The
United Mine Workers Union (UMWA) was founded in Ohio in 1890. British
immigrants played an important role in the early days of the organization.
John Rae, he first president, was originally from Scotland
and the first secretary, Robert Watchorn, came from Derbyshire in
England.
Under the leadership of John Mitchell
(1898-1907) the union grew rapidly and he organised successful strikes
in the bituminous and anthracite coal fields in 1897 and 1902. William
B. Wilson and
Mary 'Mother' Jones were other important
figures in the UMWA during this period. Mitchell was followed by T.
L. Lewis (1908-1910), John P. White (1911-17) and Frank Hayes (1917-19).
In 1919 John L. Lewis became acting UMWA
president when ill-health prevented Hayes from carrying out his duties.
Lewis was elected president in 1920 and remained in the post for the
next 40 years. With growing unemployment in the 1930s, membership
of the UMWA fell from 500,000 to less than 100,000.
In the 1940s Lewis led a series of strikes that resulted in increased
wages for miners. This resulted a growth in union members to 500,000.
Congress responded to the success of unions such as the UMWA by passing
the Taft-Hartley Act (1947) that placed
new restrictions on trade unions.
When John L. Lewis retired in 1960 the
union went through a difficult period. Thomas Kennedy, the next president
(1960-63) was followed by Tony Boyle (1963-72) However, he was convicted
of the murder of the union activist, Joseph Yablonski and his wife
and daughter. Arnold Miller (1972-79) replaced Boyle and he was followed
by Sam Church (1979-82), Richard Trumka (1982-1995). In 1964 the union
had 450,000 members but by the 1990s this had fallen to 200,000.
(1)
John
Mitchell,
Organized Labor (1903)
No one can understand the true nature
of trade unionism without understanding the industrial revolution
and what it is accomplished. The history of mankind has been more
virtually affected by changes in its machines and its methods of doing
business than by any action or counsel of statesmen or philosophers.
What we call the modern world, with its huge populations, its giant
cities, its political democracy, its growing intensity of life, its
contrasts of wealth and poverty - this great, whirling, restless civilization,
with all its vexing problems, is the offspring merely of changed methods
of producing wealth.
The condition of workmen in the textile and other factories was incredibly
bad. The day's work was constantly lengthened, in some cases to fourteen,
sixteen, and more hours, and while not difficult, the labor was confining
and nerve-wearing. There was little provision for the safety of the
workman, and terrible accidents were a matter of daily occurrence
in the crowded mills and factories. Periods of feverish activity,
during which men were worked beyond the limit of human endurance,
were succeeded by still more harassing periods of depression, when
thousands of men were thrown into the street.
The labor organization as it exists today is the product of a long
evolution. The constitution of the trade union, its by-laws, its customs
and traditions, its practices and policies have all been the result
of a gradual working out of particular remedies for particular problems.
The constitution of the trade union, moreover, has been evolved by
and through the efforts of workingmen. The trade union is a government
of workingmen, by workingmen, for workingmen, and the framers of its
constitution have been workingmen.
(2)
In
her autobiography
