Union Miners Cemetery in Mt. Olive, Illinois, is the only labor union-established and union-owned cemetery in the United States. It grew out of the Battle of Virden, fought in Virden on October 12, 1898, after the Chicago-Virden Coal Company refused to honor the national wage negotiated by the United Mine Workers Union. An armed struggle broke out between miners and company forces attempting to use scabs, or non-union strike-breakers, and eight miners, four mine guards, and one company employee were killed. The bosses then capitulated and agreed to the legal wage. Four of the dead miners were from Mt. Olive, but the owner of the privately owned town cemetery did not want dead miners buried there to prevent it from becoming a miners shrine, so the UMW purchased land in Mt. Olive to create a dedicated union cemetery for the dead miners and for miners in the future. In 1932, the cemetery was deeded to the Progressive Miners of America Union. Today, a perpetual care committee tends the cemetery with help from labor unions around the country, and its labor history significance is recognized by inscription on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
