Progressive Miners of America

{{short description|Former trade union of the United States}} {{Infobox union |name = Progressive Miners of America |location = United States |affiliations = American Federation of Labor <br>(1938-1946) |num_members = |full_name = Progressive Mine Workers of America |native_name = |image = |founded = September 1932 |dissolved = 1999 |merged_into = |headquarters = |key_people = |website = |footnotes = }} The '''Progressive Miners of America''' (PMA, renamed the '''Progressive Mine Workers of America''', PMWA, in 1938) was a coal miners' union organized in 1932 in Gillespie, Illinois. It was formed in response to a 1932 contract proposal negotiated by United Mine Workers President John L. Lewis, which reduced wages from a previous rate of $6.10 per day to $5.00 per day.

The union was dissolved in 1999, after decades of discontent by members.

==History==

===Background===

During the first years of the 20th Century, the various organizational districts of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) retained substantial autonomy for the negotiation of contracts with mineowners.<ref name=Fink226>Gary M. Fink, "Progressive Mine Workers of America (PMA)," in Gary M. Fink (ed.), ''Labor Unions.'' Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1977; pg. 226.</ref> Among the strongest and most effective of these was UMWA District 12, encompassing the state of Illinois, which managed to negotiate for itself the highest wage scale in the United States.<ref name=Fink226 /> Although able to win a $7.50 daily wage for its members, District 12 gradually came into conflict with national UMWA leadership under union president John L. Lewis, which sought an end to district autonomy in favor of the centralized negotiation of contracts on a national basis.<ref name=Fink226 />

Although initially opposing wage reductions under the slogan "No Backward Step," in 1928 Lewis negotiated a contract which effectively reduced the daily wage rate for Illinois miners from $7.50 to $6.10.<ref name=Fink226 /> This contract was narrowly ratified only after extensive campaigning among Illinois miners by UMWA officials, who eventually made the case for employment stability under the new wage rate rather than instability and strife if a fight was made to maintain the previous rate of wages.<ref name=Fink226 /> A general sense of dissatisfaction with Lewis and the national union leadership remained among Illinois miners in the aftermath of the signing of the new 1928 contract.<ref name=Fink226 />

The coming of the Great Depression put additional downward pressure upon wages, as the ranks of unemployed workers skyrocketed. The new contract negotiated in 1932 by the UMWA called for a further reduction of daily wages, this time from the previous $6.10 per day to just $5.00.<ref name=Fink226 /> This contract was overwhelmingly rejected in District 12, with negative votes carrying the day by a 4-to-1 margin.<ref name=Fink226 /> Lewis was called in to personally negotiate a new contract; his second effort did not differ materially from the first.<ref name=Fink226 /> This time, however, after the ratification vote was taken, tally sheets vanished and union president Lewis unilaterally put the new contract into effect, over the strenuous objection of rank and file members in District 12.<ref name=Fink226 />

Disaffected miners voted to initiate a series of wildcat strikes against mine operators across Illinois, with one particularly violent confrontation between striking miners and law enforcement authorities taking place on August 24, 1932, in the Southern Illinois community of Mulkeytown.<ref name=Fink226 /> Vehicles were upended and workers were shot at and beaten. Strikers believed Lewis and the UMWA leadership to be in cahoots with mineowners and lawmen in suppression of the Mulkeytown strike, and sentiment began to grow for a split of Illinois miners from the national union.<ref name=Fink226 />

=== Formation ===

On September 1, 1932, barely a week after the violence at Mulkeytown, disaffected representatives of the Illinois miners gathered at Gillespie and voted to split from the UMWA in favor of their own organization, to be called the Progressive Miners of America (PMA).<ref name=Fink226 /> Approximately 18,000 miners were members of the organization at the time of its formation.<ref name=Fink227 />

Rejecting Lewis's autocratic, personalized leadership, the new union adopted democratic policies and instituted measures intended to ensure that their leaders would be held accountable to the membership. The new union embodied an alternative definition of unionism which broadened its role beyond wage agreements and worker grievances. Labor scholar Staughton Lynd defines alternative unionism or community-based unionism as "democratic, deeply rooted in mutual aid among workers in different crafts and work sites, and politically independent."<ref>Staughton Lynd, ''"We Are All Leaders": The Alternative Unionism of the Early 1930s.'' Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1996; pg. 3.</ref>

This class conception of labor extended to include women. Historian Caroline Waldron Merithew notes, "the PMA was one of the few movements in which non-wage-earning women became leaders in organizing an industry that employed only male labor."<ref>Caroline Waldron Merithew, "We Were Not Ladies" Gender, Class, and a Women's Auxiliary's Battle for Mining Unionism," ''Journal of Women's History,'' vol. 28, no. 2 (2006), pg. 66.</ref>

=== Recognition ===

Following its September 1932 formation, the PMA immediately sought to negotiate a new wage agreement for Illinois miners. A wage conference was called in Edwardsville, Illinois in October, attended by a dissident segment of the state's mine operators, who were themselves divided as to the approach to be taken towards the organized labor movement.<ref name=Fink226 /> The contract negotiated between the dissident miners of the PMA and the dissident mine operators proved to be virtually identical to the agreement earlier rejected by the Illinois rank-and-file, ironically.<ref name=Fink226 /> The PMA did gain official recognition and an automatic dues check-off system, concessions necessary for the group's survival but failed to restore daily wage levels to the abandoned 1928 rate.<ref name=Fink226 /> Picketing against mines which refused to recognize the PMA was begun.<ref name=Fink227>Fink, "Progressive Mine Workers of America (PMA)," pg. 227.</ref>

In response to the Illinois split, the Lewis-led UMWA began immediate negotiations with the mainline members of the Illinois Coal Operators Association, agreeing upon a two-year extension of the new and reduced wage rates, which had been previously packaged as an "emergency" measure.<ref name=Fink227 /> The two rival unions and groups of operators stood in opposition to one another for the rest of the decade, with the UMWA retaining its hold over key coal mines in Southern Illinois through its closed shop agreement.<ref name=Fink227 />

Repeated demands for statewide recognition elections by the union were also rejected by the National Labor Board, which refused to intervene in favor of either union, instead letting the contracts negotiated by the rival unions stand.<ref name=Fink227 /> Law Professor Jim Pope writes, "By early 1934, exit from the UMW was no longer a viable option for union miners. With the cooperation of employers and courts, the UMW had used its quasi-governmental position to withering effect against the alternative unions."<ref>Jim Pope, "The Western Pennsylvania Coal Strike of 1933, Part II: Lawmaking from Above and the Demise of Democracy in the United Mine Workers," ''Labor History,'' vol. 44, no. 2 (2003), pg. 259.</ref>

===1937 Racketeering charges ===

The PMA suffered a crucial blow in 1937 when 39 members were indicted in federal court on anti-racketeering charges. Although the defense provided compelling evidence of UMWA collusion with the Peabody Coal Company, the jury returned guilty verdicts for the accused. Subsequently, 34 received federal prison sentences, many serving time in Leavenworth, Kansas.

===American Federation of Labor recognition===

The union was also torn internally. Conservative leaders resisted the efforts of radicals to expand the alternative formation of the union. Red-baiting was adopted to attack and discredit left-leaning members.

In the spring of 1938, with Lewis and the UMWA having left the staid American Federation of Labor (AF of L) to help form the rival Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), the AF of L offered a national charter to the Progressive Miners of America.<ref name=Fink227 /> This offer was accepted and the name of the organization was changed at this time to the Progressive Mine Workers of America (PMWA).<ref name=Fink227 /> Under the AF of L's umbrella the PMWA approximately doubled its original membership during subsequent years, topping the 35,000 mark by the end of World War II.<ref name=Fink227 />

===Organizational structure===

The Progressive Miners of America governed itself through biannual conventions and maintained national headquarters in Springfield, Illinois.<ref name=Fink227 /> The group issued an official organ during its salad days, a weekly newspaper called ''Progressive Miner.''<ref name=Fink227 />

===Return to independent status and decline===

This national affiliation with the AF of L proved to be short-lived, however, as in 1946 the larger and stronger United Mine Workers of America rejoined the AF of L, regaining national jurisdiction and forcing the PMWA out of the organization.<ref name=Fink227 /> A lengthy period of decline began, with membership and organizational clout of the PMWA atrophying in subsequent decades.<ref name=Fink227 />

While the union formally continued to exist until 1999, its possibility to offer mine workers a genuine alternative dissolved decades earlier. Paired against the combined forces of the UMWA, the state and federal government, and the coal operators, the Progressives were hindered at every turn.

==Footnotes== {{Reflist|2}}

==Further reading==

* Harriet D. Hudson, ''The Progressive Mine Workers of America: A Study in Rival Unionism.'' Bureau of Economic and Business Research Bulletin 73. University of Illinois, 1952. * Caroline Waldron Merithew, ""We Were Not Ladies": Gender, Class, and a Women's Auxiliary's Battle for Mining Unionism," ''Journal of Women's History,'' vol. 18 no. 2 (2006), pp. 63-94. * Carl D. Oblinger, ''Divided Kingdom : Work, Community, and the Mining Wars in the Central Illinois Coal Fields During the Great Depression.'' Springfield, IL: Illinois State Historical Society, 1991. * Mary Heaton Vorse, "Illinois Miners," ''Scribner's Magazine'', March 1933, pp. 169–172. * Dallas M. Young, "Origins of the Progressive Mine Workers of America," ''Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society'', vol. 40 (1947), pp. 313–330. * [http://hinton-gen.com/gillespie/pma_constitution.html ''Constitution of District No. 1, Progressive Miners Of America, Organized Sept. 1, 1932: Adopted at Gillespie, Illinois, October 8, 1932.'']{{dead link|date=March 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} Belleville, IL: W.J. Hoffman, 1932.

==External links== * Wayne Hinton (ed.), {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20131008172958/http://hinton-gen.com/gillespie/pmwa.html "PMWA, Progressive Mine Workers of America; Progressive Miners of America, PMA,"]}} Wayne's World of History and Genealogy, www.hinton-gen.com/

Category:Mining trade unions Category:Defunct trade unions in the United States Category:Coal mining in the United States Category:Trade unions established in 1932 Category:1999 disestablishments in the United States Category:United Mine Workers of America