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The United Mine Workers Of America (UMW)

1451 Words6 Pages

The adopted Constitution in 1787, and later amendments, carried a guarantee of human rights, including the equality for all citizens of the United States. Nonetheless, at the beginning of 20th century, this was only on paper, not in practice: women were not allowed to vote, and black people’s rights were not on equal terms with their white counterparts. However, one of the most complex subjects was economic inequality between the capitalists and workers. Labourers formed first labour unions already at the beginning of the US history, although these had little effect and were dissolved soon. In the 1890s, the coal industry offered a large-scale employment and was controlled by a few major railroad companies. These companies established an absolute monopoly, having made it difficult for miners to fight for their demands. The UMW The United Mine Workers of America (UMW) was formed in 1890 by merging two smaller circles with the main purpose to balance the power between the mine workers and industry owners. From the beginning, the union made attempts to improve the working conditions of miners and …show more content…

In March 1902, John Mitchell, a newly elected President of the union, entered into negotiations with the operators to deliver requests of the miners. They demanded a twenty percent increase in pay, cutting a working day from ten to eight hours, implementing a fairer weighting system, and, most importantly, recognising the union along with giving it authority to influence the industry. After the negotiations broke down, on May 12, 1902, John Mitchell called 147,000 miners out for a strike (Grossman, 1975). With a hope for a speedy settlement, he also warned operators that the engineers, firemen, pump men who were keeping mines dry and preventing the flood will join the strike. The response never followed and on June 2 the work came to a

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