What's a Coal Miner to Do: The Mechanization of Coal Mining (Pittsburgh Series in Social and Labor History)
Labor specialist Dix shows how the introduction of the mechanical coal loader, followed quickly by other mining machines, revolutionized coal mining and broke workers' control of the job. These changes, facilitated by John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America, were made to increase productivity, but served also to take away traditional freedoms of miners. Even against strong opposition from the membership, Lewis's iron grip enabled him to ram through the union's support of mechanization. This push was an effort to shore up the industry, which was declining in the 1930s. Presented here is an important chapter in American labor and industrial history, but it is too loosely organized and smothered with detail. For regional and labor collections. Harry Frumerman, formerly with Hunter Coll . , CUNYCopyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.