The strike in Virden is also credited with the winning of the 8-hour work day for hourly mine workers, and a memorial in the town square commemorates the battle.

Quite quickly after though, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company repealed the agreement and went down to the South, mainly Birmingham, Alabama to bring back African American strikebreakers to work in the mines, lowering the hours for the people that were striking.

[9] As the Chicago-Virden Coal Company repeals the agreement the European immigrants in the labor unions that were striking feel threatened by the African American miners coming in.

The fight lasted around ten minutes including 7 striking miners and 5 guards killed in the riot, along with 30 other individuals injured, one of which was a Birmingham worker.

The UMWA pursued a strategy that involved undermining labor-friendly contract provisions, including job-sharing arrangements that had long been regarded as customary.

With the Great Depression, Illinois UMWA negotiators were forced to accept a pay cut for miners, dropping it from $6.10 a day to 5$.

The laborers did manage to defeat this cut, forcing Lewis to schedule another vote in August, and it got passed the second time.

[10] This built up anger from workers quickly turned violent with multiple bombings, shootings, and fights all within a two week period in February 1933.

Many of these attacks were directly purposed to harm or kill UMWA miners or officials, organized by PMA workers.

After Franklin Roosevelt issued the $10,000 fines to each convicted miner, many believed that the spirit of the PMA was broken, and the authority of the UMWA had returned.