George Medrick papers

This collection documents the career of George Medrick with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and the United Steelworkers of America (USWA). The collection includes: diaries, one of which covers the Bituminous Coal Strike of 1927; scrapbooks (1938-1961); photographs of George Medrick (1922); correspondence (1936-1964); documents regarding the Commonwealth vs. Medrick (1941); newspaper clippings and programs (1947-1964);, and records documenting the Steel Strike of 1959. His diary traces his role in the 1927 strike activity from March 24 to November 14, 1927. George Medrick, born in Yugoslavia in 1893, emigrated to the U.S. in 1903 and began work in the mines of Fairmont, West Virginia, the following year. He joined the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in 1906 and by 1922 was appointed an international representative and a UMWA organizer in Kentucky and West Virginia. The late 1920s was marked by decreased demand for coal and sharply lower prices. The Bituminous Coal Strike of 1927 was the largest strike in the region that included Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and southern Illinois. In these years Medrick brought a 'top down' UMWA approach to organizing miners in Allegheny, Fayette, and Westmoreland counties in western Pennsylvania. In 1936, the steelworker organizer and later president of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), Philip Murray, selected Medrick as one of his assistants. Medrick, later, became Director of the Bethlehem Steel Organizing Committee (SWOC). When the USWA was created in 1942, Medrick was chosen as Director of District 11 in the Harrisburg area, holding that post until his retirement in 1963. The miner George Medrick joined the United Mineworkers of America in 1906, became the director of the Steelworkers Organizing Committee (SWOC) in Bethlehem, Pa. after 1936, and directed United Steelworkers of America District 11 in Harrisburg from 1942 until his retirement in 1963.