21 April 1894: US miners strike
From On This Day in Working Class History by Working Class History
April 21, 2026 · 1 min
About this episode
This episode discusses the nationwide strike of coal miners in the US on April 21, 1894, highlighting their struggles and eventual concessions.
On this day, 21 April 1894, a nationwide strike of coal miners in the US against pay cuts began. Despite the United Mine Workers union having only 20,000 members, 145,000 miners walked out, and despite violent repression and facing starvation they held out for weeks and won some concessions. Many miners even rejected the union’s settlement and held out for more but were eventually starved back to work. This is a history of the coal miners’ struggles that year: https://libcom.org/history/us-coal-miners-strikes-1894-jeremy-brecher Our work is only possible because of support from you, our listeners on patreon . If you appreciate our work, please join us and access exclusive content and benefits at patreon.com/workingclasshistory . See all of our anniversaries each day, alongside sources and maps on the On This Day section of our Stories app: stories.workingclasshistory.com/date/today Browse all Stories by Date here on the Date index: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/date Check out our Map of historical Stories: https://map.workingclasshistory.com Check out books, posters, clothing and more in our online store, here: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com If you enjoy this…
People in this episode
Host: Working Class History
Topics covered
- miners strike
- labor history
- pay cuts
- union struggles
- violent repression
- starvation
- concessions
Keywords
- coal miners
- strike
- United Mine Workers
- labor movement
- history
- pay cuts
- repression
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: United Mine Workers
Places: US
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