United Mine Workers
Union
"Union born and bred, on union money I was fed, and I'll be union 'til I'm dead." This common chant was taught to all young miner's children. The union was at the beginning of every mining town in Arkansas.
Through the union, miners were able to get better health care, housing, and fairer prices on consumer goods. Most coal mining towns had a company store where the price on goods was regulated by the owner of the mine. This allowed them to charge anything they wanted and still be assured that the miners would pay it rather than starve. With the union came freer markets where the near-communist economy was replaced with a competitive free enterprise system. The first hospital in Clarksville was operated by the union, which provided health care plans for the miners and their families.
Often a coal operator would attempt to keep the union out of his mine by hiring 'scabs'. They were mostly immigrants who badly needed the money and would work for cheaper wages than the union workers. The Monkey Run attempted to keep out the union by building a six foot high stockade around the coal camp. The union miners called the fence the bull pen. It didn't hold for long.
The most memorable account of Johnson County union wars occured at Jamestown. The Jamestown War broke out at the Slavic camp. The union and non-union men fought and several were killed for the livelyhood of the coal mining community. They felt that their homes and families were being threatened.
District 21 of the United Mine Workers (UMW) reached its greatest strength in 1908 with 16,100 members in Arkansas and Oklahoma. This was 87% of the workforce. When the contract ran out in 1910, 30,000 miners came out to fight for the union. Fred Holt, the secretary-treasurer of UMW, pleaded with the businessmen to support the striking minres. He explained the danger of miners becoming enslaved to the company if the UMW was destroyed. By 1912, District 21 had 14,202 members.
A nationwide strike in 1919 lasted nealy two months. By 1927, almost every mine in Arkansas was open shop and wages had been slammed back to the same rate they were in 1917. In the early 1930's, Dave Fowler appeared to save the day. He was the president of District 21 of the UMW. He gave a rallying speech at Coal Hill one summer afternoon from the back of a a pickup truck. The UMW came back to Arkansas.
The great mines that made Arkansas what it is may be gone forever, but the society left behind remains. The people of Johnson County know their history, and if you ask someone on the street, they can probably point out the mine their grandfather worked in. One little four letter word changed the landscape of Arkansas and it's people forever.