UMWA Records: Series 1. Joint Conventions and Conference Proceedings on Microfilm, 1899-1927
Collection Number: 5301/1 mf

The first interstate agreements in the bituminous coal industry were negotiated by the National Federation of Miners and Mine Laborers with the coal mine operators of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois during the period 1885 to 1889. The annual interstate conferences held during these years attempted to establish uniform wage and working conditions throughout the area later known as the Central Competitive Field. The parties to the negotiations felt that by joint agreement they could mitigate the manifold hardships suffered by the miners and many operators which came as a result of the overproduction of coal, destructive cut-throat competition within the industry, irregular employment, continual reductions of wages, and the many bitter strikes and lockouts which marked the period prior to 1885.

The interstate conference system collapsed when the miners and operators failed to reach an agreement in 1889. The break-up of this system may be attributed largely to the worsening economic condition of the coal trade at this time, but much credit must be given to the disrupting effect of the existing union rivalry between the Federation of Miners and National District Assembly No. 135 of the Knights of Labor. The Knights had had a large following among the coal miners for some time, but saw no need for a special miners organization until the National Federation appeared on the scene in 1885.

The existence of two national miners' organizations each contending for leadership of the nation's coal miners was also a source of distress to many of the operators. The operators insisted upon uniform enforcement of the agreement throughout the competitive area, and the Knights recalcitrance often made this impossible. Having had no voice in the making of the agreements, the Knights refused in many instances to honor its provisions in areas where NDA-135 was the predominant organization. The failure of the Knights to maintain the competitive rates established by the interstate conference led many operators to abrogate the agreement in competitive self-defense, and thus led to the collapse of the bargaining system.

Seeing the part which union rivalry had played in disrupting the interstate conference system, the two organizations merged in 1890 to form the United Mine Workers of America. The new organization moved immediately to revive the interstate conferences in the Central Competitive Field, but the struggle to get the nation's major coal operators into interstate negotiations proved very difficult for the weak, but growing, union during the depression years of the eighteen nineties.

The resumption of interstate negotiations and the first "industry-wide" agreement signed by the United Mine Workers came in 1898. From this time until pattern setting in the Central Competitive Field was abandoned in 1927, the nation's miners and operators met annually or biennially to jointly determine wages and working conditions for most of the nation's bituminous coal industry. Contracts for the outlying fields - the Southwestern Competitive Field (Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Missouri), and individual fields such as Northern West Virginia, Central Pennsylvania, the Iowa Field and colorado - were negotiated in conformity with the terms and provisions of the Interstate Joint Agreement.

The United Mine Workers divided the coal regions of the United States into geographic subdivisions or districts in order to facilitate union administration and regional negotiations. The districts generally followed state boundaries, but the key factor in determining district boudaries is the geological nature of the coal fields which are grouped together. The number of union members in an area or the size of the coal region was not a factor in determining the boundaries of districts. Pennsylvania, for instance, contained seven districts of the UMW. Some districts, but not all, were divided into subdistricts if there was enough variation in geologic structure throughout the district to create significant differences in mining conditions. For most of the time period with which this record group is concerned, the UMW was divided into 28 districts. Five of these districts were in the Central Competitive Field: District 5, Western Pennsylvania; District 6, Ohio: District 8, the Block Coal Field of Indiana; District 11, Indiana; and the keystone of the union, District 12, Illinois.

District 12, which encompasses the entire state of Illinois and contains 11 subdistricts, has been a center of strong union activity since the first union among the bituminous coal miners in the United States, the American Miners Association, was formed in southern Illinois in 1861. In terms of membership, District 12 has always been the largest in the union, and no other district could match it in coal production. During periods when unionism among the miners might be at a very low ebb, district 12 could always be counted upon to be strongly organized and operating under a collective agreement. The district has also produced some of the greatest leaders of the UMW, such as John Mitchell and John L. Lewis. District 12 has also been the birthplace of much rebellion and dissension within the union.

The operators in Illinois, who were the second party to the collective agreement, had no such centralized and unified organization as the UMW. Up until about the middle of 1910, most of the major coal companies in Illinois held membership in the Illinois Coal Operators' Association which was organized in 1897. during a strike in 1910 the operators of the 5th and 9th districts of Illinois broke away from the ICOA and formed the Coal Operators' Association of the Fifth and Ninth Districts of Illinois.

In 1914, the operators of the Springfield District formed the Central Illinois coal Operators' Association. From 1914, then, to 1928, three operators' associations dealt with District 12. It has been stated that the reason for separate organizations was to be found chiefly in the diversity of mining conditions in the different parts of the state. In 1928 the two smaller organizations rejoined the ICOA in order to deal with the union more effectively.

The district and subdistrict agreements also specified the prices to be paid for deadwork, powder, house coal, and rent on company houses. Local agreements between the miners and the operator of a particular mine dealt with conditions of employment affecting only one mine such as exceptionally long distances to walk from the bottom of the shaft to the working places, the beginning and quitting of work, the lunch hour, and other minor working conditions.

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UMWA Records: Series 1. Joint Conventions and Conference Proceedings on Microfilm #5301/1 mf. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.

Related Collections: 5301 mf: United Mine Workers of America District 12 (Ill.) Records on Microfilm 5301/2 mf: UMWA Records: Series 2. Joint Grievance Board Transcripts on Microfilm 5302 mf: "History of the United Mine Workers, 1890-1932" Unpublished Manuscript on Microfilm