UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA
District 26 of UMW was formed in Cape Breton in 1909 when a number of the PWA Lodges dissolved. The president of District 26 was Dan McDougall, Vice President, J.B. Moss, Secretary Treasurer, J.B. McLachlan and International Board Member, James D. McLennan.

The UMW had a difficult struggle as the PWA joined forces with the Dominion Coal Company to resist the new union. On July 6, 1909, a strike broke out when attempts to meet with the operators of the Dominion Coal Company proved unsuccessful. During this strike, the UMW members were not working, but those who still followed the PWA remained working. The striking miners received no media support as the struggle progressed, and the Company erected electrified barbed wire fences.

As the months passed by, the men and their families found it harder to survive on handouts and the small relief amount the UMW provided on a weekly basis. Also, the Company had hired strike breakers from Belgium, Montreal, Scotland, Wales, Newfoundland and even some from Cape Breton and housed them in specially built barracks as they feared for their safety. While their supporters were looked upon as radicals, the strikers were condemned in the press and from the pulpit. By November, only 500 men remained on strike and by April 28, 1910, the strike of eight months had ended.

Technically, the strike was a failure. The United Mine Workers had failed to win recognition, it was monetarily defeated. Between 1911 and 1915 membership dropped (reportedly only 30 staunch supporters remained) and its character was taken away by the International. The union was to rise again when the PWA failed in obtaining fair wages for its members. In March 1917, the PWA and the UMW applied for a conciliation board because of difficulties in matters of wages, working conditions and discrimination. The Commission saw the causes of dispute at Glace Bay as being the rivalry between the two unions and unsatisfactory wages.

In 1917, on recommendation of the commission, the two unions joined and formed the Amalgamated Mine Workers of Nova Scotia (AMWNS).