1894 coal strike
A01=Dana M. Caldemeyer
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agriculture
American Federation of Labor
American Railway Union
Author_Dana M. Caldemeyer
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black miners
business
capitalism
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBJK
Category=HBLL
Category=JBSA
Category=JF
Category=JFSC
Category=KNX
Category=NHK
coal mining
cooperatives
COP=United States
corporations
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
dishonesty
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eq_business-finance-law
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
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eq_society-politics
farmers
Gilded Age
immigrant miners
immigration
Independent Order of the Knights of Labor
investing
Jacob Coxey
Knights of Labor
labor leaders
laborers
Language_English
Mother Jones
National Federation of Miners
non-union workers
non-unionism
PA=Available
populism
Populists
Price_€100 and above
PS=Active
race
rival unions
rural labor
skilled labor
softlaunch
strikebreaking
strikes
union centralization
union decline
unionism
unions
United Mine Workers
United Mine Workers of America1896 election
wives
women
worker grievances
workers
Product details
- ISBN 9780252043505
- Weight: 626g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 11 Jan 2021
- Publisher: University of Illinois Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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In the late nineteenth century, Midwestern miners often had to decide if joining a union was in their interest. Arguing that these workers were neither pro-union nor anti-union, Dana M. Caldemeyer shows that they acted according to what they believed would benefit them and their families. As corporations moved to control coal markets and unions sought to centralize their organizations to check corporate control, workers were often caught between these institutions and sided with whichever one offered the best advantage in the moment. Workers chased profits while paying union dues, rejected national unions while forming local orders, and broke strikes while claiming to be union members. This pragmatic form of unionism differed from what union leaders expected of rank-and-file members, but for many workers the choice to follow or reject union orders was a path to better pay, stability, and independence in an otherwise unstable age.
Nuanced and eye-opening, Union Renegades challenges popular notions of workers attitudes during the Gilded Age.
Dana M. Caldemeyer is an assistant professor of history at South Georgia State College.
