On October 3, 1902 President Theodore Roosevelt met with miners and coal field operators in an attempt to settle the anthracite coal strike, then in its fifth month. The country relied on coal to power commerce and industry and anthracite or "hard coal" was essential for domestic heating. Pennsylvania miners had left the anthracite fields on May 12, demanding wage increases, union recognition, and an eight-hour workday. As winter approached, public anxiety about fuel shortages and the rising cost of all coal pushed Roosevelt to take unprecedented action.

When he met with miners and coal field operators in Washington that day, Roosevelt became the first president to personally intervene in a labor dispute. Presenting himself as a representative of the millions of people affected by the strike, he urged both parties to resolve their differences and return the miners to work.

While United Mine Workers of America president John Mitchell agreed to negotiate, the coal field operators reiterated their opposition to the miners' demands generally and to the union specifically. For weeks into October, operators resisted dealing with the workers' union representatives.

Finally, in order to avert what he saw as a national catastrophe, Roosevelt threatened to send military forces to operate the Pennsylvania mines. On October 23, 1902, the miners returned to work after both sides agreed to settle the strike based on the recommendations of a commission appointed by the president.

Ultimately, the miners won a ten percent increase in pay with a concomitant reduction in the number of hours worked each day. The commission failed to recommend union recognition, however, or to address the problems of child labor and hazardous working conditions. Still, for the first time the federal government acted to settle, rather than break, a strike. President Roosevelt's efforts to end the dispute met with public approval--especially important in an election year. Urging a crowd of New Yorkers to return a Republican majority to Congress that November, Secretary of War Elihu Root declared:
When our President, in his brave and direct way, acting out of his deep feeling for the needs of his people, undertook to get coal for them against the coming winter by urging the substitution of peace for war in the anthracite region, Mr. Hill in New York and Mr. Olney in Boston condemned him, but I have an idea that the people of the country do not agree with them; and I have an idea also that his action will prove in the end to have resulted, not merely in getting the coal, but in making a valuable contribution to the peaceful and reasonable process of development I have been describing.

Although the commission denied formal recognition of the United Mine Workers in 1902, workers in the anthracite region continued to organize under the leadership of the UMW. Labor unrest returned to the region in the 1930s complicated by decreased demand for anthracite coal and discord between competing unions.
Twelve Years Later: Ludlow

In 1913, the United Mine Workers of America attempted to organize the coal miners of John D. Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation at Ludlow, Colorado. An ethnically diverse group which had been galvanized by the murder of labor organizer Gerry Lippiatt, the miners overcame barriers of language and culture and voted to strike together. Their demands included a safe workplace, wages of $3.45 a day, and the right to buy provisions outside of company stores. Evicted from company housing, the workers spent a harsh Colorado winter in tent colonies set up by the UMW. Throughout that winter and into the spring, the miners remained near the mines, warding off strikebreakers and the armed assaults of the Baldwin-Fets Detective Agency. Even after the Colorado National Guard appeared on the scene, lending weight to the company's hired guns, the miners refused to admit defeat. On April 20, 1914, guardsmen began firing on the tent village. That evening, eleven children and two women died in a fire set by the National Guard. A public relations fiasco, in the wake of the Ludlow Massacre management began to avoid direct confrontation with strikers in favor of negotiated settlements.

Thirty-two thousand Boeing machinists hit the picket lines in three states on this day to call for a pay raise and job guarantees. After years of frustration and failed walkouts, labor had little reason to be hopeful about the strike's outcome, but workers successfully halted production on planes and forced airlines to roll back their schedules. As a result, sixty-nine days after the beginning of the strike, union officials agreed to a new contract that met the machinists' demands. The deal came complete with a pay increase that averaged an estimated $19,200 in wages and benefits over four years, safeguards against job cutbacks, and a full extension of health premiums through the end of 1998. Following the agreement, giddy union officials rushed to declare victory. Spokesman Matt Bates called the agreement a "slam dunk" for the machinists and chief negotiator Bob Gregory hailed the episode as proof that the labor movement was "alive and well."

On October 11, 1939, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) declared its opposition to U.S. involvement in World War II. Far from a radical response to America's potential engagement in the war, the AFL's stance was in line with majority opinion. At the time, President Roosevelt was a major proponent of keeping U.S. troops at home. The AFL was not, however, an entirely passive observer of the war. At the same time that they announced their opposition to U.S. involvement, the union also chose to begin a boycott of German, Japanese and Russian goods.

After a long and frustrating struggle to win government and popular support, proponents of the forty-hour work week finally saw their dreams become legislative reality in 1940. On this day, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 passed into law, mandating shorter work hours.