Coal miners increasingly agitated for improved wages and working conditions after 1900. Miners demanded an eight-hour day and wages equal to those paid in the nearby Pittsburgh coal basin. Since miners were paid by the ton, workers also wanted to standardize the size of coal wagons to ensure they were paid fairly. Miners also sought to be paid for mining "slack" (very fine coal), and for "dead work" (laying of track, shoring up tunnels, pumping out water, and removing slate and clay).

Coal mining is terrible on people and communities. The end of coal in the Eastern USA is going to be just as dreadful; anyone with a brain is sending their kids out of the area if they are able, leaving no youthful energy behind to move the place forward.