Written by Daniel Marsh
As the Progressive Era dawned on the US at the turn of the 20th century, American society grappled with major social and political upheavals. Rapid industrialization swept through the country decades before and unleashed a plague of issues on the developing nation. The coal industry, which employed half a million Americans, was particularly bad for workers, with tens of thousands of deaths caused by large mining accidents (Grossman, 1974). The poor pay and conditions caused desperate workers to turn to union organizing, which grew to comprise over 150,000 coal miners by 1900 (Grossman, 1974). In May of 1902, over 132,000 coal miners went on strike for 162 days, setting off one of the largest labor battles in American history (Berfield, 2020). When the dust settled, the miners won an agreement that would cut workdays from 9 to 8 hours, increase wages by 10%, and codify the right for coal workers to unionize.
American Federation of Labor President Samuel Gompers would call the strike “the most important single incident in the labor movement in the United States,” and indeed it cemented the power of labor unions in America and the coalfields (Grossman, 1974). For the next century, coal miners’ unions would dominate Appalachian politics. Yet today, the influence of coal unions has been nearly totally snuffed out. The United Mine Workers of America, which once had nearly 500,000 members, now has less than 10,000 members actively working (Mistich, 2021). West Virginia, a state where Democrats had controlled the state legislature every single year since 1933, finally saw Republicans win control of the body in 2015. In 2020, Trump performed better in West Virginia than any other state in the country except Wyoming. So what happened? Why did coal miners’ unions collapse so dramatically? And how did West Virginia, a Democratic stronghold for centuries, become one of the most conservative states in the nation?
While West Virginia remains the nation’s largest producer of bituminous coal, coal production in the state has dropped over 65% since 2005 and is significantly down from its peak in 1997 (Beaulieu, 2021). This trend can largely be attributed to a broader, nationwide shift away from coal, and towards cleaner and less expensive sources of energy, such as natural gas and renewables. Meanwhile, mechanization and improved mining technology have allowed coal companies to cut jobs while increasing output and improving production efficiency. Today, only 14,000 people are employed in the coal industry in West Virginia, marking the near end of an industry that once provided high-paying jobs to hundreds of thousands of West Virginians (McCormick, 2021). As the coal industry has collapsed, so has the economic and societal health of West Virginia. The state is now one of America’s poorest and leads the nation in population decline. Coal counties in West Virginia also have the highest rate of drug abuse in the nation, and some of the highest rates of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes (Scheuch, 2020). Consequently, the state has one of the lowest life expectancies in the nation. Yet even as the coal industry has declined, coal remains intrinsically intertwined with the state’s identity and politics.
Until the dawn of the 21st century, West Virginia was a relatively reliable state for the Democratic Party. In the 1996 election, the state gave Bill Clinton, a Democrat, a higher share of the vote than liberal states like California and Washington. Yet that all changed in 2000. The Democrats nominated Al Gore, an environmentalist who championed the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement that sought to drastically reduce carbon emissions while promoting clean energy. Meanwhile, George Bush, the Republican, promoted mountaintop mining and “clean coal,” part of a domestic energy plan that would protect and expand the role of fossil fuels (Battaile, 2000). This posed a problem for Gore in West Virginia, where his environmental priorities clashed with the state’s very identity. Mine workers, who had been voting Democratic for decades, saw Gore as a threat to both their jobs and way of life. Meanwhile, Bush’s steadfast defense of the coal industry caused many to turn to the Republican candidate, even self-described Democrats who had voted for Clinton just four years earlier. As the battle over coal heated up, labor unions found themselves in a difficult position. Though Democrats had traditionally been aligned with labor, the party’s environmental push now put that alliance in jeopardy. While union leadership remained behind Gore, with the United Mine Workers ultimately endorsing him, rank-and-file workers flocked to Bush as the risk to their jobs grew (Battaile, 2000). Bush would go on to carry the state, becoming the first non-incumbent Republican to win West Virginia since 1924, and starting a trend toward Republican dominance that has only grown stronger since.
Democrat’s environmental streak has done them no favors in the state. After Obama was elected, the EPA announced plans to freeze permits for mountaintop mining and created new regulations to cut carbon emissions from primarily coal-fired power plants (Martinson, 2014). Blaming the regulations, coal companies announced layoffs and closures, putting thousands of West Virginians out of work, and endangering a region already plagued by poverty and drug abuse (Mattise, 2014). In the 2014 midterm elections, Democrats paid the price. 19-term Democratic Nick Rahall lost re-election in a race defined by coal. Though Rahall sought to portray himself as pro-coal, calling Obama’s EPA “callous” and proposing legislation to block the President’s energy agenda, the despair in his district proved too much to overcome (Martinson, 2014). The decline of the coal industry, squarely blamed on Obama and his regulations, was seen as the cause of a set of issues, including rising prescription drug abuse, heroin addiction, unemployment, and poverty (Martinson, 2014). Yet the greatest problem facing the district was a pervasive loss of hope; as one mining employee put it “there is no light at the end of the tunnel” (Martinson, 2014). In West Virginia, the war on coal was not a war on coal at all, but on the coal miners, and the culture of a state so dependent on the industry.
Though Republicans now dominate West Virginia politics, the coal industry has continued to collapse. The Democratic Party has become all but irrelevant, and with their single statewide officeholder Joe Manchin declining to run for re-election, the future for Democrats in the state is bleak. Coal unions, which were once a bedrock of the state’s economy and society, have faded from relevance, as there are few workers left to unionize. The state’s future remains uncertain; with the coal industry on its deathbed, West Virginia has lost what was once a key component of its economy. Yet more fundamentally, the state has lost its identity, and its people have lost their way of life. Even as the state is forced to move on from coal, the shuttered mines remain as a relic of what once was, and will forever be a part of the rolling hills of West Virginia.
References
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Beaulieu, E. (2021, November 29). Coal Dependency in West Virginia: A Brief History and Future Outlook. DSIRE Insight. https://www.dsireinsight.com/blog/2021/11/22/coal-dependency-in-west-virginia
Berfield, S. (2020, July 15). The Coal Strike that defined Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency. Smithsonian.com. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-roosevelt-and-jp-morgan-fixed-coal-mine-strike-180975311/
Grossman, J. (1974, June). The Coal strike of 1902: Turning Point in U.S. policy. DOL. https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/coalstrike
Martinson, E. (2014, June 26). Coal fires up W.Va. House race. POLITICO. https://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/nick-rahall-west-virginia-2014-elections-epa-coal-regulation-108312
Mattise, J. (2014, October 12). Coal, Obama weighing heavy in Rahall’s W.Va. bid. The San Diego Union-Tribune. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-coal-obama-weighing-heavy-in-rahalls-wva-bid-2014oct12-story.html
McCormick, A. (2021, September 29). West Virginia’s Coal Powered the Nation for Years. Now, Many Look to a Cleaner Future. NBCNews.com. https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/west-virginia-coal-industry-grapples-impact-climate-crisis-rcna2397
Mistich, D. (2021, September 14). UMWA Grapples With Coal’s Decline, An Uncertain Future. West Virginia Public Broadcasting. https://wvpublic.org/umwa-grapples-with-coals-decline-an-uncertain-future/#:~:text=From%202002%20to%202019%2C%20the,over%20the%20same%20time%20period.
Scheuch, E. (2020, August 7). Life After Coal: The Decline and Rise of West Virginia Coal Country. State of the Planet. https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2020/08/07/coal-rise-decline-west-virginia/