This photograph appeared on the front page of the New York Tribune in June 1902. It shows a group of striking mineworkers in the Parsons neighborhood of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
They posed with a protest sign directed at non-union mineworkers who crossed picket lines to keep collieries open amid the growing 1902 coal strike managed by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). The sign states:
“THE SCABS MUST LEAVE TOWN”
Union workers referred to non-union mineworkers as “scabs.”
The 1902 Coal Strike was a massive success for labor organizing in the United States, ushering in an era of gains for organized labor and better pay and working conditions for workers in the Coal Region.
Read more about the 1902 Coal Strike
“Among the Pennsylvania coal-strikers” – A dispatch from the 1902 Coal Strike
A Thanksgiving sermon in the aftermath of the 1902 Coal Strike
“Stick to the Union” – Factory girls supported union miners during Coal Strike of 1902
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