United Mine Workers of America, President's Office Correspondence with Districts

This collection of correspondence between districts and the president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) has been separated from the remainder of the UMW President's Office Records because of the extent, coherence, and significance of its contents. This collection provides a key entrance for research into the union. This correspondence documents substantive issues that filtered through district representatives in situ to executives at UMW district and international offices, as well as the presidential decisions on action to be taken. Mine disasters, organizing activities, wildcat strikes, rivalries with competing regional unions, and diverse grievances are among the concerns that reached the president. Series 1 through 31 correspond to District 1 through District 31. Series 32 has correspondence from District 50, comprising the mine industry's construction workers. Series 33 hold correspondence pertaining to all districts during the 1970s. Series 34 consists of photographs removed from district correspondence for the sake of preservation. There is a small amount of President-District correspondence and related records for several districts from the period 1894-1910 and a slightly more substantial run in the years 1911-1919. The bulk of these records date from the presidencies of John L. Lewis, Thomas Kennedy, William Boyle, Arnold Miller, and Sam Church, 1920-1982. The correspondence proceeds in chronological order. Some series also hold typescript or printed materials generated by that particular district, including convention minutes and speeches, executive board minutes, secretary-treasurer reports, and pamphlets on diverse topics. The records from District 2, District 12, and District 26 also include files on membership restoration cases. Otherwise, most files on these types of grievances and appeals reside elsewhere, in the Special Membership Committee series of the UMW International Executive Board Records subgroup in the Special Collections Library.