During their time at the work camps, the coal miners lived in a company-owned accommodation and were buying food from the company-owned store. They would pay for both using a non-accepted US currency called "scrip."
​
The Coal companies compelled their workers to sign a "yellow dog contract" where they pledged not to organize against the company. However, the miners formed labor unions such as United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) to protect their rights; however, it led to them protesting and leading strikes. 

There has always been a history of violence against miners and their families if they complained about their low wages or living conditions. An example of this occurred nine years before the Battle of Blair Mountain; miners were striking for greater union recognition; however, they were met with violence from the coal companies, such as kicking out families from their homes at gunpoint and throwing their belongings. Moreover, the miners were evicted from their tent colony by an armored train that sprayed their tents with machine gunfire. This caused at least one death of a miner. Furthermore, they also burned women and children alive in those mining camps in Ludlow, Colorado (in 1914).
​
Later on, the UMWA would be one of the first labor unions made, even though they got defeated in the Battle of Blair Mountain, in the mid-1930s. Their money enabled the formation of the congress of industrial organizations, which aided the growth of other labor union organizations and worker power.