LABOR ACTIVITIES
De
'angerous working conditions inside the coal mines were an important factor in the sometimes volatile confrontations between miners and mine operators and owners that flared on occasion throughout the history of coal mining in Carbon County. Miner demands often included improved safety measures and more generous assistance to those injured in the mines. In addition, miners' concerns almost always centered on pay—either attempts by them to realize an increase in pay or to prevent coal companies from implementing wage reductions. Finally, strikes and labor disputes always saw a colossal struggle between coal operators and the coal miners' union. Coal operators, for the most part, were successful in preventing the Knights of Labor during the 1880s and the United Mine Workers of America after its organization in 1890 from realizing any long-term success in organizing Carbon County's coal miners untd the National Industrial Recovery Act of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s gave government recognition to the right of labor to organize and bargain collectively. The world for Carbon County coal miners changed in 1933 as 159
