1959 United Mine Workers strike

The 1959 United Mine Workers strike was a labor action by union miners in Eastern Kentucky.

Originally over a pay increase, it grew into a conflict between union and non-union mines that resulted in three deaths.

It was the first instance of labor violence in the area since the Harlan County War and was the prelude to the Roving Picket Movement.

After World War II, industries such as locomotives and home-heating turned away from coal to oil and diesel fuel.

These mines could only operate at a profit by paying their workers far below the daily union wage of $22.25 per day, sometimes as low as $4.

[3] In 1958, a new contract was being written that would implement an additional $2 pay increase to raise the daily wage to $24.25.

This issue extended to the workers in the truck mines, who did not want to be a part of the already prevalent unemployment problem in the region.

The strike began on March 9, 1959, in Harlan and spread to Perry, Letcher, Pike, Knox, Bell, and Knot counties over the next week.

Many pickets were even "veterans of the coal field battles of the 1930s that helped build a powerful UMW.

They gathered at 5 in the morning and hovered at the coal ramps for a few hours before driving to tour non-union mines.

provided food vouchers and gas to the workers, so they could canvas non-union mines by car.

Truck mine operators used this to their advantage and petitioned Kentucky Governor Albert Chandler and later President Eisenhower to deploy troops "to restore law and order.

Truck mine operators didn't believe the contract to be about wages, but rather an effort to "wipe out the small truck-mine industry.

[3] Eventually, the governor threatened to deploy troops if there was any more violence or if there were over a hundred pickets at a single mine.

Amidst clashes and futile discussions, truck mine operators and drivers began to arm themselves.

"[3] An agreement was made, placing a limit on the number of pickets, discouraging union motorcades, and warning against trespassing and blocking roadways.

According to them, "Every truck operator in Johnson and Floyd and the majority in Pike County have signed the new contract.

reasserted their refusal to participate in the peace agreement, and the National Guard was deployed as a result.

In the Harlan County War of the 1930s, the National Guard was used to break the picket lines and end the strike, but Maj. General J. J.

On July 12, six men were arrested after a several hour manhunt for dynamiting Chavies Mining Firm.

These were then cut to $20, then $10, and finally discontinued completely just before Thanksgiving as the union ran out of funds to support the strikers.

Beyond the loss of food vouchers, in August 1960 the union revoked access to the hospitals for miners that had been unemployed for over a year, or even if they were working in a non-union mine.

The lack of funds came from corruption in the union, and the resulting agitation among the miners created the Roving Picket Movement.

The rampant job loss resulted in new non-union truck mines that some union miners found themselves working at.