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United Mine Workers of America
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8315 Lee Hwy. Fairfax, VA 22031-2215 VA Tel. 703-208-7200 Fax 703-208-7227 |
Type: Private - Labor Union
On the web:
http://www.umwa.org
Employees:
6
Employee growth: (14.3%)
The United Mine Workers of America is a bit of misnomer. While the labor union still represents coal miners and clean coal technicians throughout the US and Canada, it also welcomes truck drivers, school board employees, and health care professionals to its 100,000-plus active members and retirees. The group helps members organize for workers' rights, publishes newsletters, lobbies congress, and disseminates information on health, safety, and welfare issues for miners as well as political and economic concerns. The labor union also runs a Career Center in Pennsylvania to train new miners. Founded in 1890, the United Mine Workers of American is affiliated with the AFL-CIO and the Central Labor Council.
Key numbers for fiscal year ending September, 2007:
Sales: $361.0M
One year growth: 135.8%
Net income: $50.6M
Officers:
International President: Cecil E. Roberts Jr.
International Secretary and Treasurer: Daniel J. Kane
| US History Encyclopedia: United Mine Workers of America |
United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), a labor union founded in 1890 by bituminous coal miners from the United States and Canada who met to consolidate the union efforts of the Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 35 and the National Progressive Union of Miners and Mine Laborers. The UMWA was organized industrially (meaning that it represented miners as well as other workers who labored in and around the mines) and was one of the first interethnic and interracial affiliates of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Throughout the 1890s, organizers worked to build the union and gain recognition, finally achieving these goals for the majority of its members after the victorious 1897 strike. In January 1898, operators and UMWA representatives met in a joint conference and signed the first agreement; it included union recognition, wage increases, the check off system (operators' guarantee that union dues would be deducted from wages), uniform standards for weighing coal (which determined wage rates), and the eight-hour day for coal mine workers in the Central Competitive Field (Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana).
The 1898 agreement was a tremendous achievement for miners and organized labor. It allowed the industry to overcome much of the economic chaos, price fluctuations, and imbalanced supply and demand of coal, which wreaked havoc on mineworkers and operators alike. In addition, the check off system ensured funding for continued organizing efforts, expansion of representation in the mines, and knowledgeable organizers who lent their expertise to union drives in other industries. But the UMWA's success was tempered by the union's limited reach. While it had members in regions beyond the Central Competitive Field—Kansas, Alabama, Iowa, West Virginia, and Wyoming, for example—operators in these states refused to engage in collective bargaining.
The UMWA's efforts to strengthen and build its organization continued through the first decades of the twentieth century. The success was a product of the organizational structure, rank-and-file militancy, and strategic leadership, starting with John Mitchell. Mitchell expanded organizing efforts into Maryland, Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, and Arkansas and consolidated the UMWA's control in Kentucky, Alabama, and Indiana. One of Mitchell's most controversial decisions concerned the fight for union recognition in Pennsylvania's anthracite field. Railroad companies controlled most of the mining interests in that state and refused to bargain collectively. In 1902, miners attempted to change this. Though they failed in their effort for recognition, Mitchell claimed the strike a victory because the UMWA was able to win public support and governmental backing for the cause. The strike had worn on for months when President Theodore Roosevelt hosted a meeting between operators and union officials in hopes of settling the conflict. In the end, the miners won wage increases and publicity through the establishment of an investigating commission; in addition, a board was established to hear grievances. Many union members believed that Mitchell had acquiesced at a moment when the strike, and therefore recognition, could have been won. Mitchell's decision did reveal a more conservative trade unionism, something his critics condemned. Indeed, the tension between conservatives and radicals in the movement threatened to undermine the miners' union from the Progressive Era through the Great Depression.
Miners' militancy shaped the UMWA and union culture throughout the United States. At the onset of the Great Depression, United Mine Workers' members reinvigorated the campaign to change the craft structure of the AFL. At the forefront of this movement was John L. Lewis, leader of the miners' union since 1919. Lewis was ambitious, heavy-handed, sharp-witted, and controversial. His post–World War I strategy to maintain wages rather than jobs made him both hated and beloved, and his autocratic rule is blamed for a revolt within the union which was not overcome until the early 1930s. These experiences seem to have had a profound impact on Lewis. In 1935, he led an insurgency of industrial unionists in the AFL who formed the Committee for Industrial Organization (later the Congress of Industrial Organizations, CIO). Within three years, the UMWA, along with four million other organized workers and thirty-eight unions, affiliated with the CIO. The connection between the two organizations was tenuous, and in 1947, the miners broke with the CIO, affiliating again with the AFL-CIO in 1989.
During the first part of the century, the UMWA concerned itself with recognition, uniform wage scales, and building the organization. After World War II, its main concern became advocating coal as a viable energy source and winning health and safety reforms. Membership in the 1950s and 1960s began to decline because mechanization and the country's move to cleaner fuel meant fewer jobs. But miners were also disenchanted with a corrupt leadership. Tony Boyle, president from 1963 to 1972, was convicted of the murder of his rival, Joseph Yablonski and his family. As a part of the Miners for Democracy (MFD) movement, Yablonski had challenged Boyle's leadership and questioned his honesty. The MFD won control of the union in 1972 and began a legacy of reform in the last quarter of the twentieth century. By the end of the twentieth century, the UMWA was once again at the forefront of changes within the AFL-CIO.
As of 2002, the United Mine Workers of America was about half the size it had been at midcentury, but it continues its legacy of fighting for economic and social justice.
Bibliography
Baratz, Morton S. The Union and the Coal Industry. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1955.
Coleman, McAlister. Men and Coal. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1969.
Fox, Maier B. United We Stand: The United Mine Workers of America, 1890–1990. Washington, D.C.: United Mine Workers of America, 1990.
Long, Priscilla. Where the Sun Never Shines: A History of America's Bloody Coal Industry. New York: Paragon, 1989.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: United Mine Workers of America |
United Mine Workers of America (UMW), international labor union formed (1890) by the amalgamation of the National Progressive Union (organized 1888) and the mine locals under the Knights of Labor. It is an industrial union, including all workers in the coal industry. The lack of continuity of employment, the prevalence of company-owned towns, and the extreme occupational hazards have led to numerous strikes and constant efforts to improve conditions by collective bargaining.
Earlier unions of miners in the United States had been the American Miners' Association (founded 1860); the Miners' National Association of the United States of America (founded 1873); the Ohio Miners' Amalgamated Association (founded 1882), later to become (1883) the Amalgamated Association of Miners of the United States; and the National Federation of Miners and Mine Workers (founded 1885). The newly formed UMW affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The UMW strengthened its position in 1894 and 1897 by successful strikes, and in 1898, under the leadership of John Mitchell, the fight for an 8-hour workday was won. A no-strike pledge was kept during World War I, but strikes in 1919-20 led to the establishment by the U.S. government of the Bituminous Coal Commission, which awarded the miners a substantial wage increase. In 1920 the anthracite operators recognized the UMW as a bargaining body.
John L. Lewis became president of the union in 1920, and under his militant leadership most of the union's aims were accomplished, including a health and welfare fund assuring a pension of $100 per month to all miners over 62. The UMW was a leader in the formation (1935) of the Committee for Industrial Organization (later the Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO) and was expelled from the AFL in 1937. In 1942, however, the UMW withdrew from the CIO. A strike (1943) during World War II brought about governmental seizure of the mines. Strikes in 1945-47, although successful, cost both Lewis and the union heavy fines for violation of the injunction barring the union from striking. The UMW was readmitted to the AFL in Jan., 1946, but was again disaffiliated in 1947, when Lewis refused to sign the non-Communist affidavit required by the Taft-Hartley Labor Act. Lewis resigned as union president in 1959, and his place was taken in 1960 by Thomas Kennedy, long a vice president of the UMW.
Upon the death of Kennedy, W. A. (Tony) Boyle was elected (1963) president. Throughout the 1960s, Boyle was increasingly criticized by a portion of the rank and file membership. Dissidents rallied to the campaign of Joseph A. Yablonski in 1969, but Yablonski lost to Boyle. A few weeks later Yablonski was murdered. In 1972, Boyle and other top union officials were convicted of making illegal political contributions with union funds. In the same year a federal judge invalidated the 1969 election, and Arnold Miller, a Yablonski supporter, defeated Boyle for the presidency. Miller immediately set about reforming the union by replacing Boyle appointees, stopping Boyle's pension, and reducing the salaries of union officials. In 1974 Boyle, charged with having ordered Yablonski's killing, was convicted of murder.
Since World War II, automation, the popularity of other energy sources, and the establishment of nonunion mining operations have produced a long-term decline in the union's power. Richard Trumka became head of the union in 1982, and in 1989 the UMW reentered the AFL-CIO. When Trumka became secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO in 1995, Cecil E. Roberts, Jr., succeeded him as UMW president. In 1998 the UMW had about 240,000 members, far below the half million members it had in 1946; a decade later there were only 105,000 members.
Bibliography
See M. S. Baratz, The Union and the Coal Industry (1955); C. Seltzer, Fire in the Hole (1985); M. Dubofsky, John L. Lewis (1986); P. Long, Where the Sun Never Shines (1989); J. H. M. Laslett, The United Mine Workers of America: A Model of Industrial Solidarity? (1996).
| Wikipedia: United Mine Workers |
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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (September 2007) |
| United Mine Workers of America | |
| Founded | January 22, 1890 |
|---|---|
| Country | United States, Canada |
| Affiliation | AFL-CIO, CLC |
| Key people | Cecil Roberts, president |
| Office location | Washington, D.C., United States |
| Website | www.umwa.org |
The United Mine Workers of America (UMW or UMWA) is a North American labor union that represents not only coal miners, but also clean coal technicians, health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees throughout the United States and Canada.[1] One of the groups in the forefront of the fight for collective bargaining in the early 20th century, the UMW was founded in Columbus, Ohio, on January 22, 1890, by the merger of two earlier groups, the Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 and the National Progressive Union of Miners and Mine Laborers. It was modeled after the American Federation of Labor (AFL).
After passage of the National Recovery Act in 1933, organizers spread out throughout the United States to organize all coal miners.
During the 1930s the UMWA was often thought by many men in the field as being too involved in "Washington Politics" spawning such alternative unions such as the Progressive Mine Workers.
Famous UMWA leaders include John Mitchell, co-founder Phil Penna and John L. Lewis.
Contents |
Achievements
- An eight-hour work day in 1898.
- Collective bargaining rights in 1933.[citation needed]
- In 1969, the UMWA convinced the United States Congress to enact the landmark Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act which provided compensation for miners suffering from Black Lung Disease.
Violent clashes
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 - This nationwide strike was called when the union was hardly three years old. The national guard was mobilized in several states to prevent or control violent clashes between strikers and strike breakers. The two-month strike almost ruined the young union.
- Lattimer Massacre - September 10, 1897. 19 miners were killed by police in Lattimer, Pennsylvania, during a march in support of unions.
- Battle of Virden - October 1898. Part of the larger mine wars that established Illinois as the leading union state in the country, and the reason that Mary Harris "Mother" Jones is buried at Mt. Olive, Illinois
- Ludlow Massacre - April 20, 1914. 20 people, including women and children, killed when armed police, hired guns, and Colorado National Guardsmen broke up a tent colony formed by families of miners who had been evicted from company-owned housing.
- Matewan, West Virginia - 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 film Matewan.
- 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 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 Herrin massacre occurred in June 1922 in Herrin, Illinois. 19 strikebreakers and 2 union miners were killed in mob action between June 21-22, 1922.
Organized politics
The United Mine Workers ran candidate Frank Henry Sherman under their union banner in the 1905 Alberta general election. Sherman's candidacy was driven to appeal to the significant population of miners working in the camps of southern Alberta.[2] He finished second in the Pincher Creek electoral district.
BESCO Strike, Nova Scotia
District 26 of the UMWA in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada struck in early March 1925 against the British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO). On June 4, the union pulled its men from a company power plant in New Waterford. More than fifty company police, 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, 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.
Harlan County War
In the summer of 1973, workers at the Duke Power-owned Eastover Coal Company's Brookside Mine and Prep Plant in Harlan County, Kentucky 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. He was accused of being paid off by the company.[citation needed] 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, Bill Bruner. Bruner served no time for the murder.[citation needed]
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.
Other strikes
On October 21, 1902, the five-month Coal Strike of 1902, 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.[3]
Internal conflict
The union's more recent history has sometimes been marked by internal strife and corruption, including the 1969 murder of Joseph Yablonski, 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, 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.
2008 Election
After tapes surfaced directly quoting President candidate Barack Obama as saying "So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”, United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil E. Roberts issued the following statement:
“Sen. John McCain and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, have once again demonstrated that they are willing to say anything and do anything to win this election. Their latest twisting of the truth is about coal and some comments Sen. Obama made last January about the future use of coal in America.
“Here is what the McCain campaign left out of Sen. Obama’s actual words: ‘But this notion of no coal, I think, is an illusion. Because the fact of the matter is, is that right now we are getting a lot of our energy from coal. And China is building a coal-powered plant once a week. So what we have to do then is figure out how can we use coal without emitting greenhouse gases and carbon. And how can we sequester that carbon and capture it.’
“Sen. Obama has been consistent with that message not just in the coalfields, but everywhere else he goes as well. Despite what the McCain campaign and some far right-wing blogs would have Americans believe, Sen. Obama has been and remains a tremendous supporter of coal and the future of coal.
“I noted that Sen. McCain even went so far yesterday as to say he has always been a supporter of coal. I wonder, then, how he can justify his statement at a Senate hearing in 2000 that, ‘In a perfect world we would like to transition away from coal entirely,’ and his leading role in sponsoring legislation in 2003 that would have wiped out 78 percent of all coal production in America?
“Fortunately, UMWA members, their families and their friends and neighbors in the coalfields know all too well what is going on here. They’re not going to fall for it, and we urge others throughout America who care about coal to review what the candidates’ records on coal actually are. We are confident that once they do, and once they see the many other benefits to working families of voting for Sen. Obama, they will make the right choice for themselves and their families."[4]
Decline of labor unionism in mining
Automation and a general decline in American unions cut heavily into the UMW's membership after World War II. In 1998 the UMW had about 240,000 members, half the number it had in 1946. In the early 2000s, the union represented about 42 percent of all employed miners. The UMW is most powerful in West Virginia, as well as in Montana and other western states.
List of UMWA presidents
- John B. Rae - 1890-1892 (founding president)
- John McBride - 1892-1895
- Phil Penna - 1895-1896
- Michael Ratchford - 1897-1898
- John Mitchell - 1898-1907
- Thomas Lewis - 1908-1910
- John White - 1911-1917
- Frank Hayes - 1917-1920
- John L. Lewis - 1920-1960
- Thomas Kennedy - 1960-1963
- W. A. "Tony" Boyle - 1963-1972
- Arnold Miller - 1972-1979
- Sam Church - 1979-1982
- Richard Trumka - 1982-1995
- Cecil Roberts - 1995-present
References
- ^ United Mine Workers of America, [1]
- ^ Brown, George; David M. Hayne, Francess G. Halpenny, Ramsay Cook (1966). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. University of Toronto Press. pp. 950. ISBN 0802039987.
- ^ "The Almanac -- weekly". Jan 27, 2009. http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/almanac----weekly/story.aspx?guid={D7AC1A0C-DAFA-42EE-A8C9-5BBB9E237651}&dist=msr_1. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
- ^ http://www.umwa.org/index.php?q=news/mccain-campaign%E2%80%99s-last-minute-distortion-obama%E2%80%99s-coal-record-act-desperation
External links
- Justice at Peabody current campaign website
- Remember Virden: documentary on the mine wars in Illinois
- West Virginia's Mine Wars
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