Author ORCID Identifier
Date of Graduation
2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MA
College
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department
History
Committee Chair
Austin McCoy
Committee Member
William "Hal" Gorby
Committee Member
Devin Smart
Committee Member
Jessica WIlkerson
Abstract
The 1977–78 coal strike was a landmark moment for the American labor movement. Despite holding out for 110 days with no pay or benefits through a historically severe winter, miners were unable to advance their demands and achieve a progressive contract. By invoking the Taft–Hartley Act to end the strike, Jimmy Carter destabilized the New Deal political coalition by enraging one of its core constituencies and placing the needs of the state over the needs of unionized industrial workers. The BCOA’s immovable position in negotiations was an early sign that the labor-management accord that had governed industrial relations since World War II was falling apart and that soon a new form of governance would take its place. The strike thus reveals that Carter, before Reagan, facilitated the shift to a neoliberal relationship between the state and labor and that workers were fighting currents of neoliberalism like privatization and counteroffensive crackdowns on union workers well before PATCO. This work centers the words of mining families, public and union officials, and industry representatives to tell a ground-level story about this turning point in American political, social, and economic history and showcase what was at stake.
Recommended Citation
Rowe, Christian B., "This Is a War: The 1977-78 Coal Strike and the Fracturing of the Postwar Social Compact" (2025). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 13149.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/13149
Included in
Appalachian Studies Commons, Labor History Commons, Oral History Commons, Political History Commons, Social History Commons, United States History Commons