Imagining Work: Kettle Bottom

Kettle Bottom focuses on the West Virginia Mine War, a years long labor battle between coal miners wanting to join the United Mine Workers of America union and mine operators in West Virginia who prevented it. The most notable labor uprisings were the Battle of Matewan and the Battle of Blair Mountain. Both are arguably the largest and deadliest labor strikes in American history.

Miners' Pneumoconiosis, or Black Lung Disease, "is a respiratory illness caused by the inhalation of dust from coal, graphite, or man-made carbon."

In 1969, there was a Black Lung Strike in West Virginia which resulted in the creation of the Black Lung Disability Trust, a trust fund established for the purpose of compensating miners for any possible medical expenses incurred as a result of Black Lung.