The Progressive Miners of America was the breakaway union from the United Mine Workers of America. The PMA constituted itself in early September 1932 in Gillespie at a meeting of dissident union miners. The motivation for the split was dissatisfaction with the leadership of UMWA President John L. Lewis. Here is the story of what happened, based principally on the research of Dallas M. Young (“Origin of the Progressive Mine Workers of America” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, September 1947, Vol. 50, No. 3, pp. 313-330) and David Thoreau Wieck (Woman from Spillertown. A Memoir of Agnes Burns Wieck. Southern Illinois University Press, 1992):
In June 1929 UMWA President Lewis revoked the charter of District 12 (Illinois) and asserted his authority over the 50,000 miners in the entire state. With this action Lewis intended to install officers loyal to him and answerable to him. The issue played out in the courts and a compromise was reached. But a group of insurgent Illinois miners was unhappy that the District 12 President, John Walker, had compromised with Lewis. That group began to discuss creating a new union. In 1931 another convention of disgruntled miners was held, claiming to represent at least 75 percent of the Illinois miners and condemning both Walker and Lewis. But they soon gave up. Meanwhile, the national economic forces of the Great Depression were affecting the coal industry. When a national labor contract for the coal mines was to expire on March 31, 1932 the coal operators claimed they would be unable to honor the agreed basic wage scale and instead offered significantly less, to be voted upon by union miners in a referendum. The referendum vote rejected the deal by more than a 2:1 majority. Lewis presented a new proposal, that was essentially the same, for another referendum. When miners voted again on August 6 a real “steal the vote” happened. Ballots were “stolen” in a holdup en route to where they would be tabulated. The events have been documented by Young from news reports and a court filing. Lewis signed an emergency contract at the lower wage rate. Illinois miners who were opposed to Lewis “selling out” to the coal companies believed he had engineered the theft of ballots.
images from The Literary Digest, September 10, 1932:
Dramatically, at the end of August 1932, some 10,000 miners from central Illinois formed a caravan of about 800 cars and trucks, which departed from the coal towns of Mt. Olive, Gillespie, and Staunton. The convoy headed for the tremendously rich coal fields of Franklin County to attempt to persuade their southern Illinois mining brethren to join their strike against the wage contract approved by Lewis. On August 24 at Mulkeytown, sheriffs’ deputies and police were waiting for them with gun fire. Miraculously, no one was killed. However, the central Illinois miners were convinced the UMWA had conspired with law enforcement officials. This ambush was the culminating event that directly led to the creation of the PMA at a convention in Gillespie in early September 1932.
The PMA vigorously opposed Lewis’ authoritarianism and anti-democratic style of union leadership as well as his perceived corruption. The break between the radical new union and the established union was fundamentally about democratic rule among the miners and transparency in the union’s relations with the coal operators. The PMA rejected the power that Lewis had been able to accumulate and his manner of running the UMWA administration. Following the break, the Progressives engaged in a struggle for legal recognition of the principle that miners should be free to choose their own union membership, which impacted which entity would be the negotiator in labor contracts. The PMA would not compromise on its labor demands, whereas the UMWA did.
The Progressives were strongest in Central Illinois. But even in the core area, miners were split between which union they wanted. A literal war broke out between miners allied with the PMA and those allied with the UMWA. The grievances were violently conducted. There were explosions and fire bombings of homes, businesses, and railroads, gunned murder—some indiscriminate—and grievous gun injuries, attacks on picketers, and so forth. Accounts of coal company responses to the PMA strikers near Springfield are chilling: “Rifles were leveled from the mine tipple. Machine guns were set up in nearby homes of strike breakers. Sawed off shot guns and automatics were pointing from the car windows of the United Mine Workers”. Dozens were killed on both sides and hundreds wounded in the union war. UMWA President Lewis’ excuse for UMWA violence was that the Progressives had no right to picket or hold meetings because the PMA was trying to steal his union’s contract with the coal companies.
We have been told that the Northern Italians of Benld were prominent in the leadership of the Progressives.
Kevin Corley, an outstanding researcher who was a history teacher in Christian County, wrote a novel of historical fiction about the mine wars using his first-hand experience with descendants of the events as well as material in the archives of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. His book is called Throw Out the Water (Hardball Press, 2016). The dramatic premise of the novel is that two Italian-American brothers align with the two different unions: the UMWA and the PMA. We also refer the reader to SangamonLink’s “coal miner union war, 1932-1937” which has an excellent summary as well as important references: CLICK
In 1936 the Progressives raised the money needed to build the grand monument to Mother Jones in Mt Olive’s Union Miners Cemetery where she was buried in 1930. The monument also recognizes General Bradley and three of the miners who fell in the Battle of Virden. Importantly, the monument also honors the PMA’s martyrs to “clean unionism” as we see on the plaques below. Fifty thousand people attended the inauguration of the monument, an event that was a rousing tribute to Mother Jones and a vociferous condemnation of the UMWA under John Lewis. These are some of the PMA members who died in the extreme violence across the Illinois coalfields from 1932 to 1936 in what is known as the Illinois Coal Wars or Illinois Mine Wars.
The name of the PMA was changed to Progressive Miner Workers of America in 1938. In the intervening few years between formation of the new union and its name change, a bitter “mine war” had taken place between the PMA and UMWA factions. The PMWA was dissolved in 1999. It had not achieved success.
WATCH this fascinating interpretation of the PMA presented by Dan Fisher, at the time the City Treasurer of Gillespie: CLICK
An official historical marker (sponsored by the Mythic Mississippi Project, Illinois State Historical Society, and Gillespie) is located down the block from the Illinois Coal Museum. It stands on the ground of the former Colonial Theater where the miners met.
source: minewar.org The PMA in Zeigler called a strike in Franklin County. On internal evidence this poster must antedate 1938.
Magnificent original banner of Local No. 39, in Virden (earlier site of the Battle of Virden), of the Progressive Mine Workers of America. On internal evidence, the banner cannot be earlier than the 1938 name change. Courtesy of John Alexander.
New stained glass on display at the Illinois Coal Museum in Gillespie. It honors the Progressives. (1/23/24 – courtesy of curator Dave Tucker)
FYI: Mulkeytown today