What were the demands of the Tennessee coal miners in 1891?

The coal miners of Briceville, Tennessee went on strike in 1891 in protest of poor wages and conditions. Although they weren't members of a labor union, they still had a history of downing tools when they felt they were being exploited by management. Tennessee's state government, deeply in debt and looking to cut costs, began the practice of hiring out convicts for industry. The striking miners were furious at this. They knew that if the convicts could do their jobs for nothing, then they'd be out of work before long. The miners were effectively being undercut by virtual slave labor.
So the miners became increasingly militant, engaging in often violent confrontation with the mine owners and the state authorities in what became known as the Coal Creek War. A game of cat-and-mouse ensued, whereby the miners would drive out the convicts only for the authorities to bring them back again, under armed guard.
On this went for two years, before finally the state government relented and discontinued the controversial convict labor lease scheme. The simple reason behind the climb-down was that the cost of using state militia to escort and protect convict labor was considerably greater than the revenue raised by leasing out convicts in the first place.
http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/tennessee-convict-war