Democratic miners
Subtitle: work and labor relations in the anthracite coal industry, 1875-1925
By: Perry K. Blatz.
Series: SUNY series in American labor history
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Albany, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 368
Subjects: United Mine Workers of America -- History; Coal miners -- United States -- History; Anthracite coal industry -- United States -- History; Coal miners -- Labor unions -- United States -- History
Description: Democratic Miners traces the history of work and labor relations in the anthracite coal industry, focusing on conditions that led up to, and followed, the famous strike of 1902. That strike, an epic five-and-a-half month struggle, led the federal government to intervene in a labor dispute for the first time in American history. Focusing on the workplace, Blatz puts the 1902 strike in the context of a turbulent half-century of labor-management relations.

Those years saw the unionization of the anthracite fields under the United Mine Workers of America, amidst an evolving democratic tradition of rank-and-file protest against corporate control, and ironically ended with a growing rift between miners and union leadership.

Unlike many books on labor relations, this work concentrates especially on the workers themselves. Working-class as opposed to union history, it contributes greatly to our understanding of working-class formation in the Progressive years.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 343-358) and index.