Bloody Harlan : The United Mine Workers of America in Harlan County, Kentucky, 1931-1941

This book details the conflict between labour and management occasioned by the many attempts of the United Mine Workers of America to organize Harlan's miners during the New Deal era. Harlan County, Kentucky was the last major anti-union bastion in the Appalachian coalfield. The story of the organization of the country's coal mines by the UMWA is largely confined to the 1930s. The most serious union compaigns occurred in 1931-32, after the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act in 1933 and following the enactment of the National Labour Relations Act in 1935. Finally, after almost a decade of labour strife, the Federal Government intervened. After a year of federal inquiry culminating in the Mary Helen conspiracy trial in London, Kentucky, Harlan's miners could join the UMWA openly and without fear of recrimination.