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The Hitchman Coal and Coke v. Mitchell case began in West Virginia in 1906 and became an important U.S. court decision. The Hitchman company in the Northern Panhandle only hired workers who promised not to join a union—by making them sign yellow-dog contracts. When the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) tried to stop miners from signing these, federal judge Alston Dayton issued an injunction, prohibiting them from doing so. In 1917, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the company, making it even harder for unions to grow.
This ruling hurt unions throughout the 1920s. It wasn’t until the 1930s, during the New Deal, that laws and court decisions began to support workers’ rights again and yellow-dog contracts were outlawed.