Copper Country strike of 1913–1914

It was called to achieve goals of shorter work days, higher wages, union recognition, and to maintain family mining groups.

The strike lasted just over nine months, including the Italian Hall disaster on Christmas Eve, and ended with the union being effectively driven out of the Keweenaw Peninsula.

This copper was originally mined by native miners, and many French and British explorers noted the richness of the deposits in the area.

He famously concluded: "the copper ores are not only of superior quality, but also that their associations are such as to render them easily reduced."

Typically, miners were paid by the cubic fathom of mine rock extracted, at rates designated in their contracts.

Trammers, whose job was to remove the blasted-out rock in heavy tram cars, were not paid on a contract, and were often considered to be a "lower class" of worker.

Most mines provided housing and schooling for miners and their families, as well as doctors, hospitalization, and even the construction of roads.

Miners who fought, drank excessively, or were otherwise found to act improperly could be fired by the mines at any time.

[citation needed] The final major issues concerned working hours, wages, and child labor.

[citation needed] While there were various factors inspiring union membership toward a strike, the WFM only asked its members to vote on two questions.

The first was a demand for union recognition from management, and asking "for a conference with the employers to adjust wages, hours, and working conditions in the copper district of Michigan."

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, several unions had attempted to organize locals within the Copper Country, but none had succeeded.

The pressing issues of wages, hours, and the one-man drill encouraged many miners to join the union, and the WFM quickly founded many locals.

These locals and WFM organizers began calling for shorter working days, higher wages, and the return of the two-man drill.

[citation needed] Miners held daily parades to boost morale and show their strength.

The strike was very costly for the WFM, which provided support to strikers based on need and family size.

A large number of families left the region entirely, looking for more work in the newly developing industrial centers of Detroit and Chicago.

[citation needed] An incident called the "Seeberville Affair" occurred on August 14, 1913, when John Kalan and John Stimac, two strikers, walked across mine property and were told that they could not cross the path by a deputized Trammer boss by the name of Humphrey Quick.

The guard, another deputy, and some members of the Waddell-Mahon Detective Agency were sent to the residence of Kalan to bring the two men to the supervisor to talk.

Two boarders with no connection to Kalan or Stimac were killed; Alois Tijan died on the scene and Steve Putrich the next day.

[7] The funeral for Tijan and Putrich was attended by 3500 to 5000 people,[6] and the procession was led by labor activist Anna Clemenc.

The disaster gave additional life to the strike, as rumors flew about the identity of the man who yelled "Fire!".

However, support for the strike declined as organizers left (or were forced to leave) the Copper Country, the WFM ran out of money, and strikers' families experienced great hardships during the winter.

[3] Mining companies required all strikers seeking a return to work to turn in or destroy their WFM membership cards.

However, many Copper Country mines did introduce an 8-hour day partway through the strike, for the miners who had stayed to work for them.

All mines eventually changed to a daily wage, leaving behind the old family-group contract system entirely.

The United Mine Workers of America-led Colorado Coalfield War ran concurrently with much of the Copper Country Strike, beginning in September 1913.

Seven days following the conclusion of the Michigan strike, the Ludlow Massacre–perpetrated by National Guardsmen at the behest of mining company interests and killing over at least a dozen unarmed women and children–led to reforms in the treatment of miners nationwide.