114-530: Mary G. Harris Jones (1837 (baptized) – November 30, 1930), known as Mother Jones from 1897 onward, was an Irish-born American labor organizer, former schoolteacher, and dressmaker who became a prominent union organizer , community organizer , and activist. She helped coordinate major strikes, secure bans on child labor , and co-founded the Labor unionist trade union, the Industrial Workers of
228-598: A "depressing place". After tiring of her assumed profession, she moved first to Chicago and then to Memphis , where in 1861 she married George E. Jones, a member and organizer of the National Union of Iron Moulders, which later became the International Molders and Foundry Workers Union of North America , which represented workers who specialized in building and repairing steam engines, mills, and other manufactured goods. Considering that Mary's husband
342-408: A catch-all district for workers in fields related to coal mining, such as the chemical and energy industries. This district gained organizational independence in 1961, and then fell into dispute with the remainder of the union, leading in 1968 to its expulsion. Diana Baldwin and Anita Cherry , hired as miners in 1973, are believed to have been the first women to work in an underground coal mine in
456-464: A competitive and dangerous place to work. With the owners imposing reduced wages on a regular basis, in response to fluctuations in pricing, miners sought a group to stand up for their rights. American Miners' Association The first step in starting the union was the creation of the American Miners' Association . Scholars credit this organization with the beginning of the labor movement in
570-496: A dangerous case of pneumonia . Jones was released after 85 days of confinement, and her release coincided with Indiana Senator John W. Kern 's initiation of a Senate investigation into the conditions in the local coal mines. Mary Lee Settle describes Jones at this time in her 1978 novel The Scapegoat . Several months later, she helped organize coal miners in Colorado in the 1913–14 United Mine Workers of America strike against
684-496: A different capacity. William W. Delaney's "My Father Was Killed By Pinkerton Men" is a song about the violence that often surrounded early American labor strife. The most famous movie about organizing is the 1979 factually based film Norma Rae , the story of a Jewish organizer from New York City who came to the American South to organize a textile mill . He recruits Norma Rae, played by Sally Field . Norma becomes
798-450: A group of leaders who had been most recently rank and file miners. Led by new president Arnold Miller , the new leadership enacted a series of reforms which gave UMWA members the right to elect their leaders at all levels of the union and to ratify the contracts under which they worked. Decreased faith in the UMW to support the rights of the miners caused many to leave the union. Coal demand
912-487: A key union activist who defies management at great personal risk. The 1987 production of Matewan is another factually based story of an organizer who visits a small mining town in West Virginia and who is able to unite rival ethnic groups against a common enemy: the company. Both of these stories feature outsiders entering rural company towns and stirring workers up against exploitative management. This
1026-420: A majority of the employees agree to union representation, the results bind the company to recognize and negotiate with the union. Normally, both sides are given a chance to campaign for or against unionization, though management has a decided advantage due to their greater access to the employees, as well as management's inherent ability to discipline or terminate employees. It is in this electioneering model where
1140-530: A meeting, but never received an answer. Though the president refused to meet with the marchers, the incident brought the issue of child labor to the forefront of the public agenda. The 2003 non-fiction book Kids on Strike! described Jones's Children's Crusade in detail. During the Paint Creek–Cabin Creek strike of 1912 in West Virginia , Mary Jones arrived in June 1912, speaking and organizing despite
1254-574: A national level. In the 1920s, about 12,000 Nova Scotia miners were represented by the UMWA. These workers lived in very difficult economic circumstances in company towns . The Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation , also known as the British Empire Steel Corporation, or BESCO, controlled most coal mines and every steel mill in the province. BESCO was in financial difficulties and repeatedly attempted to reduce wages and bust
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#17327648678191368-464: A secret and unified group would not turn into a successful union. The founders, John McBride , Chris Evans and Daniel McLaughlin , believed that creating an eight-hour work day would not only be beneficial for workers, but also as a means to stop overproduction , which would in turn help operators. The union was able to get cooperation from operators because they explained that the miners wanted better conditions because they felt as if they were part of
1482-490: A shooting war between United Mine Workers members and the private army of the mine owners. Martial law in the area was declared and rescinded twice before Jones was arrested on February 13, 1913, and brought before a military court. Accused of conspiring to commit murder among other charges, she refused to recognize the legitimacy of her court-martial . She was sentenced to twenty years in the state penitentiary . During house arrest at Mrs. Carney's Boarding House , she acquired
1596-442: A successful organizing campaign usually demonstrably benefits the labor at the expense of management. Critics will often circulate horror stories about plant closures and retaliatory firings to discourage union activity and uptake among the workers. Real or imagined, such horror stories are taken as warnings and have a chilling effect on voting. Though illegal, retaliatory terminations remain a problem for organizers to overcome. Fear
1710-537: A telegram from President Warren Harding offering to work to end the private police in West Virginia if they returned home. When UMW president Frank Keeney demanded to see the telegram, Mother Jones refused and he denounced her as a 'fake'. Because she refused to show anyone the telegram, and the President's secretary denied ever having sent one, she was suspected of having fabricated the story. After she fled
1824-662: A union organizer is a union representative who "organizes" or unionizes non-union companies or worksites. Organizers primarily exist to assist non-union workers in forming chapters of locals, usually by leading them in their efforts. Organizers employ various methods to secure recognition by the employer as being a legitimate union, the ultimate goal being a collective bargaining agreement . The methods can be classified as being either top-down organizing or bottom-up organizing. Top-down organizing focuses on persuading management through salesmanship or pressure tactics. The salesmanship may include offering access to resources such as to
1938-555: A union's presence, the same issues arise in any vocation . Also, both of the movies take place in the Detroit , Michigan area, a city which has produced some great organizers. The 1992 production Hoffa , starring Jack Nicholson as famed labor leader Jimmy Hoffa of the Teamsters , begins the story where Hoffa's career began: organizing truck drivers and warehouse workers in and around Detroit. Jimmy Hoffa went on to become one of
2052-672: A united force, and show the world what workers can do." Mother Jones remained a well-known symbol for the American labor movement after her death and remains an important symbol for the power of organized labor among activists and organizers, both in the United States and globally. Union organizer A union organizer (or union organiser in Commonwealth spelling ) is a specific type of trade union member (often elected) or an appointed union official. In some unions,
2166-444: A well-trained and skilled supply of labor or access to union cartels . Pressure tactics may include picketing with the intention of embarrassing management or disrupting business, as well as assisting the government in investigating employment law and labor law violations. A strict enforcement of these laws might result in fines and might serve to hurt the violator's chances in a competitive bidding process. Top-down organizing
2280-611: Is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners. 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 . By 2014, coal mining had largely shifted to open pit mines in Wyoming, and there were only 60,000 active coal miners. The UMW
2394-613: Is a common theme in organizing. The workers are cast as simple commoners being oppressed by powerful managers cast in the role of villains . The organizer is portrayed as a liberator. There is some truth in these stories since companies did, in fact, historically hire armed thugs to break up organizing drives through unethical and oppressive means. Modern unions work within the existing system, rather than against it, through sophisticated political action programs. Most unions have reinvented themselves as streamlined, professional machines. 10,000 Black Men Named George , released in 2002,
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#17327648678192508-520: Is a movie based on the true story of A. Philip Randolph , the famous black organizer who organized the railroad company's largely black Pullman Porters . The film Bread and Roses (2001) depicts the Service Employees International Union 's " Justice for Janitors " campaign to organize cleaners. The story is also a love story between an idealistic young organizer and a female Hispanic immigrant among those he
2622-456: Is generally considered easier than bottom-up and is practiced more in the construction industry. Bottom-up organizing focuses on the workers and usually involves a certification process, normally overseen by a labor relations board such as the NLRB in the U.S. The process entails either a secret ballot election or, in some cases, a card-signing effort (called card check). In either case, should
2736-437: Is named in her honor. In 1930, Mother Jones said the following regarding her legacy: "I am considered a Bolshevik , and a Red and an I.W.W. , and a radical, and I admit to being all they've charged me with. I'm anything that would change monied civilization to a higher and grander civilization for the ages to come. And I long to see the day when labor will have the destination of the nation in her own hands, and she will stand
2850-493: Is organizing. Both of these stories incorporate pro-union messages with ethnic determination. In the case of the Pullman Porters, Randolph is remembered as a civil rights hero . The Justice for Janitors campaign is about immigrants' rights, as many of the organized janitors are from Spanish-speaking or Slavic countries. The status of the characters as minorities paints a picture of them as being outside of, or on
2964-402: Is the leading obstacle to organizing. In bottom-up organizing, management and labor are pitted against each other and management often schedules retaliatory, aggressive tactics in an effort to break the chapter, called " union-busting ." The intention of such union-busting may be to "nip it in the bud" before getting locked into a costly collective bargaining agreement. Management may feel that
3078-768: The AFL–CIO , for not doing enough to organize. In fact, this has been cited as the genesis of the split within the American labor movement that led to the formation of the Change to Win Federation (a rival umbrella organization of North American unions set up as an alternative to the AFL–CIO in 2005), by Change to Win advocates at least. Many unions see organizing as a way to ensure the future of their organization. Unions who emphasize organizing and are expansionist are said to have
3192-769: The Great Famine , as were many other Irish families. The famine drove more than a million families, including the Harrises, to immigrate to North America, as Harris's family did when Harris was 10. Mary was a teenager when her family immigrated to Canada. In Canada (and later in the United States), the Harris family were victims of discrimination due to their immigrant status as well as their Catholic faith and Irish heritage . Mary received an education in Toronto at
3306-770: The Rockefeller -owned Colorado Fuel and Iron company, in what is known as the Colorado Coalfield War . Once again she was arrested, serving time in prison and inside the San Rafael Hospital , and was escorted from the state in the months prior to the Ludlow Massacre . After the massacre, she was invited to meet with the owner of the Ludlow mine, John D. Rockefeller Jr. The meeting was partially responsible for Rockefeller's 1915 visit to
3420-610: The Toronto Normal School , which was tuition-free and even paid a stipend to each student of one dollar per week for every semester completed. Mary did not graduate from the Toronto Normal School, but she was able to undergo enough training to take a teaching position at a convent in Monroe, Michigan , on August 31, 1859 at the age of 23. She was paid eight dollars per month, but the school was described as
3534-485: The United Mine Workers (UMW). She frequently led UMW strikers in picketing and encouraged striking workers to stay on strike when management brought in strike-breakers and militias. She believed that "working men deserved a wage that would allow women to stay home to care for their kids." Around this time, strikes were getting better organized and started to produce greater results, such as better pay for
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3648-466: The profits and respect on the job. In the 1997 action movie Grosse Pointe Blank , Dan Aykroyd 's villainous character pursues fellow assassin John Cusack in order to include him in a ridiculous assassins' union. These latter two movies use organizing as a plot device, though they involve black market businesses and are far-fetched for this reason. Nonetheless, they demonstrate how, absent
3762-473: The "organizing model." By contrast, other unions are said to have the " servicing model ," spending most of their resources on providing services to the existing membership (i.e., non-expansionist). Within the labor movement, there is some resistance to organizing, though more in deed than in word. Organizing can be seen as a drain on scarce resources with insignificant returns and with results tenuous. In transient industries such as construction, an increase in
3876-651: The 1930s he used UMW activists to organize new unions in autos, steel and rubber. He was the driving force behind the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). It established the United Steel Workers of America and helped organize millions of other industrial workers in the 1930s. After resigning as head of the CIO in 1941, he took the Mine Workers out of the CIO in 1942 and in 1944 took
3990-415: The 1969 murder of Joseph Yablonski , a reform candidate who lost a race for union president against incumbent W. A. Boyle , along with his wife and 25-year-old daughter. Boyle was later convicted of ordering these murders. The killing of Yablonski resulted in the birth of a pro-democracy movement called the " Miners for Democracy " (MFD) which swept Boyle and his regime out of office, and replaced them with
4104-494: The AFL, yet was widely criticized as he called nationwide coal strikes damaging the American economy in the middle of World War II. Coal miners for 40 years hailed him as the benevolent dictator who brought high wages, pensions and medical benefits. The union's history has numerous examples of strikes in which members and their supporters clashed with company-hired strikebreakers and government forces. The most notable include: By June
4218-492: The AFL. The UMW grew to 800,000 members and was an element in the New Deal Coalition supporting Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt . Lewis broke with Roosevelt in 1940 and left the CIO, leaving the UMW increasingly isolated in the labor movement. During World War II the UMW was involved in a series of major strikes and threatened walkouts that angered public opinion and energized pro-business opponents. After
4332-814: The Burgess farm, then in Silver Spring, Maryland , now part of Adelphi . There was a funeral Mass at St. Gabriel's Catholic Church in Washington, D.C. Jones is buried in the Union Miners Cemetery in Mount Olive, Illinois , alongside miners who died in the 1898 Battle of Virden . She called these miners, killed in strike-related violence, "her boys." In 1932, about 15,000 Illinois mine workers gathered in Mount Olive to protest against
4446-529: The Colorado mines and introduction of long-sought reforms. In 1917, Mother Jones played a role in the Bloomington Streetcar Strike . Mother Jones attempted to stop miners from marching into Logan County, West Virginia , in late August 1921. Mother Jones also visited the governor and departed assured he would intervene. Jones opposed the armed march, appeared on the line of march and told them to go home. In her hand, she claimed to have
4560-580: The NPU set up a joint conference for all miners. John McBride, the president of NPU, suggested that the Knights of Labor should join the NPU to form a stronger union. John B. Rae reluctantly agreed and decided that the merged groups would meet on January 22, 1890. When the union was founded, the values of the UMWA were stated in the preamble: We have founded the United Mine Workers of America for
4674-634: The National Progressive Miners Union. Adopting the model of 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 during the Great Depression , organizers spread throughout
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4788-533: The National Progressive Union of Miners and Mine Laborers (NPU). Although the goal of the NPU in 1888 was ostensibly to create unity between the miners, it instead drew a stronger line distinguishing members of the NPU against those of the NTA #135. Because of the rivalry, miners of one labor union would not support the strikes of another, and many strikes failed. In December 1889, the president of
4902-585: The Pittston company at the time, Paul Douglas, left the BCOA because he wanted to be able to produce coal seven days a week and did not want his company to pay the fee for the insurance. The Pittson company was seen as having inadequate safety standards after the Buffalo Creek flood of 1972 in which 125 people were killed. The company also was very financially unstable and in debt. The mines associated with
5016-517: The Pittston company to court. Miners worked from January 1988 to April 1989 without a contract. Tension in the company grew and on April 5, 1989, the workers declared a strike. Many months of both violent and nonviolent strike actions took place. On 20 February 1990 a settlement was finally reached between the UMWA and the Pittston Coal Company. The union's history has sometimes been marked by internal strife and corruption, including
5130-474: The UMWA in West Virginia and even denounced the state as 'medieval', the chapter of the same name in her autobiography, she mostly praises Governor Ephraim F. Morgan for defending the First Amendment freedom of the weekly labor publication The Federationist to publish. His refusal to consent to the mine owners' request that he ban the paper demonstrated to Mother Jones that he 'refused to comply with
5244-631: The United Mine Workers, which soon became the Progressive Mine Workers of America. Convinced that they had acted in the spirit of Mother Jones, the miners decided to place a proper headstone on her grave. By 1936, the miners had saved up more than $ 16,000 and were able to purchase "eighty tons of Minnesota pink granite, with bronze statues of two miners flanking a twenty-foot shaft featuring a bas-relief of Mother Jones at its center." On October 11, 1936, also known as Miners' Day, an estimated 50,000 people arrived at Mother Jones's grave to see
5358-538: The United States to organize all coal miners into labor unions. Under the powerful leadership of John L. Lewis , the UMW broke with the American Federation of Labor and set up its own federation, the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations). Its organizers fanned out to organize major industries, including automobiles, steel, electrical equipment, rubber, paint and chemical, and fought a series of battles with
5472-531: The United States. The membership of the group grew rapidly. "Of an estimated 56,000 miners in 1865, John Hinchcliffe claimed 22,000 as members of the AMA. In response, the mine owners sought to stop the AMA from becoming more powerful. Members of the AMA were fired and blacklisted from employment at other mines. After a short time the AMA began to decline, and eventually ceased operations. Workingman's Benevolent Association Another early labor union that arose in 1868
5586-545: The United States. They were the first female members of UMWA to work inside a mine. Cherry and Baldwin were hired by the Beth-Elkhorn Coal Company in Jenkins, Kentucky . However, more pervasive were hiring practices discriminatory against women. The superstition that a woman even entering a mine was bad luck and resulted in disaster was pervasive among male miners. In 1978 a discrimination complaint
5700-470: The West to oppose any support for nations at war with Nazi Germany. ) Lewis was an effective strike leader who gained high wages for his membership while suppressing his opponents, including the United States government. He was one of the most controversial and innovative leaders in the history of labor, gaining credit for building the industrial unions of the CIO into a political and economic powerhouse to rival
5814-644: The World (IWW). After Jones's husband and four children all died of yellow fever in 1867 and her dress shop was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, she became an organizer for the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers union. In 1902, she was called "the most dangerous woman in America" for her success in organizing miners and their families against the mine owners. In 1903, to protest
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#17327648678195928-457: The activists because she believed it was more important to advocate for the working class than to advocate for women. When some suffragists accused her of being anti-women's rights , she replied, "I'm not an anti to anything which brings freedom to my class." Jones was known as a charismatic and effective speaker throughout her career. Occasionally she would include props, visual aids, and dramatic stunts in her speeches. Her talks usually involved
6042-553: The boss, "This isn't over." The Fred Savage sitcom Working had an episode where the main character organizes his fellow workers into a union and tells management it is because he really cares about the well-being of his coworkers, exhibiting solidarity. The song " Solidarity Forever " by Ralph Chaplin has become the anthem of large parts of the labor movement such as those in North America. United Mine Workers The United Mine Workers of America ( UMW or UMWA )
6156-463: The camp, she reportedly suffered a nervous breakdown. Mother Jones was joined by Keeney and other UMWA officials who were also pressuring the miners to go home. Jones remained a union organizer for the UMW into the 1920s and continued to speak on union affairs almost until she died. She released her own account of her experiences in the labor movement as The Autobiography of Mother Jones (1925). Although Mother Jones organized for decades on behalf of
6270-457: The company were located mostly in Virginia, with mines also in West Virginia and Kentucky. On 31 January 1988 Douglas cut off retirement and health care funds to about 1500 retired miners, widows of miners, and disabled miners. To avoid a strike, Douglas threatened that if a strike were to take place, that the miners would be replaced by other workers. The UMW called this action unjust and took
6384-409: The conference, they were not able to vote against actions which they thought detrimental to gain rights for workers. The conference passed resolutions requiring the Knights of Labor to give up their secrecy and publicize material about its members and locations. The National Federation held another conference in 1887 attended by both groups. But it was unsuccessful in gaining agreement by the groups as to
6498-425: The death of her family, Jones lost her home, shop, and possessions in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Jones, like many others, helped rebuild the city. According to her autobiography, this led to her joining the Knights of Labor . Jones started organizing strikes . At first the strikes and protests failed, sometimes ending with police shooting at and killing protesters. Most members of the Knights were men, and by
6612-414: The demand for coal began to increase, and some operators decided to pay the workers their original salaries before the wage cut. However, not all demands across the country were met, and some workers continued to strike. The young union suffered damage in this uneven effort. The most important goal of the 1894 strike was not the restoration of wages, but rather the establishment of the UMWA as a cooperation at
6726-411: The driving force to change the way workers were organized, and the UMW was one of the charter members when the new Congress of Industrial Organizations was formed in 1935. However, the AFL leadership did not agree with the philosophy of industrial unionization, and the UMW and nine other unions that had formed the CIO were kicked out of the AFL in 1937. In 1942, the UMW chose to leave the CIO, and, for
6840-581: The election process. The emergence of union-busting as an industry is a relatively new phenomenon and is described in Martin Levitt's book Confessions of A Union Buster. Prior to the emergence of the union-avoidance industry, practitioners were mainly " goon squads " also used for strike-breaking. In the U.S., the largest and most well-known "goon squad" for hire was the Pinkerton Detective Agency , still active today, though in
6954-412: The fractious effects of union-on-union competition and perceived issues of raiding . Expansionism and the scramble for members in organizing programs bring to light these border issues. Opponents of organizing, mainly in management and business, argue that unionization divides employees against their employer and results in increased costs. Such accusations are not entirely without foundation: Indeed,
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#17327648678197068-584: The labor movement believes the entire process to be slanted against them in enforcement and interpretation of labor laws. Sometimes, organizing involves legal wrangling over issues such as voter eligibility. In such cases, issues are often settled by appeal to the Labor Board who serves, essentially, as a referee during the process. Intrigue during heated campaigns is not uncommon. In various cases, one or both sides have used spying and information-gathering techniques tantamount to industrial espionage . Within
7182-418: The labor movement, organizing is the cause within the cause. In most industrialized nations, there has been a steady decline in union membership and in the influence of organized labor since the 1950s. A response to this decline has been a renewed organizing effort. The heads of unions are well aware of the problem. In the U.S., many labor activists have blamed John Sweeney , the former (1995–2009) President of
7296-731: The labor union. He did everything in his power to produce the cheapest product and to ensure that non-union workers would benefit. As conditions for the miners of the WBA worsened, the union broke up and disappeared. After the fall of the WBA, miners created many other small unions, including the Workingman's Protective Association (WPA) and the Miner's National Association (MNA). Although both groups had strong ideas and goals, they were unable to gain enough support and organization to succeed. The two unions did not last long, but provided greater support by
7410-569: The lax enforcement of the child labor laws in the Pennsylvania mines and silk mills, she organized a children's march from Philadelphia to the home of President Theodore Roosevelt in New York. Mary G. Harris was born on the north side of Cork , the daughter of Catholic tenant farmers Richard Harris and Ellen (née Cotter) Harris. Her exact date of birth is uncertain; she was baptized on August 1, 1837. Harris and her family were victims of
7524-579: The looting and arson of company property. This crisis led to the Nova Scotia government acting in 1937 to improve the rights of all wage earners, and these reforms served as a model across Canada, at both provincial and federal levels. In the summer of 1973, workers at the Duke Power -owned Eastover Mining Company's Brookside Mine and Prep Plant in Harlan County, Kentucky , voted to join
7638-468: The margins of, the American Dream , thus further casting workers and activists as underdogs. The underdog theme is an inspirational archetype in myth . In the 2005 action movie Four Brothers , one of the characters is a former union activist who turns the bad guy's henchmen against him by informally organizing them against their boss based on the common organizing themes of a greater share in
7752-521: The middle of the 1870s, member numbers leaped to more than a million, becoming the largest labor organization in the United States. The Haymarket Affair of 1886 and the fear of anarchism and social change incited by union organizations resulted in the demise of the Knights of Labor when an unknown person threw a bomb into an altercation between the Chicago police and workers on strike. Once the Knights ceased to exist, Mary Jones became involved mainly with
7866-699: The miners for a union which could withstand and help protect the workers' rights. Although many labor unions were failing, two predominant unions arose that held promise to become strong and permanent advocates for the miners. The main problem during this time was the rivalry between the two groups. Because the National Trade Assembly #135, better known as the Knights of Labor , and the National Federation of Miners and Mine Laborers were so opposed to one another, they created problems for miners rather than solving key issues. This union
7980-761: The mines and reactivated the railroad haulers in time for Christmas. These events are depicted in the documentary film Harlan County, USA . The Pittston Coal strike of 1989-1990 began as a result of a withdrawal of the Pittston Coal Group also known as the Pittston Company from the Bituminous Coal Operators Association (BCOA) and a refusal of the Pittston Coal group to pay the health insurance payments for miners who were already retired. The owner of
8094-422: The mines!" and held rallies each night in a new town on the way with music, skits, and speeches drawing thousands of citizens. As Mother Jones noted, many of the children at union headquarters were missing fingers and had other disabilities, and she attempted to get newspaper publicity for the bad conditions experienced by children working in Pennsylvania. However, the mill owners held stock in most newspapers. When
8208-428: The mining industry and also wanted the company to grow. But in order for the company to grow, the workers must have better conditions so that their labor could improve and benefit the operators. The union's first priority was to get a fair weighing system within the mines. At a conference between the operators and the union, the idea of a new system of scaling was agreed upon, but the system was never implemented. Because
8322-439: The most dangerous woman in America", announced Blizzard. "She comes into a state where peace and prosperity reign... crooks her finger, [and] twenty thousand contented men lay down their tools and walk out." Jones was ideologically separated from many female activists of her day due to her lack of commitment to the cause of women's suffrage . She was quoted as saying that "you don't need the vote to raise hell!" She opposed many of
8436-401: The most part it was impossible to tell how many trade and mixed LAs there were at a given time. Local assemblies began to arise and fall all around, and many members began to question whether or not the Knights of Labor was strong enough to fight for the most important issue of the time, achieving an eight-hour work day. This Union was formed by members of the Knights of Labor who realized that
8550-416: The most powerful labor leaders in U.S. history. The 1978 movie F.I.S.T , tells the same story of Hoffa's beginnings as an organizer and of his rise to power, albeit with more liberties taken. Sylvester Stallone plays Hoffa as a man with good intentions, dogged on both sides, by both sides of the law. Both Hoffa stories feature Hoffa as a tough "man of the people" and chronicle how his organizing swelled
8664-404: The new gravestone and memorial. Since then, October 11 is not only known as Miners' Day but is also referred to and celebrated in Mount Olive as "Mother Jones's Day." The farm where she died began to advertise itself as the "Mother Jones Rest Home" in 1932, before being sold to a Baptist church in 1956. The site is now marked with a Maryland Historical Trust marker , and a nearby elementary school
8778-400: The newspapermen informed her that they could not publish the facts about child labor because of this, she remarked "Well, I've got stock in these little children and I'll arrange a little publicity." Permission to see President Roosevelt was denied by his secretary, and it was suggested that Jones address a letter to the president requesting a visit with him Mother Jones wrote a letter requesting
8892-430: The next actions to take. In 1888, Samuel Gompers was elected as President of the National Federation of Miners, and George Harris first vice president. Throughout 1887–1888 many joint conferences were held to help iron out the problems that the two groups were having. Many leaders of each groups began questioning the morals of the other union. One leader, William T. Lewis , thought there needed to be more unity within
9006-412: The next five years, were an independent union. In 1947, the UMW once again joined the AFL, but the remarriage was a short one, as the UMW was forced out of the AFL in 1948, and at that point, became the largest non-affiliated union in the United States. In 1982, Richard Trumka was elected the leader of the UMW. Trumka spent the 1980s healing the rift between the UMW and the now-conjoined AFL–CIO (which
9120-429: The organizer really organizes: arranging meetings, devising strategy, and developing an internal structure known as an organizing committee . It is from the pool of activists recruited to the organizing committee that the union typically later draws its shop stewards. Though some mistake organizing as strictly being a recruitment effort, numerous obstacles emerge which require more than simple enlistment and promotion of
9234-399: The organizer's role is to recruit groups of workers under the organizing model . In other unions, the organizer's role is largely that of servicing members and enforcing work rules, similar to the role of a shop steward . In some unions, organizers may also take on industrial/legal roles such as making representations before Fair Work Commission , tribunals, or courts . In North America ,
9348-487: The organizing campaign encourages and capitalizes upon worker disobedience and perceived disloyalty. For this reason, management may hire anti-union consultants or lawyers known as "union-busters" or "union avoidance consultants." With the goal of thwarting organizing, union-busters typically have a two-pronged approach: firstly, management will cut deals with individual workers to betray the union and secondly, to exploit loopholes in labor law in an effort to derail or sandbag
9462-422: The picket lines. Many were arrested, some hit by baseball bats, shot at, and struck by cars. One striking miner, Lawrence Jones, was shot and killed by a Strikebreaker . Three months after returning to work, the national UMWA contract expired. On November 12, 1974, 120,000 miners nationwide walked off the job. The nationwide strike was bloodless and a tentative contract was achieved three weeks later. This opened
9576-416: The production of anthracite to keep its price profitable. Because the efforts of the WBA benefited the operators, they did not object when the union wanted to take action in the mines; they welcomed the actions that would secure their profit. Because the operators trusted the WBA, they agreed to the first written contract between miners and operators. As the union became more responsible in the operators' eyes,
9690-438: The purpose of ... educating all mine workers in America to realize the necessity of unity of action and purpose, in demanding and securing by lawful means the just fruits of our toil. The UMWA constitution listed eleven points as the union's goals: John L. Lewis (1880–1969) was the highly combative UMW president who thoroughly controlled the union from 1920 to 1960. A major player in the labor movement and national politics, in
9804-503: The ranks of the Teamsters. Hoffa was notorious for taking an "ends justifies the means" approach to organizing. Hoffa's legacy remains: his son, James P. Hoffa , is the current general president of the Teamsters. In an episode of the popular American sit-com The Office , the characters hold an organizing meeting that ends with a manager threatening to fire everyone involved. The character played by comedian Patrice O'Neal tells
9918-485: The relating of some personal tale in which she invariably "showed up" one form of authority or another. Mother Jones reportedly spoke in a pleasant-sounding brogue that projected well. When she grew excited, her voice dropped in pitch. By age 60, Jones had assumed the persona of "Mother Jones" by claiming to be older than she was, wearing outdated black dresses, and referring to the male workers that she helped as "her boys." The first reference to her in print as Mother Jones
10032-408: The requests of the dominant money interests. To a man of that type, I wish to pay my respects'. During her later years, Jones lived with her friends Walter and Lillie May Burgess on their farm in what is now Adelphi, Maryland . She celebrated her self-proclaimed 100th birthday there on May 1, 1930, and was filmed making a statement for a newsreel . Mary Harris Jones died on November 30, 1930, at
10146-519: The silk mills in New Jersey and returned to Pennsylvania to report that the conditions she observed there were much better. She stated that "the child labor law is better enforced for one thing and there are more men at work than seen in the mills here." In response to the strike, mill owners claimed that if the workers insisted on a wage scale, they would not be able to do business while paying adult wages and would be forced to close. Jones encouraged
10260-418: The supply of labor from newly organized shops may cause the supply of jobs to dwindle below what an increased membership can absorb. Most disputes between unions are jurisdictional (territorial). Union jurisdiction is based on geographic scope, craft , industry , historical claim, and compromise. Unions have overlapping jurisdictions. Critics within the labor movement have blamed the movement itself for
10374-456: The time, a strike was the only way that they believed they would be heard. The Knights of Labor tried to establish a strong and organized union, so they set up a system of local assemblies, or LAs. There were two main types of LAs, trade and mixed, with the trade LA being the most common. Although this system was put into place to create order, it did the opposite. Even though there were only two categories of LAs, there were many sub-divisions. For
10488-478: The trucks. With more machines that could do the same labor, unemployment in the mines grew and wages were cut back. As the problems grew, many people did not believe that the UMW could ever become as powerful as it was before the start of the war. The decline in the union began in the 1920s and continued through the 1930s. Slowly the membership of the UMWA grew back up in numbers, with the majority in District 50 ,
10602-498: The union . Led by J. B. McLachlan , miners struck in 1923, and were met by locally and provincially-deployed troops. This would eventually lead to the federal government introducing legislation limiting the civil use of troops. In 1925 BESCO announced that it would not longer give credit at their company stores and that wages would be cut by 20%. The miners responded with a strike. This led to violence with company police firing on strikers, killing miner William Davis , as well as
10716-430: The union did not deliver what it had promised, it lost support and members. During this time, the rivalry between the two unions increased and eventually led to the formation of the UMW. The first of many arguments arose after the 1886 joint conference. The Knights of Labor did not want the NTA #135 to be in control, so they went against a lot of their decisions. Also, because the Knights of Labor were not in attendance at
10830-552: The union into the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Lewis was a Republican, but he played a major role in helping Franklin D. Roosevelt win re-election with a landslide in 1936, but as an isolationist supported by Communist elements in the CIO, Lewis broke with Roosevelt in 1940 on anti-Nazi foreign policy. (Following the 1939 German-Soviet pact of nonaggression, the Comintern had instructed communist parties in
10944-470: The union was given more freedoms. As a result, the health and spirits of the miners significantly improved. The WBA could have been a very successful union had it not been for Franklin B. Gowen . In the 1870s Gowen lead the Reading Railroad , and bought several coal mines in the area. Because he owned the coal mines and controlled the means of transporting the coal, he was able to slowly destroy
11058-412: The union, and that competition for members between the two groups was not accomplishing anything. As a result of taking this position, he was replaced by John B. Rae as president of the NTA #135. This removal did not stop Lewis however; he got many people together who had been also thrown out of the Knights of Labor for trying to belong to both parties at once, along with the National Federation, and created
11172-410: The union. During organizing, management has greater means to reward or punish workers, far overshadowing methods available to the union. For this reason, in most countries, laws such as the U.S. National Labor Relations Act , guarantee the rights of workers to seek union membership and forbid management's use of undue influence such as bribes or threats. Nonetheless, such charges are hard to prove and
11286-430: The union. Eastover management refused to sign the contract and the miners went on strike. Duke Power attempted to bring in replacement non-union workers or " scabs " but many were blocked from entering the mine by striking workers and their families on the picket line. Local judge F. Byrd Hogg was a coal operator himself and consistently ruled for Eastover. During much of the strike the mine workers' wives and children joined
11400-407: The unions, loss of control over jobs, drop in demand, and competition—decreased the faith of miners in their union. By 1998 the UMW had about 240,000 members, half the number that it had in 1946. As of the early 2000s, the union represents about 42 percent of all employed miners. At some point before 1930, the UMW became a member of the American Federation of Labor . The UMW leadership was part of
11514-542: The war, the UMW concentrated on gaining large increases in wages, medical services and retirement benefits for its shrinking membership, which was contending with changes in technology and declining mines in the East. The UMW was founded at Columbus City Hall in Columbus, Ohio , on January 25, 1890, by the merger of two earlier groups, the Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 and the National Progressive Miners Union. It
11628-536: The wives of the workers to organize into a group that would wield brooms, beat on tin pans, and shout "join the union!" She felt that wives had an important role to play as the nurturers and motivators of the striking men, but not as fellow workers. She claimed that the young girls working in the mills were being robbed and demoralized. She felt that the rich were denying these children the right to go to school in order to be able to pay for their own children's college tuitions. To enforce worker solidarity, Jones traveled to
11742-665: The workers to accept a settlement. Although she agreed to a settlement that sent the young girls back to the mills, she continued to fight child labor for the rest of her life. In 1903, Jones organized children who were working in mills and mines to participate in her famous "March of the Mill Children", a 125-mile trek from Kensington, Philadelphia , to the summer house (and Summer White House ) of President Theodore Roosevelt on Long Island (in Oyster Bay, New York ). They had banners demanding "We want to go to school and not
11856-562: The workers. Active as an organizer and educator in strikes nationwide, she was involved particularly with the UMW and the Socialist Party of America . As a union organizer , she gained prominence for organizing the wives and children of striking workers in demonstrations on their behalf. She was termed "the most dangerous woman in America" by a West Virginian district attorney, Reese Blizzard, in 1902 at her trial for ignoring an injunction banning meetings by striking miners. "There sits
11970-410: Was curbed by competition from other energy sources. The main cause of the decline in the union during the 1920s and 1930s was the introduction of more efficient and easily produced machines into the coal mines. In previous years, less than 41% of coal was cut by the machines. However, by 1930, 81% was being cut by the machines and now there were machines that could also surface mine and load the coal into
12084-504: Was filed by the Coal Employment Project , a women's advocacy organization, against 153 coal companies. This action was based upon Executive Order 11246 signed in 1965 by U.S. President Lyndon Johnson , which bars sex discrimination by companies with federal contracts. The complaint called for the hiring of one woman for every three inexperienced men until women constituted 20 percent of the workforce. This legal strategy
12198-449: Was in 1897. In 1901, workers in Pennsylvania's silk mills went on strike. Many of them were young girls demanding to be paid adult wages. The 1900 census had revealed that one sixth of American children under the age of sixteen were employed. John Mitchell , the president of the UMWA, brought Mother Jones to northeastern Pennsylvania in the months of February and September to encourage unity among striking workers. To do so, she encouraged
12312-461: Was left with 35,000 members, of whom 20,000 were coal miners, chiefly in underground mines in Kentucky and West Virginia. However it was responsible for pensions and medical benefits for 40,000 retired miners, and for 50,000 spouses and dependents. The UMW was founded in Columbus, Ohio , on January 25, 1890, with the merger of two old labor groups, the Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 and
12426-401: Was modeled after the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The Union's emergence in the 1890s was the culmination of decades of effort to organize mine workers and people in adjacent occupations into a single, effective negotiating unit. At the time coal was one of the most highly sought natural resources, as it was widely used to heat homes and to power machines in industries. The coal mines were
12540-501: Was more commonly known as the Knights of Labor and began around 1870 in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area. The main problem with the Knights of Labor was its secrecy. The members kept very private their affiliation and goals of the Knights of Labor. Because both miners and operators could become members, there was no commonality to unite the members. Also, the union did not see strikes as a means to attain rights. To many people of
12654-477: Was not prepared economically to deal with such a drop in demand for coal. Demand for coal was very high during World War II, but decreased dramatically after the war, in part due to competition from other energy sources. In efforts to improve air quality, municipal governments started to ban the use of coal as household fuel. The end of wartime price controls introduced competition to produce cheaper coal, putting pressure on wages. These problems—perceived weakness of
12768-480: Was providing enough income to support the household, she altered her labor to housekeeping. In 1867, Jones lost her husband and their four children, three girls and a boy all under the age of five, during a yellow fever epidemic in Memphis . After that loss, she returned to Chicago to open another dressmaking business. She did work for members of Chicago's upper class in the 1870s and 1880s. In 1871, four years after
12882-413: Was successful. Almost 3,000 women were hired by the close of 1979 as underground miners. A general decline in union effectiveness characterized the 1970s and 1980s, leading to new kinds of activism, particularly in the late 1970s. Workers saw their unions back down in the face of aggressive management. Other factors contributed to the decline in unionism generally and UMW specifically. The coal industry
12996-457: Was the Workingmen's Benevolent Association . This union was distinguished as a labor union for workers mining anthracite coal. The laborers formed the WBA to help improve pay and working conditions. The main reason for the success of this group was the president, John Siney , who sought a way both to increase miners benefits while also helping the operators earn a profit. They chose to limit
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