Dates

• Majority of material found within 1903 - 2000

Extent

129 boxes Linear Feet (The Anthracite Coal Strike Commission established the Board of Conciliation under its fourth award on March 18, 1903. The Commission called for a “permanent joint committee, to be called a Board of Conciliation” that would mediate grievances or disputes “arising under this award, either as to its interpretation or application” and which could not be settled at the mine. The joint committee was to include three members representing a majority of mine workers and three members representing the operators from each district in the anthracite industry. In instances where the Board could not reach a decision, then the case would be referred to an umpire appointed by a circuit judge from the third circuit of the United States. Any decision made by either the Umpire or the Board was binding and final. Also, while a grievance was in hearing suspension of work by either lockout or strike was not permitted. The decisions rendered by the Board or Umpire were then considered common law for the anthracite industry with past decisions acting as precedent for future settlements. As the Honorable Judge George Gray, who served as an Umpire for the Board in the 1910s, suggested “Great respect should be paid for former decisions . . . a departure from views already promulgated in former cases, should not be taken in subsequent cases.” The first meeting of the board took place on June 25, 1903 in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. The structure of the Board was organized by appointing a chairman, a secretary, and a treasurer. It was arranged that the chairman would be an operator representative and the secretary a mine worker representative. Two weeks after the initial meeting, the Board met to decide its first grievance in Pottersville, Pennsylvania. With the creation of the Board of Conciliation many hoped years of peaceful labor-management relations would follow. As the Honorable Carroll D. Wright, first Umpire and member of the Coal Strike Commission, remarked in his decision in Grievance number 8 “the spirit of the Award of the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission is not solely to carry out literally the Award, but to find some means by which peace and harmony shall prevail in the anthracite region.” Manuscript Group 108: The Anthracite Board of Conciliation is housed in three series of archival boxes. This collection includes grievance files, executive minutes, photographs, and papers on the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission. Series List: Series 1 Anthracite Board of Conciliation Files; Series 2 Grievance Files; and Series 3 Anthracite Coal Strike Commission; )

Language of Materials

English