On November 9, 1935, John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers met with leaders of eight unions—including Sidney Hillman of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and David Dubinsky of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union—to formally establish the Committee for Industrial Organization within the …
John L. LewisUnited Mine Workers of AmericaSidney HillmanDavid DubinskyPhilip Murraylabor-organizingdemocratic-resistanceworker-power
The Supreme Court unanimously reverses its 1922 Coronado decision, ruling that the United Mine Workers local union violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by conspiring to restrain interstate commerce in coal. After the Court’s first ruling favored the union by finding insufficient evidence of …
William Howard TaftU.S. Supreme CourtUnited Mine Workers of AmericaCoronado Coal Companylabor-suppressionjudicial-captureanti-unionantitrust
The Supreme Court rules in United Mine Workers v. Coronado Coal Co. that unincorporated labor unions can be sued in federal court as legal entities, establishing a precedent that exposes unions to potentially devastating civil liability. The case arises from Arkansas’s Sebastian County Union …
William Howard TaftU.S. Supreme CourtUnited Mine Workers of AmericaCoronado Coal Companylabor-suppressionjudicial-captureanti-unionantitrust
On August 25, 1921, nearly 13,000 armed coal miners began marching from Marmet, West Virginia, toward Logan County to challenge the oppressive company town system that had kept them in wage slavery for decades, triggering the largest armed uprising in the United States since the Civil War. The …
United Mine Workers of AmericaSheriff Don ChafinBaldwin-Felts Detective AgencyPresident Warren Hardinglabor-suppressionstate-violencecorporate-violencefederal-intervention
The Supreme Court ruled that federal courts could issue injunctions against union organizing efforts at workplaces where employees had signed yellow-dog contracts, dramatically expanding the legal weapons available to employers. Justice Mahlon Pitney’s 6-3 majority opinion held that union …
Supreme Court of the United StatesJustice Mahlon PitneyUnited Mine Workers of AmericaHitchman Coal and Coke Companylabor-suppressionjudicial-captureprogressive-erayellow-dog-contractsinjunctions
Soldiers from the Colorado National Guard and private guards employed by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) attacked a tent colony of approximately 1,200 striking coal miners and their families in Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914, killing approximately 21 people, primarily …
Colorado National GuardColorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I)United Mine Workers of AmericaJohn D. Rockefeller Jr.Governor Elias M. Ammons+1 morelabor-rightscorporate-violencestate-repressionprogressive-eraworker-organizing
On April 18, 1912, approximately 7,500 coal miners in the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek districts of West Virginia went on strike against abysmal conditions in company-owned towns, initiating fifteen months of armed conflict that would see the declaration of martial law, the imprisonment of …
United Mine Workers of AmericaMother Jones (Mary Harris Jones)Governor William GlasscockBaldwin-Felts Detective AgencyWest Virginia coal operatorslabor-suppressionminingprogressive-eramartial-lawcompany-towns