Write a 12 pages paper on the forgotten war in west virginia. Not many people anymore have any idea what happened to these miners, which is puzzling since the term “redneck” is so common in today’s vernacular. This is unfortunate, as many of the current union laws are a direct result of this conflict. It all began in West Virginia when the coal industry began to blossom in 1883. From there, immigrants and locals were employed to work mines as the demand for coal became paramount to the economy. A dispute began to mount between mine owners and the miners that worked for them. “From the time the first shovelful of coal was removed in West Virginia, the men who did the mining were exploited by those who owned the mineral” (Meador). The owners were often very unfair and even cruel to the miners. The conditions in which the miners worked were often substandard to any of today’s standards, but during that time period, there were no real standards in place. In most cases, the miners were given “company housing” and extremely sparse wages for their long days and backbreaking labor. As the miners began to rise up and demand better wages, better conditions, and humane treatment, the mine owners grew more stubborn in their ways and also more powerful. The mine owners even went so far as to bribe their way into government positions in order to keep laws in favor of the mine owners. These government positions held by mine owners insured that union laws were not established. The fight to maintain control was paramount to the mine owners and thus the use of violence to achieve their power was not uncommon. Certainly, if union laws were in place, this would mean higher wages for miners and thus mine owners would have less money to keep for themselves.The catalyst to the “Red Neck War” was a miners’ strike that took place in 1912. This consisted of about 7,500 miners in Kanawha County, near Paint and Cabin Creek, that refused to work until the mine owners agreed to increase their wages to a more realistic status as well as improve working conditions.&nbsp. &nbsp.