BCOA was formed in 1950 as a group to negotiate with the UMWA on behalf of large coal companies located in the Appalachian region.
UMWA and BCOA came to an agreement that miners would not strike against layoffs if they were allowed health benefits and a fair wage.
BCOA recently has been working with the UMWA and Murray mines to negotiate a new contract between thousands of workers [3] in West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
From the 1950s to the 1970s, there were various updates to the agreement with the goal to completely satisfy miners enough to end random wildcat strikes throughout coal mines across the country.
[6] United Mine Workers of America, Health and Retirement Funds records, 1940-1993 1827 Archived 2017-10-24 at the Wayback Machine The miners’ strike of 1977–78 | International Socialist Review