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E-book
Author Caldemeyer, Dana M., 1986- author.

Title Union renegades : miners, capitalism, and organizing in the Gilded Age / Dana M. Caldemeyer
Published Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2021]

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Description 1 online resource (viii, 231 pages)
Series The working class in American history
Working class in American history.
Contents Deceived : producers in a dishonest world -- Undermined : winter diggers, union strikebreakers -- "Judases" : union "betrayal" and the aborted 1891 strike -- Outsiders : race and the exclusive politics of an inclusive union, 1892-1894 -- Unsettled : nonunion mobilization and the 1894 strike -- Wolves : fractured unions in the Gilded Age, 1894-1896
Summary In the late nineteenth century, Midwestern miners often had to decide if joining a union was in their interest. Arguing that these workers were neither pro-union nor anti-union, the author shows that they acted according to what they believed would benefit them and their families. As corporations moved to control coal markets and unions sought to centralize their organizations to check corporate control, workers were often caught between these institutions and sided with whichever one offered the best advantage in the moment. Workers chased profits while paying union dues, rejected national unions while forming local orders, and broke strikes while claiming to be union members. This pragmatic form of unionism differed from what union leaders expected of rank-and-file members, but for many workers, the choice to follow or reject union orders was a path to better pay, stability, and independence in an otherwise unstable age. Nuanced and eye-opening, this book challenges popular notions of workers' attitudes during the Gilded Age. -- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages [171]-226) and index
Notes Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on January 14, 2021)
Subject Coal miners -- Labor unions -- Middle West -- History -- 19th century
Coal miners -- Middle West -- History -- 19th century
Labor movement -- Middle West -- History -- 19th century
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- General.
Coal miners
Coal miners -- Labor unions
Labor movement
Middle West
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2020022806
ISBN 9780252052385
0252052382