The United Mine Workers of America epitomized the New Deal concept of "junior partner" in the corporate economy, whereby unions made some concessions to management in return for better salaries and benefits. This book tells how that union's welfare and retirement fund blazed a trail in industrial benefits and served as a barometer of labor relations in the post-World War II era--and how union leaders and changes in the industry eventually undermined the program.

The UMWA Welfare and Retirement Fund functioned as a privatized version of Social Security and pioneered the idea that medical...