The UMWA made its first appearance in the Western States in 1900 with a strike in Gallup, New Mexico. In 1903, the UMWA led a strike in the Colorado coalfields. This strike was successful in the Northern Field, around Louisville and Boulder, but failed in the South. In 1910, the Northern operators refused to renew the contract and the miners struck for the next 3 years. In September 1913, the UMWA, which had been secretly organizing the Southern Field, announced a strike there when the operators would not meet a list of seven demands (Fox 1990; McGovern and Guttridge 1972):
- Recognition of the union.
- A 10% increase in wages on the tonnage rates. Each miner was paid by the ton of coal he mined, not by the hour
- An eight hour work day.
- Payment for "dead work." Since miners were only paid for the coal they mined, work such as shoring, timbering, and laying track was not paid work.
- The right to elect their own check-weightmen. Miners suspected, generally with good reason, that they were being cheated at the scales which weighed their coal. They wanted a miner to check the scales.
- The right to trade in any store, to choose their own boarding places, and choose their own doctors.
- Enforcement of Colorado mining laws and abolition of the company guard system.
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