Initially a multi-ethnic union in Habsburg Austria (Cisleithania), it was divided along ethnic lines in 1910.
[3] The debates lasted for 15 hours, after which a constitution for the Union der Bergarbeiter Österreichs was adopted.
[5] The union leadership at Turn consisted of a seven-member executive committee, led by its chairman.
[3] At a conference in Leoben on June 28, 1903 the mine workers union of the Austrian Alpine counties (Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Upper and Lower Austria, Salzburg and Istria) voted to join the Union der Bergarbeiter, bringing some 1,600 members to the fold.
[3] By March 1, 1904 the union claimed 9,256 members, distributed geographically and ethnically along the following lines; [3] By September 1904 the union membership had increased to 11,531; 3,622 in Bohemia, 2,252 in Silesia, 1,114 in Moravia, 2,967 in Styria, 45 in Upper Austria, 79 in Lower Austria, 60 in Salzburg, 38 in Tyrol, 155 in Carniola, 125 in Carinthia, 659 in Istria and 414 in Galicia.
[11] Politically it was linked to the German Social Democratic Workers Party in the Czechoslovak Republic.
[13] But with the emerging economic crisis and the neglect of the mining industry by the Prague government, the membership of the union declined.
[13] In 1928, Union der Bergarbeiter won 308 out of a total of 1,305 seats in mine workers councils across Czechoslovakia.
Unionstag'), held in Brüx June 19-21, 1937 elected the following leadership: Zinner (Falkenau) as chairman, Josef Zwonar from Schönfeld and Franz Schaffarsch from Weißkirchlitz as deputy chairmen, Haase from Turn as Central Secretary, and Johann Kloiber, Karl Wildner, Hermann Lehnert, Richard Wirkner, Franz Demel Johann Sippl, Wenzel Lutz, Josef Lischka and Josef Hübner as the remaining members of the executive.