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President Truman did not deal with the UMWA because he had a love for labor, either. He feared that a prolonged strike would hurt a nation recovering from World War II, and so, he signed the fund into action with the union president.
The UMWA was crucial in settling the strike and getting benefits for the miners and at the heart of the organization was its president, John L. Lewis. Lewis had been the head of the organization for decades, and it was a powerful union. Another writer notes, "During the early 1920s, the United Mine Workers of America was by far the largest and most powerful union in the United States."
Lewis has been called an autocratic and despotic leader, who clashed with industry activists and his own staff, but had a fierce loyalty to the miners. Lewis worked in the mines when he was a teenager, so he understood the working conditions and health risks. He became UMWA president in 1919 and held the office until 1960. Soon after he became president, he called the first major strike of coal miners, and over 400,000 miners went out on strike. Author Pope continues, "To Lewis, the union was not a vehicle for worker freedom or power, but an instrument for the achievement of higher standards of living."
Historians remember Lewis as a commanding leader who was authoritarian, but also had great vision and leadership qualities. He was certainly at the heart of the miners strike and the resulting benefits, and he worked for mine safety and reform throughout his career as UMWA president.
In conclusion, the miners received benefits because of a variety of social and political issues. The miners were fed up with the lack of attention to health and pension benefits, and with the mine owners' failure to bargain with them. They went out on strike because their union called them to strike. They settled with the mine owners because the union negotiated a deal with the government. This deal was politically motivated, because the president felt a prolonged strike would only harm a country that was slowly recovering from the aftermath of World War II. The decision certainly was not economically based, because the mine owners had to fund the benefit plan, and they balked at the royalties. Ultimately, with the creation of area hospitals and rural medical care, along with retirement benefits, the plan became a socially motivated plan meant to make the miners'...
In 2006, production workers, earned $21.40 an hour in oil and gas extraction, $22.08 an hour in coal mining, $22.39 an hour in metal ore mining, and $18.74 an hour in nonmetallic minerals mining, compared to the private industry average of $16.76 an hour Figure 1 and Figure 2 below show the 'Average Earnings of Non-Supervisory Workers in 2006 and Median Hourly Mining of the Largest Occupations in Mining, May
There is also a lack of healthcare facilities capable of doing the screenings in many small, rural Kentucky communities, which is another barrier for many miners. Health professionals need to become more involved in information and screening information. They need to stress the importance of early screening and regular screening, and they need to create educational resources for the miners, so they can take steps to avoid black lung. Health
Another historian notes, "Economically, baby boomers experienced unprecedented national affluence throughout their childhood. During the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. economy expanded greatly, raising the living standards of most American families" (Clydesdale 606). Religion played less of a role in society by the 1990s, as church attendance and membership began to decline in the 60s. Historian Clydesdale continues, "When the cultural challenges of the 1960's disestablished this religious ethos,
In other words, the finances of a deficit country were constrained because they did not have enough gold to go around, while a country with a surplus did not face those issues. In addition, usually the weight of modification falls on these weaker countries, which is another flaw in the gold standard. Because the weaker countries could not react quickly enough to economic problems, they had less capital to
" The prominence of this type of mining method is underlined by a study prepared for the Governor of West Virginia which states that, "Mountaintop removal methods are essential to maintain the state's present level of coal production. The lower production costs of MTR have contributed significantly to maintaining West Virginia as a competitive coal producer." 3. Environmental impact of coal mining in the Appalachians. 3.1. Underground mining The earliest coal mining in Appalachia consisted
Technologies which allow the integration of power stations underground and as such reduce the damaging effects of surface coal mining (Allied Publishers) Technologies which reduce the environmental damage associated with coal burning such as fluidized bed combustor or coal gasification (National Energy Education Development Program) Efforts in the creation of additional sources of renewable energy, such as hydro energy, wind energy or solar energy On the downside, it has to be noted that
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