Today in Labor History June 22, 1922: After guards shot and killed 3 striking miners at the Southern Illinois Coal Company, hundreds of union miners laid siege to the mine, using hammers, shovels and dynamite to wreck equipment and keep the strikebreakers pinned down inside coal cars and behind barricades. After the scabs, guards and superintendent surrendered, the strikers marched them into Herrin, five miles away. Along the way, they encountered a mob of angry miners. One of them shouted, "The only way to free the county of strikebreakers is to kill them all off and stop the breed!" Another said, “We must show the world this ain’t West Virginia,” referring to the Battle of Blair Mountain, nine months prior, in which up to 100 miners were killed in the largest armed domestic conflict since the Civil War. Then the mob grew angrier, striking the scabs with rifle butts, eventually telling them to run for their lives, shooting them as they ran. In total, they killed 19 scabs and the superintendent. Several strikers were eventually arrested and held in the Williamson County jail, which is now a historical museum focusing on the conflict. At the initial inquest, the coroner concluded that the deaths were “due to the acts direct and indirect of the officials of the Southern Illinois Coal Company." Those who were tried for the murders were all acquitted. None of the miners were ever convicted.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #strike #union #umwa #scabs #massacre #coal #illinois #CivilWar #herrin

Today in Labor History March 6, 1978: President Jimmy Carter invoked the Taft-Hartley law to quash the 1977-78 national contract strike by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). The UMWA had been on strike since December 1977, but rejected a tentative contract agreement in early March, 1978. Carter invoked the national emergency provision of Taft-Hartley and ordered strikers back to work. They ignored the order and the government did little to enforce it. By late March, they reached a settlement. Taft-Hartley was enacted in the wake of the strike wave of 1945-1946 and was designed to prevent solidarity strikes and General Strikes. The last General Strike in U.S. history (Lancaster, PA; Stamford, CT; Rochester, NY; and Oakland, CA) occurred just prior to Taft-Hartley.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #strike #GeneralStrike #union #solidarity #TaftHartley #oakland #UMWA

Today in Labor History December 1, 1904: W. A. "Tough Tony" Boyle, future president of the United Mine Workers of America was born. In 1974, a court convicted him of conspiracy in the murder of opponent Joseph A. Yablonski, his wife Margaret, and their daughter Charlotte in 1969. He died while serving three life terms. Yablonski had been fighting for more democratic representation among the locals. He had lost to Boyle in a presidential election he charged was fraudulent.

#union #murder #corruption #UMWA