With
no immediate outlook for a strike the Slav and Italian miners refused to
pay union dues. The original award was to be in force until April 1,
1906. In June, 1905, the union membership was less than 39,000. But by
April 1, 1906, one-half of the miners were in the union. A month's
suspension of operations followed. Early in May the union and the
operators reached an agreement to leave the award of the Anthracite Coal
Strike Commission in force for another three years.
The following three years brought a duplication of the developments of
1903-1906. Again membership fell off only to return in the spring of
1909. Again the union demanded formal recognition, and again it was
refused. Again the original award was extended for three more years.
In the winter of 1912, when the time for renewing the agreement again
drew near, the entire membership in the three anthracite districts was
slightly above 29,000. Nevertheless, the union demanded a twenty percent
raise, a complete recognition of the union, the check-off, and yearly
agreements, in addition to a more expeditious system of settling local
grievances to replace the slow and cumbersome joint arbitration boards
provided by the award of the Commission.
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