Workingmen's Benevolent Association of Schuylkill County

In 1868, the Workingmen's Benevolent Association of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, was organized, with John Siney as president. In 1869, the organization called a strike of coal-miners from May 5 to June 16. There were some gains resulting from the strike.Coal Mines and Coal Miners: The Story of a Great Industry and the Men Who Work In It, I.W.W. Educational Bureau (1923). Chapter 10, The Struggle Towards Organization Among The Coal-Mine Workers http://www.workerseducation.org/crutch/pamphlets/coal/coal_10.html Retrieved May 8, 2007 The union was organized in an area of Molly Maguires activity.

Strikes were called in 1868, 1869, and 1871.Anthony Lukas, Big Trouble, 1997, page 178.

The organization is transformed into a national entity

John Siney also headed http://www.answers.com/topic/coal-mining-and-organized-labor Retrieved May 8, 2007. the Miners' and Laborers' Benevolent Association. The Miners' and Laborers' Benevolent Association was formed in 1870, and in 1872 it became a national union in the bituminous fields of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Michigan. The Miners' and Laborers' Benevolent Association was crushed in 1875.Coal Mines and Coal Miners: The Story of a Great Industry and the Men Who Work In It, I.W.W. Educational Bureau (1923). Chapter 10, The Struggle Towards Organization Among The Coal-Mine Workers http://www.workerseducation.org/crutch/pamphlets/coal/coal_10.html Retrieved May 8, 2007. Pennsylvania Industrialist Franklin B. Gowen forced a strike in January 1875 that came to be known as the Long Strike.Anthony Lukas, Big Trouble, 1997, page 182. The strike lasted six months, and resulted in the destruction of the union.

Predecessor

An earlier organization, the Workingmen's Benevolent Society of Carbon County was organized in the Schuylkill region in 1864.Coal Mines and Coal Miners: The Story of a Great Industry and the Men Who Work In It, I.W.W. Educational Bureau (1923). Chapter 10, The Struggle Towards Organization Among The Coal-Mine Workers http://www.workerseducation.org/crutch/pamphlets/coal/coal_10.html Retrieved May 8, 2007.

Notes

ee also