19 strikebreakers and 2 union miners were killed in mob action between June 21–22, 1922.

The Pittston strike

The Pittston Coal strike

Pittston Coal strike

The Pittston Coal strike was a United States labor union action led by the United Mine Workers Union against the Pittston Coal Company, nationally headquartered in Pittston, Pennsylvania. The strike, which lasted from April 5, 1989 to February 20, 1990, resulted from Pittston's termination of...

of 1989-1990 began as a result of a withdrawal of the Pittston Coal Group also known as the Pittston Company from the Bituminous Coal Operators Association (BCOA) and a refusal of the Pittston Coal group to pay the health insurance payments for miners who were already retired. The owner of the Pittston company at the time, Paul Douglas, left the BCOA because he wanted to be able to produce coal seven days a week and did not want his company to pay the fee for the insurance.

The Pittson company was seen as having inadequate safety standards after the Buffalo Creek flood

Buffalo Creek Flood

The Buffalo Creek Flood was a disaster that occurred on February 26, 1972, when the Pittston Coal Company's coal slurry impoundment dam #3, located on a hillside in Logan County, West Virginia, USA, burst four days after having been declared 'satisfactory' by a federal mine inspector.The resulting...

of 1972 in which 125 miners were killed. The company also was very financially unstable and in debt. The mines associated with the company were located mostly in Virginia, with mines also in West Virginia and Kentucky.

On 31 January 1988 Douglas cut off retirement and health care funds to about 1500 retired miners, widows of miners, and disabled miners. To avoid a strike, Douglas threatened that if a strike were to take place, that the miners would be replaced by other workers. The UMW called this action unjust and took the Pittston company to court.

Miners worked from January 1988 to April 1989 without a contract. Tension in the company grew and on 5 April 1989 the workers declared a strike. Many months of both violent and nonviolent strike actions took place. On 20 February 1990 a settlement was finally reached between the UMWA and the Pittston Coal Company.

BESCO Strike, Nova Scotia

District 26 of the UMWA in Sydney, Nova Scotia

Sydney, Nova Scotia

Sydney is a Canadian urban community in the province of Nova Scotia. It is situated on the east coast of Cape Breton Island and is administratively part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

struck in early March 1925 against the British Empire Steel Corporation

Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation

The Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation was a Canadian coal mining and steel manufacturing company.Incorporated in 1928 and operational in 1930, DOSCO was predated by the British Empire Steel Corporation which was a merger of the Dominion Coal Company, the Dominion Iron and Steel Company and the...

(BESCO). On June 4, the union pulled its men from a company power plant in New Waterford

New Waterford, Nova Scotia

New Waterford is a Canadian urban community in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality.-Geography:New Waterford is located north of Sydney and northwest of Glace Bay. It is named after the city of Waterford, in Ireland. It is located near the ocean and is bordered on one side by cliffs...

. More than fifty company police

Company police

Company police, also called private police, are police officers who work for a private company rather than a government agency.-United Kingdom:...

, many on horseback, occupied the plant on the morning of June 11. An estimated 700 - 3,000 miners and supporters gathered in New Waterford and marched to the power plant that morning. The company police opened fire when the crowd arrived and then charged the crowd on horseback, swinging nightclubs and firing revolvers. Miners fought back with stones and pulled police off horses. William Davis

William Davis (miner)

William Davis, , was a coal miner from Cape Breton Island. He was born in Gloucestershire, England and died in New Waterford, Nova Scotia....

, a miner, was shot dead and several others were wounded by gunfire or trampled by horses. After the riot ended, the miners sabotaged and disabled the power plant for the duration of the strike. Police and company officials that didn't escape the battle were locked up in the town jail. In the following nights, company stores were raided and burned, including the colliery building. The Canadian Army deployed thousands of soldiers to the area in the second largest deployment in history for civil unrest within Canada. The union later suspended the 100 percent strike, allowing maintenance workers to return.

The 1925 strike lasted through the summer and contributed to the bankruptcy and breakup of the BESCO conglomerate several years later. The strike against BESCO by UMWA 26 in the Sydney Coal Field was unprecedented for the violence and militancy exhibited by the company toward the striking miners and changed the labour dynamics in Industrial Cape Breton

Industrial Cape Breton

Industrial Cape Breton is a geographic region in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It refers to the eastern portion of Cape Breton County fronting the Atlantic Ocean on the southeastern part of Cape Breton Island.-Geography:...

Harlan County War

In the summer of 1973, workers at the Duke Power

Duke Energy

Duke Energy , headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is an energy company with assets in the United States, Canada and Latin America.-Overview:...

-owned Eastover Coal Company's Brookside Mine and Prep Plant in Harlan County, Kentucky

Harlan County, Kentucky

Harlan County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed in 1819. As of 2000, the population was 33,200. Its county seat is Harlan...

voted to join the union. Eastover management refused to sign the contract and the union went on strike. Duke Power brought in replacement non-union workers, who were attacked. Hogg, the local judge was a coal operator himself and consistently ruled for Eastover. During much of the strike the mine workers' wives and children joined the picket lines. Many were arrested, some hit by baseball bats, shot at, and struck by cars. One striking miner, Lawrence Jones, was shot and killed by a replacement worker.

Three months after returning to work, the national UMWA contract expired. On November 12, 1974, 120,000 miners nationwide walked off the job. The nationwide strike was bloodless and a tentative contract was achieved three weeks later. This opened the mines and reactivated the railroad haulers in time for Christmas. These events are depicted in the documentary film Harlan County, USA
Harlan County, USA
Harlan County, USA is an Oscar-winning 1976 documentary film covering the "Brookside Strike" or "Bloody Harlan", an effort of 180 coal miners and their wives against the Duke Power Company-owned Eastover Coal Company's Brookside Mine and Prep Plant in Harlan County, Kentucky in 1973...

.

Other strikes

On October 21, 1902, the five-month Coal Strike of 1902

Coal Strike of 1902

The Coal Strike of 1902 was a strike by the United Mine Workers of America in the anthracite coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania. Miners were on strike asking for higher wages, shorter workdays, and the recognition of their union...

, led by the United Mine Workers, ended.

In 1993, more than 7,500 United Mine Workers miners went on strike against the Peabody Coal Co., the nation's largest coal producer.

Internal conflict

The union's history has sometimes been marked by internal strife and corruption, including the 1969 murder of Joseph Yablonski

Joseph Yablonski

Joseph Albert "Jock" Yablonski was an American labor leader in the United Mine Workers in the 1950s and 1960s. He was murdered in 1969 by killers hired by a union political opponent, Mine Workers president W. A. Boyle...

, a reform candidate who lost a race for union president against incumbent W. A. Boyle. Boyle was later convicted of ordering the murder.

The killing of Yablonski resulted in the birth of a pro-democracy movement called the "Miners for Democracy" (MFD) which swept the Boyle regime out of office and replaced it with a group of leaders who had been most recently rank and file miners. Led by new president Arnold Miller

Arnold Miller

Arnold Miller was a miner and labor activist who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America , AFL-CIO, from 1972 to 1979.-Early life and mining career:...

, the new leadership enacted a series of reforms which gave UMWA members the right to elect their leaders at all levels of the union and to ratify the contracts under which they worked.

Decline of labor unionism in mining

Decreased faith in the UMW to support the rights of the miners caused many to leave the union. Coal demand was curbed by competition from other energy sources. The main cause of the decline in the union during the 1920s and 1930s was the introduction of more efficient and easily produced machines into the coal mines. In previous years, less than 41% of coal was cut by the machines. However by 1930, 81% was being cut by the machines and now there were machines that could also surface mine and load the coal into the trucks. With more machines that could do the same labor, unemployment in the mines grew and wages were cut back. As the problems grew, many people did not believe that the UMW could ever
become as powerful as it was before the start of the war. The decline in the union began in the 1920s and continued through the 1930s. Slowly the membership of the UMWA grew back up in numbers.

Decline in the 1970s

A general decline in union effectiveness characterized the 1970s and 1980s, leading to new kinds of activism, particularly in the late 1970s. Workers saw their unions back down in the face of aggressive management.

Other factors contributed to the decline in unionism generally and UMW specifically. The coal industry was not prepared economically to deal with such a drop in demand for coal. Demand for coal was very high during World War II, but decreased dramatically after the war, in part due to competition from other energy sources. In efforts to improve air quality, municipal governments started to ban the use of coal as household fuel. The end of wartime price controls introduced competition to produce cheaper coal, putting pressure on wages.

These problems—perceived weakness of the unions, loss of control over jobs, drop in demand, and competition—decreased the faith of miners in their union.
By 1998 the UMW had about 240,000 members, half the number that it had in 1946. As of the early 2000s, the union represents about 42 percent of all employed miners.

Political involvement

Throughout the years, the UMW has taken political stands and supported candidates to help achieve union goals.

The United Mine Workers ran candidate Frank Henry Sherman under the union banner in the 1905 Alberta general election

Alberta general election, 1905

The Alberta general election of 1905 was the first general election held in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on 9 November 1905, to elect members of the Alberta legislature to the 1st Alberta Legislative Assembly, shortly after the province was created out of the Northwest Territories...

. Sherman's candidacy was driven to appeal to the significant population of miners working in the camps of southern Alberta. He finished second in the Pincher Creek

Pincher Creek (provincial electoral district)

-1905 general election:The Pincher Creek electoral district was created in 1905 when Alberta became a province independent of the Northwest Territories. The district in its original boundaries occupied the southwestern region of the province when it was first created. The first general election...

electoral district.

The biggest conflict between the UMW and the government was while Franklin Roosevelt was president of the United States and John L. Lewis was president of the UMW. Originally, the two worked together well, but, after the 1937 strike of United Automobile Workers against General Motors, Lewis stopped trusting Roosevelt, claiming that Roosevelt had gone back on his word. This conflict led Lewis to resign as CIO

Congress of Industrial Organizations

The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by John L. Lewis in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not...

president. The problem between the two leaders increased up to and during World War II