UMWA president Arnold Miller had negotiated the previous collective bargaining agreement during the 1974 UMW Bituminous coal strike.
During the Franklin Roosevelt administration, UMWA and other unions established industry-wide national collective bargaining agreements.
Democratic reforms within the Mine Workers and the 1974 contract had not released the pressure which caused wildcat strikes.
A coal auger was blown up at a mine near Saint Charles, Georgia, a coal train was stopped and delayed in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, and in Utah a state judge issued a 10-day restraining order against the union and 1,100 summonses issued after replacement miners complained of being harassed by picketers.
Four weeks into the strike, five union miners were indicted on federal charges for conspiracy in the dynamiting of a section of the Norfolk and Western Railway on which non-union coal was being carried.
The agreement imposed penalties for wildcat strikes and chronic absenteeism, turned the union's health and pension plans over to the employers, forced workers to pay part of their health insurance premiums, and instituted a bonus system for productivity increases.
The miners deeply resented losing their health care plan and having to pay premiums, and still demand the right to strike over local issues.
But UMWA members resented having their own union spend dues money on propaganda, and felt that the ad campaign showed that the contract was not worth ratifying.
But noting that there seemed little national emergency, and observing that the Carter administration had made little effort to reopen the mines, the court declined to make the injunction permanent.
Additionally, many miners began to realize that the strikes were hurting the union's organizing chances, especially in the West.
They tentatively agreed on new, improved dispute resolution procedures which, they hoped, would lower the number of wildcat strikes.
[1][13] Although Miller and his leadership worked hard to convince members that the contract was a good one, they avoided the errors of their previous effort.
Country-western singer Johnny Paycheck was hired to sing and narrate several soft-sell one-minute radio spots.
Miller traveled heavily through Appalachia, where he was best known and where opposition had been strongest, speaking to members and making numerous television appearances.
[12] The pact called for: While ratification of the agreement was a victory for Miller, it also signaled the end of his effectiveness as leader of the United Mine Workers of America.
On March 29, 1978, just ten days after the coal mining contract was ratified, Miller suffered a stroke while on vacation in Miami Beach, Florida.
His union political opponents had decided that his erratic behavior and poor physical condition justified putting him on involuntary leave when he suffered a third heart attack.