August 29, 2025
This year marks the 104th anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain. As we head into Labor Day weekend, we wanted to commemorate the event by breaking down some of the terms (both common and more obscure) used to refer to the tense dynamics between coal companies and their workers. The companies were highly inventive in exploitative tactics that would grow their bottom line.
The events that led up to the biggest labor uprising in US history also became a source for some common terms you will hear to this day.
Bobtail Check
On payday, miners would often receive what they called bobtail checks, which were notes stating that the miners would receive no remuneration for that pay period. Since the coal companies used company vouchers instead of money, they could inflate store prices without worrying about losing business. Miners couldn’t shop anywhere else with company money. On payday, miners often learned they had outstanding debt to the company that would be deducted from future checks. When a worker received a pay envelope marked with a curling line drawn across it, it meant no wages were due. Miners took to calling this “bobtail check” or the “snake”.
“Saint Peter, don’t you call me, ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store”
Merle Travis
Scrip
Scrip was the company currency used in place of real money. From town to town, currency was not uniform. Coal companies used a variety of metal coins as well as paper notes. Though they would gradually phase out paper, as it was easier to counterfeit and less able to withstand damage.
Since this was a private economic system, the companies had full discretion to change prices on store goods, especially if there was demand for a wage increase.
Cribbing
Cribbing was a scheme coal companies used to maximize worker output while paying the minimum. Companies paid miners by the ton of coal retrieved. But the carts the miners used to deliver pay loads could only carry so much. So the companies would affix wooden structures on the carts to increase their capacity.
Here’s the thing: the companies would not pay miners for the extra load the wooden cribs permitted. They only received pay for the carts with unaltered load-bearing. Companies also deducted pay for any quantity of coal that did not meet their standards for quality.
Yellow Dog Contracts
Coal companies added special provisions in their contracts with employees, forcing them to agree not to become union members. These contracts were usually legally enforceable. The term “yellow dog contract” refers to cowardice. Yellow in this context meant timidity or submission. It was often implied that the coal companies made “yellow dogs” out of miners with their overbearing and oppressive tactics. Contracts of this kind would not be outlawed in the US until 1935.
Red Neck
At this point, it’s easy to see why miners were so fed up with the coal companies. But unethical business tactics aside, there were also countless evictions, baseless arrests, and murders in broad daylight on the part of company militias. All this gave miners no choice but to fight back. This escalated into the Battle of Blair Mountain, which began on August 25, 1921.
During the battle, an army of strikers in the United Mine Workers union needed a way to distinguish themselves from the opposing company militias. Without uniforms, they took to wearing red bandanas around their necks. They were referred to as the “red neck army”. It’s believed that this helped popularize the term “red neck” into what it is today.
Much Is owed To The Miners’ Sacrifices
The Battle of Blair Mountain ended in defeat, but the uprising shone a light on worker exploitation. Blair Mountain sparked nationwide conversations and, with time, spurred new laws that better protected workers’ rights. Rights that we still benefit from to this day.