Part of the yellow dog: U.S. coal miners' opposition to the company doctor system, 1936-1946.
By the mid-1930s, U.S. coal miners could no longer tolerate company doctors. They objected to the misuse of preemployment and periodic medical examinations and to many other facets of employer-controlled health benefit plans. The rank-and-file movement for reform received critical assistance from the Bureau of Cooperative Medicine, which conducted an extensive investigation of health services in 157 Appalachian communities. This study not only substantiated the workers' indictment of prevailing conditions but illuminated new deficiencies in the quality and availability of hospital and medical care as well. The miners' union curtailed the undemocratic, exploitative system of company doctors and proprietary hospitals by establishing the United Mine Workers of America Welfare and Retirement Fund in 1946.
Derickson
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Department of Labor Studies and Industrial Relations, Pennsylvania State University, University Park 16802.
D001061:Appalachian Region; D003032:Coal Mining; D004648:Employee Grievances; D049673:History, 20th Century; D007750:Labor Unions / Q000266:history; D009786:Occupational Health Services / Q000266:history* / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards; D010559:Personnel Management; D011787:Quality of Health Care