The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor Highlight

coal’s historic stranglehold on the state’s economy had the salutary effect of making the United Mine Workers union one of the state’s most important and respected institutions for many, many decades. Though the union’s membership in West Virginia has declined alongside the coal industry itself, family connections to organized labor are still common. No other rural state in America has such a rich pro-union history.