United Mine Workers of America, Department of Organization records

The collection documents efforts to bring non-union workers and companies into the United Mine Workers (UMW). Court records, narratives of disputes, and detailed summaries of points of contention illuminate ongoing tensions among union workers, non-union workers, and company management. Most of these documents were generated by John T. Kmetz and Michael F. Widman during their terms as director of the Department of Organization, but there are also arbitration case files generated by Widman in his capacity as secretary of the UMW Joint Board of Review. Widman evidently integrated these arbitration documents into the departmental records because the cases address aspects of job classification pertaining to organizing, e.g., whether engineering or clerical positions ought to be brought into the union, whether particular aspects of workmen's activities were improperly classified within the union scheme, or whether a category of company (such as a water purification plant) was covered by the National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement.