Unsettled

2020 ◽  
pp. 119-138
Keyword(s):  
Return To Work ◽  
Gilded Age ◽  
Economic Change ◽  
Grassroots Activism ◽  
Coal Miners ◽  
Rural Workers ◽  
Union Leaders ◽  
United Mine Workers ◽  
United Mine ◽  
Mine Workers

This chapter examines the differences between union leaders and workers regarding union goals. As the 1893 depression set in, rural workers in multiple occupations mobilized to change the economic structures of Gilded Age society. The American Railway Union went on strike, and marchers across the country joined Jacob Coxey and other leaders in a populist push for social and economic change. Their efforts coincided with the centralization efforts of organizations like the United Mine Workers, which sought to capitalize on the grassroots activism by organizing nationwide strikes. Nonunion coal miners heartily joined strike efforts like the 1894 United Mine Workers coal strike, but they soon discovered that the union assumed more authority than the rank and file was willing to accept. As the officers reached a settlement and called off the strike without seeking approval from the rank and file, strikers refused to obey the order to return to work. Their refusal indicated that while workers were willing to use unions to achieve goals like earning higher pay, they rejected union leaders making decisions on their behalf.

“Judases”

2020 ◽  
pp. 67-92
Keyword(s):  
Gilded Age ◽  
Local Union ◽  
Union Leadership ◽  
Union Leaders ◽  
Union Decline ◽  
United Mine Workers ◽  
United Mine ◽  
Mine Workers

Chapter 3 examines the reasons that caused workers to leave or reject unions. Scholars normally associate union decline with workers disillusion with unionism. This chapter, however, argues that workers’ faith in unionism did not waver as much as their faith in union leaders did. As Gilded Age unions like the United Mine Workers implemented a more centralized hierarchy, local union autonomy waned. As a result, workers doubted whether union leaders made decisions with the workers’ interests in mind, and they left the union when it seemed their leaders went astray. Rather than abandoning unionism altogether, however, many of these individuals formed local unions that rivaled the national unions, indicating that workers had more problems with union leadership than they did with unionism itself.

Outsiders

2020 ◽  
pp. 93-118
Keyword(s):  
White Women ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Immigrant Workers ◽  
Union Leadership ◽  
Union Leaders ◽  
Highly Skilled ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
United Mine Workers ◽  
United Mine ◽  
Mine Workers

This chapter discusses the problems within unions that caused union leadership to treat members differently from one another. It argues that although union leaders often claimed the unions were open to all races and ethnicities, the efforts they pursued favored white laborers over people of color. Stereotypes that associated black miners with strikebreaking and construed non-English-speaking immigrant miners as unintelligent and unskilled cast a shadow over union procedures and the laws unions fought to secure. Even though farmers and white women had less experience in the mines, these individuals were welcomed far more readily than black and immigrant workers who were often highly skilled in the mining trades. In the end, the exclusivity practiced by organizations like the United Mine Workers alienated nonwhite and non-English-speaking workers, giving these groups little reason to join union ranks

Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Paul A. Shackel
Keyword(s):  
Coal Industry ◽  
State Legislators ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Union Leaders ◽  
United Mine Workers ◽  
United Mine ◽  
Mine Workers ◽  
Northeastern Pennsylvania

Toward the middle of 1897, the UMW (United Mine Workers), later known as the UMWA (United Mine Workers of America), began a strategic push to enroll members in the union in the anthracite region of northeastern Pennsylvania. During several weeks of protest and strikes in mid-August and early September 1897, union leaders began organizing many of the foreign-born, unnaturalized workers in and around Hazleton, Pennsylvania, one of the largest coal industry and commercial support centers in the region. Ironically, earlier that year the UMWA was instrumental in convincing state legislators to pass an anti-immigrant bill that would tax employers for each non-U.S. citizen worker on their payroll. In turn, the coal companies deducted this tax from the workers’ salaries....

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Keyword(s):  
Gilded Age ◽  
Knights Of Labor ◽  
United Mine Workers ◽  
Two Sides ◽  
United Mine ◽  
Mine Workers

This section presents an overview of the book. It sketches out the conflicts between corporations and Gilded Age unions, like the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers. It argues that workers were frequently situated between the two sides. Workers’ goals to increase their economic standings at times pulled workers into unions, but in other instances just as easily pulled them into the capitalist mindset of their employers.

Marking Labor History on the National Landscape: The Restored Ludlow Memorial and its Significance

2009 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-25
Author(s):  
James Green ◽  
Elizabeth Jameson
Keyword(s):  
Labor History ◽  
Coal Miners ◽  
Ludlow Massacre ◽  
United Mine Workers ◽  
United Mine ◽  
Mine Workers

In 1915 officers of the United Mine Workers of America purchased forty acres of land north of the Ludlow, Colorado train depot on land where a tent colony had sheltered coal miners and their families during the 1913–1914 southern Colorado coal strike. Three years later, the union dedicated a memorial of Vermont granite on the site in memory of those who died there April 20, 1914, in the Ludlow Massacre.

Undermined

2020 ◽  
pp. 43-66
Keyword(s):  
Labor Unions ◽  
Gilded Age ◽  
Profit Motive ◽  
Small Companies ◽  
Labor Organizations ◽  
Rural Workers ◽  
Union Leaders ◽  
Personal Incomes

This chapter looks at the capitalist endeavors rural workers and farmers pursued in the Gilded Age. Although they condemned their employers for cutting costs to increase their profit, rural workers often pursued capitalist gain in ways similar to their bosses. Farmer and laborers' decisions to work extra jobs, purchase stock shares, or jointly own small companies often caused rural workers to see themselves as businessmen or capitalists. As with corporations, profit motive quickly undermined collective agendas, sometimes even with cooperatives run by labor organizations. Workers took shortcuts, accepted less pay, undercut their coworkers, and broke neighbors’ strikes all because these actions increased their personal incomes. Ultimately, this need to earn greater profit shaped worker relationships with labor unions. In some cases, workers worked lower than union wages. In other instances, union leaders, concerned about the sustainability of their organizations, ordered workers to accept wage reductions rather than strike. This stance frequently angered laborers who cared more about securing their immediate incomes than reaching their union’s long-term goals.

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