Америка прогрессивті кеніші жұмысшыларының тарихы

Former trade union of the United States

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 downstate 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.

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. 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. 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."

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. 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.

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.

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. This offer was accepted and the name of the organization was changed at this time to the Progressive Mine Workers of America (PMWA). 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.

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

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. A lengthy period of decline began, with membership and organizational clout of the PMWA atrophying in subsequent decades. 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.