John L. Lewis – United Mine Workers of America
CITY:
Panama
COUNTY:
Bond
DEDICATED BY:
Union Labor Life Insurance Company, Village of Panama, United Mine Workers of America, Laborers International Union of North American–Midwest Region, Illinois Labor History Society, and the Illinois State Historical Society
DEDICATION DATE:
November 5, 2021 at 5:00:00 AM
The marker is located in the John L. Lewis Memorial Park, at the intersection of Jefferson Street and Shoal Creek Avenue, Panama.
United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) president and Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO) founder John L. Lewis (1880-1969) came to Panama, Illinois, from Iowa with his family in 1908 to work in the mines; within one year he was president to UMWA Local 1475. In 1909, Illinois UMWA District 12 hired him to lobby Springfield after the 1909 Cherry Mine Disaster, which killed 259. In 1911 the American Federation of Labor (AFL) hired him as an organizer. In 1919 he became the UMWA acting president, an office he was elected to in 1920 and held until 1960. The UMWA was the nation’s largest union and Lewis ruthlessly held power. Frustrated Illinois miners rebelled again Lewis in 1932 and organized the Progressive Mine Workers of America (PMWA), which led to bloody battles between insurgents and UMWA loyalists. In 1935 Lewis launched the Congress of Industrial Workers (CIO), challenging the AFL craft unions with industrial unionism bringing millions of workers into the union movement. Lewis negotiated better wages, safety, health, welfare, and retirement programs for miners. Nationally renowned from the 1930s – 1950s, famous for his bushy eyebrows, stentorian voice, and Shakespearean rhetoric, Lewis was both feared and cultivated by politicians. His support was critical to President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1936 re-election though he did not support Roosevelt in 1940. Lewis kept a Springfield home and is buried in that city’s Oak Ridge Cemetery.