United Mine Workers of America, District 6 records

The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), District 6 records spans from 1873 to 1971 and documents an important era of the UMWA in Ohio. The collection includes correspondence, official circulars and government reports, financial reports, newspaper clippings, wire service bulletins, union registers, publications in bound volumes, bill books and photographs. Some of the more important events detailed within the collection include: the devastating strike of 1927, the reorganization effort carried out in District 6 in 1929, the 1932 strike in the Hocking and Sunday Creek Valleys, the role the Union played in the war effort, and details of the District's financial situation.

The correspondence is from local officials, national union officials, individual miners (especially during strike periods), and private individuals. The correspondence contains letters from Thomas Starks, a Field Representative from 1940 to 1947. Some of his reports highlight his concern for the problems of the African-American miners. Of special interest is a clipping of a newspaper article by James S. Ford, an African-American communist organizer and writer for The People's Voice . The clipping, filed along with a letter from Joe Kostecka to John Owens dated February 26, 1947, tells of Ford's conversation with an African-American miner in Bellaire, Ohio. Along with the correspondence are attachments that includes official circulars, government reports and records of legal proceedings. Correspondence files are chronologically arranged but are also broken down within each time period alphabetically according to names.

Although the collection concerns the activities of the UMWA in Ohio, the bulk of correspondence centers around two District 6 union presidents, Lee Hall and John Owens. Their correspondence deals with the 1927 and 1932 strikes, financial and membership issues, and the transformation of the UMWA. Other individuals who figure prominently in the correspondence are: G.W. Savage, David Fowler, Thomas Kennedy, John Cinque, Frank Bender, John L. Lewis, and Adolph Paccifico.

The monthly financial reports from both union locals and coal companies concern per capita tax charged to the union locals by the Union and monthly dues check-off sent to the District headquarters by the coal companies. Each union local report gives the following data: month of report, number of members paying, amount of tax, number of members entitled to exoneration, name of mine, location of mine, number of days worked that month, average earnings per man for month, name of the Local Union President and his address, and the name of the Local Union Secretary. The reports from the coal companies usually give the number of men working and the total amount deducted from wages for Union dues.

The newspaper clippings and wire service bulletins deal exclusively with the strike in 1927. Newspapers represented include The Athens Messenger , The Columbus Dispatch , The Columbus Citizen , and The Cincinnati Enquirer , in addition to newspapers in Lancaster and Cambridge, Ohio. The Union also has a wire service outlet in its Columbus headquarters so they could keep abreast of every new development in the strike.

The collection also includes bound volumes: the District 6 and International UMWA Conventions, 1897-1956; The UMWA Journal, 1909-1949; financial records, 1903-1929; union registers; cash books; and bill books.

The collection includes over ninety photographs of District 6 officials and International officials. These photographs are characteristically group photographs of various UMWA conventions but also found are individual portraits of presidents and other important labor leaders. Also of interest is a group photo of the 1873 Miners National Association convention in Youngstown, Ohio, which was taken years before the UMWA organized.