A strike like no other strike: Pittston strike holds lessons for today

Female supporters of the strikers

Female supporters of the strikers

Article by the United Mine Workers of America, 20 years on from the 10-month-long Pittston Coal strike in Virginia. As you would expect from an official union account it omits to mention the wildcat strikers and violent acts of sabotage but contains interesting historical information.

Excerpted from United Mine Workers Journal, March-April 2009

Attachments

Pittston.4-12.pdf (1.05 MB)

Comments

Related content

Striking miners rally

Coalminers strike against Pittston Company in Virginia, 1989-1990

A short history of the successful 10 month long strike at Pittston Coal against cuts to retirement…

Miners give up their weapons after the battle of Blair mountain

West Virginia's mine wars, 1920-1921

A short historical account and background of the often violent conflict between workers and employers in West Virginia's mines in the late 19th…

IWW union hall in Walsenburg, 1928 when members rushed to defend it after it was

Blood on the coal: Colorado strike of 1927 - Patrick Murfin

A short history of the great Colorado coal strike of 1927, called by the revolutionary union…

Birmingham coalminers

Birmingham district coal strike of 1908

A short history of the multiracial coal miners' strikes in Birmingham, Alabama, in the early 20th century which were violently repressed by mine…

US coal miners' strikes, 1894 - Jeremy Brecher

Jeremy Brecher's excellent account of the overlapping American miners' strikes in 1894: a national strike and a successful stoppage in Cripple…

The US miners' strikes, 1919-1922 - Jeremy Brecher

Jeremy Brecher's account of the strike wave in American mines from 1919 to 1922, where coalminers fought the bosses, the government and even the…