Book Review: The Miner's Fight for Democracy: Arnold Miller and the Reform of the United Mine Workers. By Paul F. Clark, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Studies in Industrial and Labor Relations, 1981. 190 pp. $16.95 cloth, $9.95 paper
Abstract
Book ReviewThe Miner's Fight for Democracy: Arnold Miller and the Reform of the United Mine Workers. By Paul F. Clark, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Studies in Industrial and Labor Relations, 1981. 190 pp. $16.95 cloth, $9.95 paper SAGE Publications, Inc.1983DOI: 10.1177/0160449X8300800225 John P.David West Virginia Institute of Technology Paul Clark has written a fast-moving short book about the United Mine Workers (UMWA) and the Miners for Democracy (MFD) reform movement which is basically descriptive in nature. Clark touches on nearly everything, and his book is an excellent primer for someone who knows little about the union and the MFD movement. However, one should be aware that the book has some weakneses. A key weakness is that Clark has relied heavily on secondary sources. Where he did not, such as in his summaries of contract negotiations and convention happenings, he shines. Some of the information in the book could have been more completely researched. For example, while Clark asserts that Lou Antal in UMWA District 5 used the MFD machine and label after the union's international elections, the fact was that MFD ran in District 5 prior to the international elections. As another example, Clark dismisses the Progressive Mine Workers