Paint Creek–Cabin Creek strike of 1912
| Paint Creek–Cabin Creek strike | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Labor organizer Mother Jones rallying workers in the town of Montgomery in August 1912 | |||
| Date | April 18, 1912 – July 1913 | ||
| Location | |||
| Goals | Union recognition | ||
| Methods | Strikes, Protest, Demonstrations | ||
| Parties | |||
| |||
| Lead figures | |||
Bonner Hill; | |||
| Casualties and losses | |||
| |||
The Paint Creek–Cabin Creek Strike, or the Paint Creek Mine War, was a confrontation between striking coal miners and coal operators in Kanawha County, West Virginia, centered on the area enclosed by two streams, Paint Creek and Cabin Creek.
The strike lasted from April 18, 1912, through July 1913. After the confrontation, Fred Stanton, a banker, estimated that the strike and ensuing violence cost $100,000,000. The confrontation directly caused perhaps fifty violent deaths, as well as many more deaths indirectly caused by starvation and malnutrition among the striking miners. In the number of casualties it counts among the worst conflicts in American labor union history.
The strike was a prelude to subsequent labor-related West Virginia conflicts in the following years, the Battle of Matewan and the Battle of Blair Mountain.