United Mine Workers of America, Research Department records

The United Mine Workers of America (UMW) formed in 1890; the Research and Marketing Department originated on 1 March 1957, when Michael F. Widman, Jr., an international representative for the UMW, was designated assistant to the president and director of the Research and Marketing Department. The function of this new department was to aid the coal industry in holding and expanding existing markets and in developing new uses for coal. Widman conducted extensive studies of the position of coal in the American economy, and he lobbied against the development of nuclear power. He represented the union as a public speaker, giving statements on the coal industry to a U.S. Senate committee, the Department of the Interior, the Interstate Commerce Commission, various manufacturers' associations, a forum on atomic energy, and other entities. Widman also spoke at local and district UMW events. Copies of many of these statements reside elsewhere, in the office files of the UMW President's Office Records. In 1959 the UMW joined with the coal industry and coal-hauling railroads to form a new lobbying organization, the National Coal Policy Conference (NCPC). The duties of the NCPC overlapped substantially with those of the Research and Marketing Department. Widman's department, being far less well financed than the NCPC, took a backseat to that new organization. In 1968 the NCPC was abolished. On 1 November 1968, Widman was appointed director of the UMW Department of Organization, and Joseph P. Brennan became director of Research and Marketing. Under Brennan, and with the NCPC now defunct, the department assumed increased responsibilities for monitoring competitive fuels and developing coal-related research. It also helped to compile statistical data in advance of wage negotiations. A complete organizational overhaul of the UMW in 1973 included the appointment of a new director, Thomas N. Bethell, and the reorganization of the Research Department in which marketing strategies were left in the hands of the coal industry, rather than being shared by the union. The history of the department after 1977, including Fox's tenure as research coordinator, is unknown. His work suggests that research duties shifted from forecasting to preservation.