Dates

• Majority of material found within 1896 - 1984

Extent

159 boxes Linear Feet (The United Mine Workers of America International was organized in 1890 to represent coal miners for collective bargaining purposes. The supervisory structure for the day-to-day affairs of the coal miners consisted of twenty-one district unions, based on geography. The western Pennsylvania coal mines were placed under the jurisdiction of UMWA District 5, including all of Allegheny and Washington counties as well as parts of Mercer, Lawrence, Butler, Beaver, Westmoreland, Greene, Fayette, Armstrong and Indiana. District 5, much like District 2 of central Pennsylvania, quickly became one of the most powerful districts of the UMWA. This was due, in large part, to the fact that the majority of the country's bituminous coal production was concentrated within Pennsylvania's borders. The early history of District 5 was fairly independent from that of the UMWA as a whole. The miners of western PA shared the concerns of other miners: wages, an eight hour work day, company control over the lives of the miners and their families, and increasing mechanization within the mines. President Costello of UMWA District 5 actually led the movement for the adjudication of these issues. But, during the UMWA's first decade of existence when union membership elsewhere struggled, the UMWA in western PA experienced some semblance of stability. The mines' proximity to the Pittsburgh area and its flourishing steel industry, which were easily accessible via river travel, created a regional network which balanced demand with supply. In 1896, when the UMWA was suffering and virtually nonexistent in several states, Pittsburgh miners negotiated a joint wage agreement with district operators. Although the operators failed to sign at the last minute, many of them adapted the agreed upon wage rate, and the need for stable rates in the region and the necessity of the union was widely recognized. By 1897, conditions in the nation's mines had grown deplorable. Low demand and increasing costs continued to push wages to a minimum. On July 4 of that year, the UMWA called a general strike. Nearly three quarters of the country's bituminous miners, 150,000 out of 197,000, complied. Although the strike produced mixed results nationwide, in western Pennsylvania the joint wage agreement that went unsigned the previous year became a district-wide contract between the operators and the union miners. The most significant outcome of the strike was, by far, the operators' promise to meet in an interstate joint conference the following year, which did occur in January of 1898. Consequently, by the close of the nineteenth century, the UMWA had come into its own as a bargaining unit. And, District 5 had become an important part of that unit. From the very beginning, UMWA District 5 established itself as a particularly internally chaotic organization. In 1898, the district was troubled by difficult local contract negotiations and strikes which had not been sanctioned by the national. Then President Patrick Dolan complained that the national organization was not supporting the strikers, a complaint that apparently had more to do with Dolan's disdain for International President John Mitchell and his bid for the union's presidency than the situation in UMWA District 5. At the same time, Mitchell supporters in the Pittsburgh area claimed that Dolan was accepting operator funds for his election campaign, presumably in return for Dolan's cooperation in the next round of contract negotiations. Nevertheless, Mitchell was reelected without opposition, and in 1906 Dolan was removed from office by the rank and file for violating their trust after he, acting as assistant negotiator at the 1906 wage scale negotiations, out rightly rejected the UMWA's position of demanding a single national contract. In 1906, Francis Feehan was elected to replace Dolan as District President. Feehan's first task was to rebuild the trust of the miners in their organization. But, like Dolan, his term was plagued by several major strikes, broken wage agreements, pressure from the national to return to the interstate bargaining process and contract negotiations complicated by depressed wages and non-union competition. In 1911, discontentment within the District could no longer be contained. Claiming Feehan had irreparably harmed them by "showing favoritism to certain coal companies" and by "neglecting his presidential duties," a faction of the district's miners set up an office in Pittsburgh and solicited money from within the ranks of the UMWA, professing to be the true district organization. The dispute was brought before the International Executive Board (IEB), where Feehan charged some of the miners with attempting to create a rival union to the UMWA. Although the IEB recognized the complaints of Feehan's rivals, they were ordered to work within the existing organization and turn over all monies and properties they collected to the Feehan administration. The miners relented, but, disgusted, Feehan resigned from the presidency. During the contract negotiations of 1917, dissatisfaction within the District reached critical mass. The disgruntled miners, many of whom had been part of the earlier actions against the District, called a meeting at Charleroi, Pennsylvania and issued a series of demands. They attacked everything from wage differentials in the district to the UMWA's election policy. For the next six years, these militant miners waged a campaign against the existing policies and officers of the union on both the local and national level. Calling themselves the Policy Committee of Action, and later the Progressive Miners of District 5, support reached into the thousands. By September 1922, the Progressive Miners had established an official platform of reforms, which included supporting national instead of district agreements and active campaigns to organize non-union fields, and had nominated a slate of officers for the 1922 election. The union establishment responded to these demands by expelling the miners involved in the Progressive movement, accusing them of attempting to form a rival union, which essentially killed reform efforts in UMWA District 5. In general, 1920-1933 was a particularly difficult era for the UMWA as well as the entire labor movement in the United States. The UMWA had been the largest and most powerful union in the country at the close of the First World War, but it was nearly destroyed by the end of the 1920s and remained powerless until 1933. Union membership in District 5 was strong until 1925 since the UMWA had been successful in avoiding a wage decrease, but, by the middle of the decade, there simply were "too many mines, too many miners and continuous upheaval." Non-union operators were the major culprits, as post-war overproduction was the chief problem of the industry; the men in these mines worked many hours at reduced wages. District 5, as well as District 2, was concerned about the coal-rich, non-union fields very nearby in Somerset County. This area had been the repeated target of union organizing campaigns since the Connellsville strike of 1891, where the plan for an eight-hour work day was first argued over. In 1922, the UMWA again tried to get Somerset miners to join the strike. The miners were demanding union recognition from mine operators, the cessation of wage cuts to the 1917 wage level, and a six hour day, five-day week. On April 1, 1922, the coal miners of western Pennsylvania, including the non-union members of Somerset County, walked off the job. Newspapers characterized the strike as "the sixth great strike in the history of the American mining industry." A settlement was reached between the operators and the miners of District 2 and District 5 by the end of the summer, but the newly organized area of Somerset County was denied union recognition from the Berwind-White Coal Mining Company and the Consolidated Coal Company, as well as other powerful mine operators in the area. District 2, unlike District 5, continued to support the striking Somerset miners by assessing their workers ten to twenty percent of their own wages for relief. After seventeen months, Somerset delegates met and passed a resolution to resume work when they recognized the futility of carrying the strike further at that particular time. Somerset County remained a non-union enclave until 1933, when two local unions were finally established. In 1924, as a result of the Interstate Joint Wage Movement, the UMWA and mine operators signed the Jacksonville Agreement, which prevented wage reductions for the next three years. District 5 officials hoped that the agreement would bring "stability to the industry and also give promise of three years of peace and tranquility in the organized portions of the country." However, on August 12, 1925, Pittsburgh Coal Company repudiated the Jacksonville Agreement. Other area operators followed suit, and the miners of District 5 were once again caught up in wage cuts, discharges and evictions. Many operators in the area simply closed their mines and reopened them without union recognition, and strikes ensued. Charges of sadistic brutality against the coal company police were common occurrences at this time. One striking miner was beaten to death with a hot iron during questioning. Another company defended a strikebreaker accused of raping a six-year old child. By 1927, conditions across the country had worsened; the UMWA called for a general strike at its National Convention and 200,000 miners heeded the call. In UMWA District 5, the union was all but destroyed by the strike. The strike was officially declared over by the union in October 1928, after appeals for federal assistance to end it had failed. The UMWA was essentially powerless and miners were on their own to find work for whatever wages they could. The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), originally introduced to Congress in 1928, was passed in 1933 in hopes of assuring a "reasonable profit to industry and living wages for labor." John Lewis saw it as a chance to revitalize the UMWA and organize the non-union fields with legal sanction. By 1937, union membership had reached 42,000 in District 5. On April 2, 1937, district miners signed an agreement with the Western PA Coal Operators' Association, a voluntary association of coal operators that carried increases in wages for all pick men, cutters and loaders. Nevertheless, outlaw strikes by union members for contract violations continued to plague UMWA District 5. Difficulties continued to beleaguer the UMWA as a whole. The Committee of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was formed as a result of conflicts between the American Federation of Labor (AF of L) and the UMWA in 1935. John Lewis served as the CIO's first president while still retaining that same position for the UMWA. In 1941, the UMWA reversed its position and withdrew their support from the CIO when it formed District 50, which represented industries dependent on coke and coke by-products. With World War II fast approaching, President Fagan of UMWA District 5, along with eleven other district presidents in the area, signed the Appalachian Agreement with the Western PA Coal Operators Association on April 1, 1941. The two-year agreement included a seven-hour-a-day, five-day-a-week schedule, and miners who worked overtime were paid at the rate of time and a half. The minimum wage rate for a day's work was set at $7.00. Unable to reach a new agreement in 1943, 500,000 miners followed the UMWA tradition of "no contract, no work" by walking off the job on June 1. Newspaper headlines read, "Miners Strike Against United States Government," alluding to the fact that coal was vital to the war effort. UMWA District 5 joined the strike because of the lack of support on behalf of the mine operators to continue the wage agreed upon in the 1941 Appalachian Agreement. President Roosevelt ordered the miners to immediately return to work according to the terms of the old contract, but the miners refused to comply. Public opinion sided with the war effort, insisting that workers return to the pits to support the war against the "enemies of the free workers of the world." The miners used the strike as an opportunity to express their feelings of solidarity. There were no picket lines at the striking mines or agitational meetings; simply a uniting of the mine workers of America in soft and hard coal. The dispute dragged on for twenty days before the miners went back to work. As a result of the very powerful 1943 strike, the Smith-Connally Wage Disputes Bill passed with an overwhelming majority vote in Congress on June 25, 1943. The bill gave statutory strength to the War Labor Board that it had hitherto lacked. It empowered the Board to "freeze" labor relations during strike deliberations, subpoena witnesses, and exercise compulsory arbitration of wage disputes in war industries. During periods of war, in plants not seized by the government no strike action was possible until after a thirty-day "cooling-off" period. The general opinion of the Smith-Connally Bill was that it destroyed "the philosophy of voluntarism upon which free trade unionism [was] founded." Many miners felt that it encouraged rather than discouraged wartime strikes, and some felt that it violated the constitutional rights of industrial workers. In fact, when the bill passed through Congress, a few miners simply stopped working and returned to their homes in disgust. Three organized walkouts occurred during the four months following the passage of the bill. Once the war was officially terminated, miners struck to attempt to gain new contract provisions. The UMWA called for a national strike in 1945, 1946 and 1949. During the 1946 strike, President Truman was forced to fine the UMWA $3.5 million after the government seized several mines throughout the country to insure that it would continue with production. Although the miners did not give up and were eventually successful in establishing the first Health and Welfare Fund, this accomplishment was somewhat paled by the anti-labor legislation that followed a year later. On April 29, 1947, the Taft-Hartley Law passed. Coal operators finally accepted "the Fund" by agreeing to provide a $1000 death benefit to dependents of miners who had died since 1946. This benefit program was the largest and best-known of those negotiated by the UMWA. The union also received increased royalties, eight-hour portal-to-portal pay, incorporation of a safety code and elimination of the no-strike agreement. However, President Busarello of District 5 stated that as far as he was concerned, the Taft-Hartley Law was null and void. When government officials were prepared to meet with representatives from the UMWA, the union would "sit down and do business across the table with them instead of stalling." To promote and stabilize the industry, District 5 and coal operators signed the 1947 Contract. It featured an increase from five to ten cents per ton of coal on the Welfare Fund, recognition of the Federal Mine Safety Code, and an established joint industry safety committee composed of two mine workers and two operators. A new work schedule of seven hours and fifteen minutes a day was established, including a staggered thirty minute paid lunch. There was also an increase of $1.20 in wages per day for all mine workers. An amended wage provision was later added, which provided for an additional increase of forty cents per day for every working member of the union. By 1955, coal miners were working for $9.45 a day, and, less than two years later, the wage was increased to $10.25. A vacation period of twelve consecutive days was also negotiated, and all employees with a record of at least one years' standing received as compensation $140 for those twelve days. The Mine Health and Safety Act passed on December 21, 1951, and, coupled with the Health and Welfare Fund, alleviated much of the hardship on miners and their families. The act gave federal inspectors the right to shut down any mine which did not operate within the established guidelines. Operators were also fined if they violated the regulations. The Federal Coal Miners Health and Safety Act of 1969 improved upon this earlier legislation by benefitting those suffering from Black Lung Disease. Dust regulations were established and mines were subjected to underground inspections at least four times a year. In addition to this legislation, all workers of major mines in UMWA District 5 had to complete accidental prevention courses set up by the United States Bureau of Mines. There were a few exceptions, such as the miners of the Bethlehem Mines Corporation, as well as other small mines in the district. Not surprisingly, the Marianna mine, Mine #58 of the Bethlehem Mines Corporation, experienced a major mine explosion disaster on September 23, 1957, killing six of the eleven workers caught in the mine. The mine superintendent, Thomas Jones, and the assistant superintendent, Albert Salvador, were found responsible for the explosion and were removed from their jobs before the mine resumed operations. The UMWA experienced difficulties as an international organization during the 1960s. The leadership and policies of UMWA President Tony Boyle were often questioned. Opposition to Boyle, as well as the dislike for the wage agreements of 1964 and 1966, led to the formation of the Miners For Democracy, a reform movement organized in 1969 by Joseph "Jock" Yablonski, District 5's representative on the International Executive Board. Yablonski, with the support of the Miners For Democracy, mounted a campaign for the presidency of the union in opposition to Boyle. This was the first contested presidential election in thirty years. The campaign, however, was unsuccessful in unseating Boyle, who received two votes to Yablonski's one. Suspicion over the validity of the election encouraged political opposition within the UMWA to continue in spite of Boyle's victory. To quell this opposition, Boyle conspired to murder Joseph Yablonski, a crime for which he was later convicted. With Yablonski removed from the forefront of the UMWA, Boyle attempted to capitalize on the new militancy within the union. In 1971, he led the miners in a successful fight against the Bituminous Coal Operators' Association (BCOA), a national operators' organization that had been established in 1951, for a very substantial increase in wages and royalties despite the existence of wage controls. However, the murder of Yablonski and the militancy within the union did not completely suppress the opposition to Boyle. In 1971, the Department of Labor ordered the UMWA to hold new presidential elections since sufficient evidence of election irregularities involving Boyle had been uncovered. Arnold Miller, miner who had filled the void left by Yablonski as the new leader of the Miners For Democracy, ran against Boyle. Miller won by 14,000 votes. The "Miller Era" of the UMWA was characterized by democratization of the union, which particularly appealed to former supporters of Yablonski, disabled miners and retirees. Miller created the Coal Miners' Political Action Committee (COMPAC) in 1972, which was charged with soliciting contributions for use in political campaigns and developing a political and education program within the union. This lobbying agency enabled coal miners, both in southwestern PA as well as nationally, to endorse political and legislative measures as they saw fit. COMPAC took a stand on issues, Black Lung Disease for example, by organizing a series of demonstrations and lobbying for Congressional support. In 1973, negotiations between the UMWA and BCOA were reopened. The miners had a list of two hundred demands, forty of which dealt with safety. Union delegates also had other priorities, some of which included sick pay, cost-of-living adjustments and increased royalties to allow for larger pensions. The BCOA rejected the miners' demands and failed to address the union's health and safety concerns. Consequently, the miners struck on November 12, 1974. With the government threatening a Taft-Hartley injunction to force the miners back to work, the 1974 National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement was signed. It gave extensive improvements in wages and benefits to the miners. In an effort to protect union miners' jobs, the operators also agreed to sell mines only to companies that were willing to assume the obligations of the contract. When this contract expired in 1977, the miners again went out on strike. Eight days later, operators tentatively agreed to substantial increases in wages and benefits in return for miners accepting labor control measures. On February 25, 1977, the Pittsburgh and Midway Coal Mining Company of District 5 signed a pact with the union, offering similar terms to the BCOA agreement. It took the UMWA until March 24, 1978, however, to approve the contract, making the 1977 walkout the longest modern day national UMWA strike. On March 28, 1981, the 1978 contract expired. Again the miners walked out. The key issue this time was job security. The strike lasted for 72 days before the membership ratified a new contract. The Trumka administration of the 1980s faced a variety of difficulties. One of the most obvious as the unfriendly attitude of the Reagan administration. Reagan had destroyed the benefit programs that unions had fought to protect and expand since the New Deal, including social security and the Black Lung program. Equally important for the UMWA, the industrial use of coal declined substantially. Miners fought frequently, and often to little avail, for their jobs and livelihoods. As miners celebrated the centennial of the UMWA, District 5 has continued to survive the years. The District, though its heyday has passed, continues its strong tradition of organized labor. The District office is located in Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, while the bulk of their historical records are housed in the Special Collections Division of the University Libraries at IUP. The records of District 5 of the United Mine Workers of America are arranged in 14 series. Series have been designated for the president's and secretary-treasurer's files, local union correspondence and grievance cases, local union records, election and convention materials, special membership committee files, Welfare and Retirement Fund files, compensation case records, legal case files, the Coal Miners' Political Action Committee, safety division files, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, Region I organizing files, and oversized materials. These records primarily include daily correspondence, financial information, organizing and strike records, annual reports, case files, and some limited material which is of national scope. The collection includes material from as early as 1896; however, the bulk of the material dates from 1930 to 1990 due to several relocations of the district office. Consequently, the District 5 collection is incomplete and provides only a glimpse of the daily activities of a trade-union. Nevertheless, there are several groups of records which document unique events in the history of this district. Of particular interest is a box of secretary-treasurer records which contains the earliest materials from the district and includes information on the dual union movement which plagued the district for much of the early part of its history.)

Language of Materials

English