United Mine Workers
The United Mine Workers of America (UMW or UMWA) is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners and coal technicians. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the United States and Canada. Although its main focus has always been on workers and their rights, the UMW of today also advocates for better roads, schools, and universal health care.
The UMW was founded in Columbus, Ohio, on January 22, 1890, with the merger of two old labor groups, the Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 and the National Progressive Miners Union. Adopting the model of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), the union was initially established as a three-pronged labor tool: to develop mine safety; to improve mine workers' independence from the mine owners and the company store; and to provide miners with collective bargaining power. After passage of the National Recovery Act in 1933, organizers spread throughout the United States to organize all coal miners into labor unions.
During the 1930s, the UMWA was involved in Washington politics, a controversial involvement which generated such alternative unions such as the Progressive Miners of America.
Read more about United Mine Workers: Coal Mining in The 19th Century, Development of The Union, Achievements, Strikes Throughout The UMW History, Internal Conflict, Decline of Labor Unionism in Mining, Affiliation With Other Unions, Political Involvement, List of UMWA Presidents, Further Reading
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