1915–1917 Wheelbarrow Mine strike

In 1915, coal miners affiliated with the United Mine Workers (UMW) labor union at the Wheelbarrow Mine in Johnson County, Arkansas, went on strike against the mine's operators, the Pennsylvania Mining Company (PMC). The strike ended in 1917 after the PMC declared bankruptcy and a new company, the Fernwood Mining Company, was established to operate the mine and quickly agreed to recognize the UMW.

The prelude to strike action at the Wheelbarrow Mine began in 1910 when the existing contract between the UMW and the Anthracite Coal and Land Company, which owned and, at the time, operated the mine, expired without a replacement contract. In October of that year, PMC was established and began operating the mine under a lease from the Anthracite Coal Company. This new company refused to negotiate with the UMW and began to bring in immigrant workers from Pennsylvania to work at the mine, leading to tension and some sporadic instances of violence between these replacement workers and former UMW miners. For the next several years, the UMW attempted to organize workers at the mine and planned for a strike against PMC, and on June 9, 1915, several miners performed a walkout following a change in company policy regarding how miners were compensated for the amount of coal they mined, resulting in a strike.

Following this walkout, UMW officials quickly organized a new local union in Johnson County and made plans for carrying out the strike. Over the next several months, there were several instances of violence between pro- and anti-union sides, and on August 24, a trestle bridge in the county was partially destroyed in an act of sabotage. Following this, UMW official James Moran negotiated with the company a potential end to the strike by the end of the year, but unbeknownst to the union, PMC had by this time initiated legal actions against the union. However, within about one year of filing this lawsuit, PMC declared bankruptcy, in part due to costs associated with the strike and subsequent litigation. PMC ultimately lost the right to operate the Wheelbarrow Mine, and their successor company, the Fernwood Mining Company, quickly recognized the UMW as a collective bargaining organization and negotiated an end to the strike in November 1917.

In the ensuing years, PMC and the UMW continued litigating in various courts, with the company alleging that the union had engaged in conspiracy regarding interstate commerce that violated the terms of the Sherman Antitrust Act. However, the union rejected these accusations and, in a final hearing in September 1928, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit sided with the union and rejected the company's case, awarding the UMW court costs. While the union ultimately succeeded in both their strike and subsequent legal battles, the coal industry in Arkansas had by this point entered into a state of decline that hurt unions such as the UMW's influence in the state.