Today in Labor History March 6, 1978: President Jimmy Carter invoked the Taft-Hartley law to quash the 1977-78 national contract strike by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). The UMWA had been on strike since December 1977, but rejected a tentative contract agreement in early March, 1978. Carter invoked the national emergency provision of Taft-Hartley and ordered strikers back to work. They ignored the order and the government did little to enforce it. By late March, they reached a settlement. Taft-Hartley was enacted in the wake of the strike wave of 1945-1946 and was designed to prevent solidarity strikes and General Strikes. Until the recent General Strike in Minneapolis, the last General Strikes in U.S. history occurred in 1946 in Lancaster, PA; Stamford, CT; Rochester, NY; and Oakland, CA, just prior to the creation of Taft-Hartley.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #strike #GeneralStrike #union #solidarity #TaftHartley #oakland #UMWA #POTUS #UnitedMineWorkers

Today in Labor History February 12, 1880: John L. Lewis was born. He was president of the United Mine Workers (UMWA) from 1920-1960, and founder of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). In 1935, he pulled the UMWA from the American Federation of Labor (and punched out Carpenters Union President William Hutcheson in the process) when the AFL refused to endorse industrial unionism. Lewis then formed the CIO, which organized millions of unskilled, mass production workers into unions in the 1930s and 1940s. In the 1920s, he used red-baiting, stolen elections and violence to expel the communists from the UMWA. Yet he refused to make his officials take the non-Communism oath required by the Taft-Hartley bill. Canadian labor leader J.B. McLachlan called Lewis a traitor to the working class.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #cio #union #communism #TaftHartley #JohnLewis #UnitedMineWorkers #IndustrialUnionism

Today in Labor History January 22, 1890: The Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 and the National Progressive Miners Union merged to form the United Mine Workers of America. Their initial goals were improved mine safety, independence from company stores, and collective bargaining. In 1898, they won the 8-hour day. By the 1930s, the UMW had over 800,000 members. However, their history was filled with bloody strikes. On April 3, 1891, deputized members of the National Guard killed at least 10 striking UMW members in the Morewood massacre. The cops killed 19 striking UMW members in the Lattimer Massacre, September 10, 1897. Eight UMW members and five private detectives died in the Battle of Virden, in October 1898.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #KnightsOfLabor #union #UnitedMineWorkers #umw #strike #massacre #mining #eighthourday #workplacesafety #police

April 18, 1912 - Members of the United Mine Workers of America on Paint Creek in Kanawha County, West Virginia, demanded wages equal to those of other area mines. The operators rejected the wage increase and miners walked off the job. Miners along nearby Cabin Creek, having previously lost their union, joined the Paint Creek strikers and demanded:

• the right to organize
• recognition of their constitutional rights to free speech and assembly
• an end to blacklisting union organizers
• alternatives to company stores
• an end to the practice of using mine guards
• prohibition of cribbing
• installation of scales at all mines for accurately weighing coal
• unions be allowed to hire their own checkweighmen to make sure the companies' checkweighmen were not cheating the miners.

When the strike began, operators brought in mine guards from the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency to evict miners and their families from company houses. The evicted miners set up tent colonies and lived in other makeshift housing. The mine guards' primary responsibility was to break the strike by making the lives of the miners as uncomfortable as possible.

#UnitedMineWorkers #PaintCreek

Today in Labor History March 6, 1978: President Jimmy Carter invoked the Taft-Hartley law to quash the 1977-78 national contract strike by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). The UMWA had been on strike since December 1977, but rejected a tentative contract agreement in early March, 1978. Carter invoked the national emergency provision of Taft-Hartley and ordered strikers back to work. They ignored the order and the government did little to enforce it. By late March, they reached a settlement. Taft-Hartley was enacted in the wake of the strike wave of 1945-1946 and was designed to prevent solidarity strikes and General Strikes. The last General Strike in U.S. history (Lancaster, PA; Stamford, CT; Rochester, NY; and Oakland, CA) occurred just prior to Taft-Hartley.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #strike #GeneralStrike #union #solidarity #TaftHartley #oakland #UMWA #POTUS #UnitedMineWorkers

Today in Labor History January 22, 1890: The Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 and the National Progressive Miners Union merged to form the United Mine Workers of America. Their initial goals were improved mine safety, independence from company stores, and collective bargaining. In 1898, they won the 8-hour day. By the 1930s, the UMW had over 800,000 members. However, their history was filled with bloody strikes. On April 3, 1891, deputized members of the National Guard killed at least 10 striking UMW members in the Morewood massacre. The cops killed 19 striking UMW members in the Lattimer Massacre, September 10, 1897. Eight UMW members and five private detectives died in the Battle of Virden, in October 1898.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #KnightsOfLabor #union #UnitedMineWorkers #umw #strike #massacre #mining #eighthourday #workplacesafety #police

Today in Labor History March 6, 1978: President Jimmy Carter invoked the Taft-Hartley law to quash the 1977-78 national contract strike by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). The UMWA had been on strike since December 1977, but rejected a tentative contract agreement in early March, 1978. Carter invoked the national emergency provision of Taft-Hartley and ordered strikers back to work. They ignored the order and the government did little to enforce it. By late March, they reached a settlement. Taft-Hartley was enacted in the wake of the strike wave of 1945-1946 and was designed to prevent solidarity strikes and General Strikes. The last General Strike in U.S. history (Lancaster, PA; Stamford, CT; Rochester, NY; and Oakland, CA) occurred just prior to Taft-Hartley.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #strike #GeneralStrike #union #solidarity #TaftHartley #oakland #UMWA #POTUS #UnitedMineWorkers #solidarity

Today in Labor History January 22, 1890: The Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 and the National Progressive Miners Union merged to form the United Mine Workers of America. Their initial goals were improved mine safety, independence from company stores, and collective bargaining. In 1898, they won the 8-hour day. By the 1930s, the UMW had over 800,000 members. However, their history was filled with bloody strikes. On April 3, 1891, deputized members of the National Guard killed at least 10 striking UMW members in the Morewood massacre. The cops killed 19 striking UMW members in the Lattimer Massacre, September 10, 1897. Eight UMW members and five private detectives died in the Battle of Virden, in October 1898.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #KnightsOfLabor #union #UnitedMineWorkers #umw #strike #massacre #mining #eighthourday #workplacesafety #police

Today in Labor History February 12, 1880: John L. Lewis was born. He was president of the United Mine Workers (UMWA) from 1920-1960, and founder of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). In 1935, he pulled the UMWA from the American Federation of Labor (and punched out Carpenters Union President William Hutcheson in the process) when the AFL refused to endorse industrial unionism. Lewis then formed the CIO, which organized millions of unskilled, mass production workers into unions in the 1930s and 1940s. In the 1920s, he used red-baiting, stolen elections and violence to expel the communists from the UMWA. Yet he refused to make his officials take the non-Communism oath required by the Taft-Hartley bill. Canadian labor leader J.B. McLachlan called Lewis a traitor to the working class.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #cio #union #communism #TaftHartley #JohnLewis #UnitedMineWorkers #IndustrialUnionism

Today in Labor History January 22, 1890: The Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 and the National Progressive Miners Union merged to form the United Mine Workers of America. Their initial goals were improved mine safety, impendence from company stores, and collective bargaining. In 1898, they won the 8-hour day. By the 1930s, the UMW had over 800,000 members. However, their history was filled with bloody strikes. On April 3, 1891, deputized members of the National Guard killed at least 10 striking UMW members in the Morewood massacre. The cops killed 19 striking UMW members in the Lattimer Massacre, September 10, 1897. Eight UMW members and five private detectives died in the Battle of Virden, in October 1898.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #KnightsOfLabor #UnitedMineWorkers #umw #strike #massacre #mining #8hourday