E57: West Virginia Mine Wars, part 1
Working Class History
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The First Success of the United Mine Workers Association
Logan and Mingo counties were the largest non-union coal area of the eastern United States. The Employers Association in Logan County, the Logan Coal Operators Association, paid the county sheriff to keep out union activists. A few months later, coal operators cut wages in southern coal fields; a wage increase awarded to union miners by the U.S. Coal Commission,. excluded workers in southwestern West Virginia. This really angered local miners. They appealed to District 17 of the United Mine Workers for Assistance. Thousands of miners were on strike, and around 1,500 of them joined the UMWA. And this was the first real success that they had, trying to organize the southernmost part
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