On this day in 1919, the United Mine Workers (UMW) initiated a nationwide strike of more than 400,000 coal miners, demanding better wages and a 30-hour week. The U.S. declared the strike illegal while the media smeared workers as communists.

U.S. Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer, the same individual behind the infamous Palmer Raids, declared the strike illegal by invoking the Lever Act, a wartime measure that made it a crime to interfere with the production or transportation of necessities.

The law had never been used against a union before, and in fact American Federation of Labor (AFL) founder Samuel Gompers had been promised by President Woodrow Wilson that the Lever Act would not be used to suppress labor actions.

The strike was subject to Red Scare propaganda: coal operators made false charges that Lenin and Trotsky had ordered the strike and were financing it, and some of the press repeated those claims. Others used words like "insurrection" and "Bolshevik revolution". Because of this propaganda and the Attorney General's injunction against the strike, the UMW called the strike off on November 8th.

Many workers ignored this order, however, and the strike continued for over a month, with a final agreement being reached on December 10th. Workers won a 14% wage increase and the creation of an investigatory commission to mediate wage issues.

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

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  • AntiOutsideAktion [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    It's better a safety feature needs to be repaired every five years than someone's hand.

    • YearOfTheCommieDesktop [they/them]
      ·
      1 year ago

      if this was a serious issue (not convinced) and didn't have potential drawbacks that are worse for human safety than the problem it's purported to solve I'd be all for it, but it literally would create situations that are more dangerous than what it's supposed to solve

      Regardless, I guess I'm not opposed to them being offered, if leaving the stove on is something people really struggle with, but there's plenty of valid reasons it isn't/shouldn't be standard equipment