Leadville Colorado, Miners' Strike
Encyclopedia
Silver
was discovered in Leadville, Colorado
in the 1870s, initiating the Colorado Silver Boom
. The Leadville miners' strike in 1896-97 occurred during, and as a result of, rapid industrialization and consolidation of the mining industry. Mine owners had become more powerful, and they resolved not only to defeat the strike, but also to crush the union
. The local union lost the strike and was nearly dissolved, marking a turning point for the local union's parent organization, the Western Federation of Miners
(WFM).
The defeat forced miners to re-assess their tactics and their union philosophy. Although the federation was birthed as the result of a violent struggle
and had engaged in a militant action
in the Cripple Creek District
in which miners asserted union rights and defended themselves with gunfire and dynamite
, the organization's disposition and its Preamble envisioned a future of arbitration and conciliation with employers. After the Leadville strike, WFM leaders and their followers adopted radical politics and were open to more militant policies, breaking with the conservative, craft union
based American Federation of Labor
in the East.
was the Cloud City Miners' Union (CCMU), Local 33 of the Western Federation of Miners
. The Leadville strike was the first real test for the Western Federation of Miners, and the first strike into which the WFM poured significant resources. Coming just two years after the Federation's victory at Cripple Creek
, the Leadville strike represented a significant hope that the mineworkers could solidify their power and continue their dramatic growth.
was gradually replaced by lode mining from 1860 to 1910, forcing miners to go deeper underground and resulting in an increasing level of industrialization. Tensions resulted from changing demands for job skills and work discipline.
By 1900, there were more than 4,000 miners in Leadville. Colorado's annual mining industry death rate in the 1890s was almost six deaths per thousand workers. As a death rate quoted for miners, the statistics were believed understated because they included surface workers as well as underground workers.
Prior to the 1890s, many hard rock mines were owned by the miners who had discovered them. Owners who had been miners were often more sympathetic to the concerns of miners. But the higher cost of industrialization changed that. The typical mine owners of the 1890s started out as bankers, managers, and businessmen who had never entered a mine, and whose primary concern was profitability. Lode mining took capital, and investors from the east and west coasts, and even from Europe, were actively courted. When the Colorado Legislature passed a law in 1887 prohibiting foreign ownership of real estate in Colorado, mine ownership was excepted.
Miners had long believed that they were treated poorly. For example, in 1894 a Leadville mine owner instructed the superintendent of the mine to delay a payday for the miners so that a dividend could be paid to stockholders. The WFM had advocated the eight hour day since its founding convention in 1893. Some miners had the shorter hours, and public employees and building trades workers in Denver had won the eight hour day as early as 1890. Yet in 1896, hoisting engineers in Leadville were required to work twelve hour shifts. Mines were more dangerous as they were dug deeper; it was increasingly recognized that poor working conditions as well as longer hours could be correlated with poor health. In 1889 two Leadville workmen were sent to Denver to testify in favor of a mine inspection bill. Although it passed, it made no difference that year because the legislature failed to fund it.
Some believe it was a bad time to demand a wage hike, because the economy hadn't yet fully recovered from the downturn. One mine owner claimed "we have not made a dollar in two years." But others observe that by 1895, Leadville mines posted their largest combined output since 1889, and that Leadville was then Colorado's most productive mine camp, producing almost 9.5 million ounces of silver. The mine owners "were doing a lot better than they wanted anyone to know." Mine owners Eben Smith
and John F. Campion
were writing letters discussing mine expansions and upgrading operations, such that "both men seemed, in their writing at least, to remain remarkably unconcerned about their overall financial prospects." Campion was attempting to purchase Italian marble, and other luxuries for his home during the strike.
another 1,332 mine workers.
Union miners began to intercept replacement workers headed for the mines, attempting to discourage them from taking the struck jobs, leading to an increasingly tense situation. A British journalist described the standoff:
. They sought to co-opt union activities, and when their spies discovered divisions among the strikers, they exploited them. The owners exerted local political clout, and therefore benefited from the cooperation of local officials, law enforcement, business, and other community leaders. While the local sheriff was sympathetic to the miners, the Leadville city police took the side of the mine owners. They recruited new officers from Denver, and "apparently kept up a near-constant campaign of harassment and violence against union members throughout the strike." Possibly as many as six union men were randomly killed during the strike, either by the Denver deputies, or under mysterious circumstances.
Leadville mine owner John Campion hired labor spies
from both the Thiel Detective Agency
and the Pinkerton Agency
to spy on the union. Campion hired additional spies to report on activities of replacement workers imported from Missouri. The elaborate spy network insured that mine owners had a complete and accurate description of union plans and activities, as well as the opinions and attitudes of union members.
During the strike in Coeur d'Alene
just four years earlier, mine owners "claimed that they accepted miners' unions and were willing to work with them". In Leadville, mine owners essentially denied that unions had any right to exist. The owners refused to use the word "union". Their communications were addressed to miners, rather than to their organization. When a Leadville mine owner demonstrated sympathy for union miners, either offering to pay the union-demanded wage, or merely being suspected of doing so, other mine owners used court action and threats in an effort to present a united front against the union.
, health care for miners, restrictions on cheap immigrant labor, the disarming of detectives, and friendly relationships with employers. They envisioned an eventual end to confrontation and strikes. The WFM was unprepared for the determination and power that mine owners would bring to bear during struggles for union rights.
The Cloud City Miners' Union faced a difficult challenge. Their foes were wealthy and powerful, with the financial ability to lock out the miners, and to close down operations while patiently awaiting the arrival of soldiers. Miners were faced with a loss of credit from local businesses.
The local CCMU was riddled with internal conflict. National and ethnic divisions and differences in union philosophy were exacerbated by inadequate resources. There was distrust of the union leadership, as well as suspicion and jealousy over outside federation staff who were paid a salary slightly higher than the strike allowance received by miners. CCMU leadership was predominantly Irish, and they were characterized as partial to their fellow Irish miners at the expense of Cornish miners and others. Local leaders sometimes resorted to coercion to maintain loyalty among some ethnic groups of miners.
Into this divided community, the mine owners unleashed spies who were assigned to monitor and undermine the union. Spies supplied information that was processed into thousands of pages of daily reports on the internal workings of the CCMU; its divisions, its plans, its weaknesses. For the most part, union members and leadership were unaware that their ranks were riddled with company agents. Spies were entrusted with union security responsibilities, even with the responsibility of detecting possible spies. The spies faithfully recorded information about ethnic rivalries and philosophical disputes among die-hard and disillusioned unionists, militants and pacifists, optimists and pessimists, and the spy agencies passed that information on to the mine operators. With comprehensive daily reports on secret union meetings and the union's tactical plans, mine owners were able to outwit, outmaneuver, and outlast the strikers.
Just four days later, on September 21, 1896, the Coronado Mine, which had been operating with armed replacement workers, was the scene of shootings and dynamite explosions, resulting in the burning of surface buildings. Strikers then proceeded to the Robert Emmet Mine, and another confrontation.
At least four union miners (in addition to the random killings) and one fireman were killed that day during what were commonly described as riots. Colorado Governor McIntire
would later argue that the violence showed evidence of premeditation. With the violence having caused an estimated $50,000 in damages, Governor McIntire sent the Colorado National Guard
to Leadville. WFM leader Ed Boyce
was one of twenty-seven union men jailed during the Leadville strike. Union leaders were charged, but charges were dismissed for lack of evidence. Although the altercations at the mines apparently were not authorized by union leadership, the fallout still hurt the union. With soldiers protecting strike breakers, the strike ultimately failed.
s and their allies convinced the WFM that acting in a non-threatening manner wasn't going to accomplish anything worthwhile. Many union members had begun to reconsider their conservative assumptions about confrontation and violence. By the late 1890s, the WFM believed that it would have to go toe to toe with mine owners and other employers. The WFM even considered creating rifle clubs for carefully chosen members.
The miners in the WFM realized that the old form of organization could not compete with "plutocracy". They concluded that the interests of employers were "always antagonizing" toward the interests of the union federation. The AFL ("organized labor of the east") could not help with the unique problems of the western miners. The solution was organizing western laborers and western unions into a new umbrella-like federation. These conclusions represented "an absolute rejection" of the AFL, of its conservative philosophy and its complacent demeanor.
(AFL) hoping for substantial financial support which had been promised by the larger federation. The WFM also hoped that the AFL would call out some of its members to support strikes by WFM locals, if necessary. During the Leadville strike, WFM President Boyce went east to ask for help in person from Samuel Gompers
of the AFL, but was rebuffed. The AFL failed to provide financial support, and it refused to call out any of its unions in Leadville in support of the CCMU.
Boyce later found common ground with former American Railway Union
(ARU) leader Eugene Debs, who had become a socialist
after a strike by the ARU was crushed
by government intervention.
just two years earlier, Colorado Governor Waite
, a Populist, called out the Colorado National Guard
to protect strikers. This action, and the results of that strike, encouraged working class support for Populists. However, the fear of union militancy, and particularly a negative reaction to the WFM's successful Cripple Creek strike, helped to sweep Populists from power. Subsequently the hostility of both Democratic and Republican officials during the Leadville strike caused some workers to distrust both major parties.
In 1899, members of the CCMU formed a chapter of the Socialist Labor Party. A western federation of labor called the Western Labor Union
, formed by the WFM and other western unions in Salt Lake City
in 1898, endorsed socialist candidates, and called for the abolition of the wage system. While the rank and file of the WFM did not specifically endorse socialism, they did pass resolutions which gave them a reputation for radical and revolutionary sentiments.
The Leadville strike had winnowed out miners who were antagonistic toward, or not fully supportive of the union's goals. The members who were left agreed that they were engaged in a class-based struggle that called for a more militant and confrontational disposition. Employers themselves had dictated the old rules for the struggle, but after Leadville the union no longer believed those rules applied. Many of the WFM members were moving beyond reformist sentiments, to a realization that if they were to obtain the just solution that they sought, the system needed to be overturned. In a document called the November 1897 proclamation
, the union miners and their allies vowed to launch a new federation which would reflect their growing class consciousness
.
The Leadville strike set the scene not only for the WFM's consideration of militant tactics and its embrace of radicalism, but also for the birth of the Western Labor Union
(which became the American Labor Union
), the WFM's participation in the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World
, and for events which culminated in the Colorado Labor Wars
.
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
was discovered in Leadville, Colorado
Leadville, Colorado
Leadville is a Statutory City that is the county seat of, and the only municipality in, Lake County, Colorado, United States. Situated at an elevation of , Leadville is the highest incorporated city and the second highest incorporated municipality in the United States...
in the 1870s, initiating the Colorado Silver Boom
Colorado Silver Boom
The Colorado Silver Boom was a dramatic expansionist period of silver mining activity in the U.S. state of Colorado in the late 19th century. The boom started in 1879 with the discovery of silver at Leadville...
. The Leadville miners' strike in 1896-97 occurred during, and as a result of, rapid industrialization and consolidation of the mining industry. Mine owners had become more powerful, and they resolved not only to defeat the strike, but also to crush the union
Union busting
Union busting is a wide range of activities undertaken by employers, their proxies, and governments, which attempt to prevent the formation or expansion of trade unions...
. The local union lost the strike and was nearly dissolved, marking a turning point for the local union's parent organization, the Western Federation of Miners
Western Federation of Miners
The Western Federation of Miners was a radical labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and smelter workers brought it into sharp conflicts – and often pitched battles...
(WFM).
The defeat forced miners to re-assess their tactics and their union philosophy. Although the federation was birthed as the result of a violent struggle
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor strike of 1892
There were two related incidents between miners and mine owners in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho: the labor strike of 1892, and the labor confrontation of 1899....
and had engaged in a militant action
Cripple Creek miners' strike of 1894
The Cripple Creek miners' strike of 1894 was a five-month strike by the Western Federation of Miners in Cripple Creek, Colorado, USA. It resulted in a victory for the union and was followed in 1903 by the Colorado Labor Wars...
in the Cripple Creek District
Cripple Creek Historic District
Cripple Creek Historic District is a historic district including Cripple Creek, Colorado, USA and is significant for its gold mining era history.It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.Many Cripple Creek buildings post-date the gold mining era...
in which miners asserted union rights and defended themselves with gunfire and dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
, the organization's disposition and its Preamble envisioned a future of arbitration and conciliation with employers. After the Leadville strike, WFM leaders and their followers adopted radical politics and were open to more militant policies, breaking with the conservative, craft union
Craft unionism
Craft unionism refers to organizing a union in a manner that seeks to unify workers in a particular industry along the lines of the particular craft or trade that they work in by class or skill level...
based American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
in the East.
History
The union local in the Leadville mining districtLeadville mining district
The Leadville mining district was the most productive silver-mining district in the US state of Colorado. It is located immediately east of the town of Leadville....
was the Cloud City Miners' Union (CCMU), Local 33 of the Western Federation of Miners
Western Federation of Miners
The Western Federation of Miners was a radical labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and smelter workers brought it into sharp conflicts – and often pitched battles...
. The Leadville strike was the first real test for the Western Federation of Miners, and the first strike into which the WFM poured significant resources. Coming just two years after the Federation's victory at Cripple Creek
Cripple Creek
Cripple Creek may refer to:Places* Cripple Creek, Colorado* Cripple Creek, VirginiaSongs* "Cripple Creek ", traditional folk song* "Up on Cripple Creek" by The Band* "Cripple Creek Ferry" by Neil Young on the album After the Gold Rush...
, the Leadville strike represented a significant hope that the mineworkers could solidify their power and continue their dramatic growth.
Impact of industrialization
Miners and other workers were often pulled into industrial enterprises such as underground metal mining from non-industrial traditions. Placer miningPlacer mining
Placer mining is the mining of alluvial deposits for minerals. This may be done by open-pit or by various surface excavating equipment or tunneling equipment....
was gradually replaced by lode mining from 1860 to 1910, forcing miners to go deeper underground and resulting in an increasing level of industrialization. Tensions resulted from changing demands for job skills and work discipline.
By 1900, there were more than 4,000 miners in Leadville. Colorado's annual mining industry death rate in the 1890s was almost six deaths per thousand workers. As a death rate quoted for miners, the statistics were believed understated because they included surface workers as well as underground workers.
Prior to the 1890s, many hard rock mines were owned by the miners who had discovered them. Owners who had been miners were often more sympathetic to the concerns of miners. But the higher cost of industrialization changed that. The typical mine owners of the 1890s started out as bankers, managers, and businessmen who had never entered a mine, and whose primary concern was profitability. Lode mining took capital, and investors from the east and west coasts, and even from Europe, were actively courted. When the Colorado Legislature passed a law in 1887 prohibiting foreign ownership of real estate in Colorado, mine ownership was excepted.
Miners had long believed that they were treated poorly. For example, in 1894 a Leadville mine owner instructed the superintendent of the mine to delay a payday for the miners so that a dividend could be paid to stockholders. The WFM had advocated the eight hour day since its founding convention in 1893. Some miners had the shorter hours, and public employees and building trades workers in Denver had won the eight hour day as early as 1890. Yet in 1896, hoisting engineers in Leadville were required to work twelve hour shifts. Mines were more dangerous as they were dug deeper; it was increasingly recognized that poor working conditions as well as longer hours could be correlated with poor health. In 1889 two Leadville workmen were sent to Denver to testify in favor of a mine inspection bill. Although it passed, it made no difference that year because the legislature failed to fund it.
Strike issues
In 1896, representatives of the CCMU asked for a wage increase of fifty cents per day for all mine workers not already making three dollars per day. The union felt justified, for fifty cents a day had been cut from the miners' wages during the depression of 1893.Some believe it was a bad time to demand a wage hike, because the economy hadn't yet fully recovered from the downturn. One mine owner claimed "we have not made a dollar in two years." But others observe that by 1895, Leadville mines posted their largest combined output since 1889, and that Leadville was then Colorado's most productive mine camp, producing almost 9.5 million ounces of silver. The mine owners "were doing a lot better than they wanted anyone to know." Mine owners Eben Smith
Eben Smith
Eben Smith was a successful mine owner, smelting company executive, railroad executive and bank owner in Colorado in the late 19th century and early 20th century.-Early life:...
and John F. Campion
John F. Campion
John Francis Campion was the wealthy owner of several hard rock mines in the Leadville, Colorado area. After 1900, he made a second fortune growing sugar beets. The community of Campion, Colorado is named after him. Campion is a somewhat obscure figure today, but was well known in his day. His big...
were writing letters discussing mine expansions and upgrading operations, such that "both men seemed, in their writing at least, to remain remarkably unconcerned about their overall financial prospects." Campion was attempting to purchase Italian marble, and other luxuries for his home during the strike.
The strike
Negotiations over an increase in pay for the lower-paid mineworkers broke down, and 1,200 miners voted unanimously to strike all mines that were still paying at the lower rate. The next day 968 miners walked out, and mine owners locked outLockout (industry)
A lockout is a work stoppage in which an employer prevents employees from working. This is different from a strike, in which employees refuse to work.- Causes :...
another 1,332 mine workers.
Union miners began to intercept replacement workers headed for the mines, attempting to discourage them from taking the struck jobs, leading to an increasingly tense situation. A British journalist described the standoff:
No surrender; no compromise; no pity. The owners mean to starve the miners to death; the miners mean to blow the owners to atoms.
The forces arrayed
Many miners in the West had put their faith in the Western Federation of Miners as the organization most likely to stand up to rich and powerful industrialists. But the employers had the upper hand, and only a "remarkably resilient and cohesive" union could withstand and defeat such a formidible array of enemies.The employers
The mine owners secretly formed an agreement among themselves, later sealed with a written pact, that none of them would recognize the union or negotiate with it, and that all participants would lock out all mine workers – an arrangement later revealed in a report by the Colorado State Legislature. The mine owners systematically imported strike breakers in unprecedented numbers from Wisconsin and Missouri. They hired detectives. They implemented not just a lockout, but also a blacklistBlacklist
A blacklist is a list or register of entities who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition. As a verb, to blacklist can mean to deny someone work in a particular field, or to ostracize a person from a certain social circle...
. They sought to co-opt union activities, and when their spies discovered divisions among the strikers, they exploited them. The owners exerted local political clout, and therefore benefited from the cooperation of local officials, law enforcement, business, and other community leaders. While the local sheriff was sympathetic to the miners, the Leadville city police took the side of the mine owners. They recruited new officers from Denver, and "apparently kept up a near-constant campaign of harassment and violence against union members throughout the strike." Possibly as many as six union men were randomly killed during the strike, either by the Denver deputies, or under mysterious circumstances.
Leadville mine owner John Campion hired labor spies
Labor spies
Labor spies are persons recruited or employed for the purpose of gathering intelligence, committing sabotage, sowing dissent, or engaging in other similar activities, typically within the context of an employer/labor organization relationship....
from both the Thiel Detective Agency
Thiel Detective Service Company
The Thiel Detective Service Company was a private detective agency formed by George H. Thiel, a former Civil War spy and Pinkerton employee.The Thiel Detective Service Company headquarters were in St. Louis, Missouri. The company was formed to be a direct competitor to the Pinkerton Detective...
and the Pinkerton Agency
Pinkerton National Detective Agency
The Pinkerton National Detective Agency, usually shortened to the Pinkertons, is a private U.S. security guard and detective agency established by Allan Pinkerton in 1850. Pinkerton became famous when he claimed to have foiled a plot to assassinate president-elect Abraham Lincoln, who later hired...
to spy on the union. Campion hired additional spies to report on activities of replacement workers imported from Missouri. The elaborate spy network insured that mine owners had a complete and accurate description of union plans and activities, as well as the opinions and attitudes of union members.
During the strike in Coeur d'Alene
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor strike of 1892
There were two related incidents between miners and mine owners in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho: the labor strike of 1892, and the labor confrontation of 1899....
just four years earlier, mine owners "claimed that they accepted miners' unions and were willing to work with them". In Leadville, mine owners essentially denied that unions had any right to exist. The owners refused to use the word "union". Their communications were addressed to miners, rather than to their organization. When a Leadville mine owner demonstrated sympathy for union miners, either offering to pay the union-demanded wage, or merely being suspected of doing so, other mine owners used court action and threats in an effort to present a united front against the union.
The union
In 1896 the Western Federation of Miners was already thought by contemporaries to be radical and militant, but was in fact dedicated to essentially conservative goals: decent wages paid in legal tender rather than scripScrip
Scrip is an American term for any substitute for currency which is not legal tender and is often a form of credit. Scrips were created as company payment of employees and also as a means of payment in times where regular money is unavailable, such as remote coal towns, military bases, ships on long...
, health care for miners, restrictions on cheap immigrant labor, the disarming of detectives, and friendly relationships with employers. They envisioned an eventual end to confrontation and strikes. The WFM was unprepared for the determination and power that mine owners would bring to bear during struggles for union rights.
The Cloud City Miners' Union faced a difficult challenge. Their foes were wealthy and powerful, with the financial ability to lock out the miners, and to close down operations while patiently awaiting the arrival of soldiers. Miners were faced with a loss of credit from local businesses.
The local CCMU was riddled with internal conflict. National and ethnic divisions and differences in union philosophy were exacerbated by inadequate resources. There was distrust of the union leadership, as well as suspicion and jealousy over outside federation staff who were paid a salary slightly higher than the strike allowance received by miners. CCMU leadership was predominantly Irish, and they were characterized as partial to their fellow Irish miners at the expense of Cornish miners and others. Local leaders sometimes resorted to coercion to maintain loyalty among some ethnic groups of miners.
Into this divided community, the mine owners unleashed spies who were assigned to monitor and undermine the union. Spies supplied information that was processed into thousands of pages of daily reports on the internal workings of the CCMU; its divisions, its plans, its weaknesses. For the most part, union members and leadership were unaware that their ranks were riddled with company agents. Spies were entrusted with union security responsibilities, even with the responsibility of detecting possible spies. The spies faithfully recorded information about ethnic rivalries and philosophical disputes among die-hard and disillusioned unionists, militants and pacifists, optimists and pessimists, and the spy agencies passed that information on to the mine operators. With comprehensive daily reports on secret union meetings and the union's tactical plans, mine owners were able to outwit, outmaneuver, and outlast the strikers.
Incident at the Coronado Mine
In a general meeting of the CCMU on September 16, 1896, union leaders "[cautioned] all of the members to be careful and keep sober and keep out of mischief." The next day the union issued a resolution that stated, "any violation of the law or disturbance of the peace by any member of this union endangers the success of our cause and is, therefore, treason to the cause..."Just four days later, on September 21, 1896, the Coronado Mine, which had been operating with armed replacement workers, was the scene of shootings and dynamite explosions, resulting in the burning of surface buildings. Strikers then proceeded to the Robert Emmet Mine, and another confrontation.
At least four union miners (in addition to the random killings) and one fireman were killed that day during what were commonly described as riots. Colorado Governor McIntire
Albert Washington McIntire
Albert Washington McIntire was an American Republican politician. He was the ninth Governor of Colorado from 1895 to 1897...
would later argue that the violence showed evidence of premeditation. With the violence having caused an estimated $50,000 in damages, Governor McIntire sent the Colorado National Guard
Colorado National Guard
The Colorado Department of Military and Veterans Affairs is a state agency of the Government of Colorado. It supervises both the Colorado National Guard , and non-military state safety agencies.The Department consists of the Department of Military Affairs, and the Division of Veterans' Affairs, and...
to Leadville. WFM leader Ed Boyce
Ed Boyce
Ed Boyce was president of the Western Federation of Miners, a radical American labor organizer, socialist and hard rock mine owner.-Early life:...
was one of twenty-seven union men jailed during the Leadville strike. Union leaders were charged, but charges were dismissed for lack of evidence. Although the altercations at the mines apparently were not authorized by union leadership, the fallout still hurt the union. With soldiers protecting strike breakers, the strike ultimately failed.
Strike significance
When it was initially formed in 1893, the WFM shared the AFL's conservatism. But its experiences going up against Mine Owners' AssociationMine Owners' Association
In the United States a Mine Owners' Association, also sometimes referred to as a Mine Operators' Association or a Mine Owners' Protective Association, is the combination of individual mining companies, or groups of mining companies, into an association, established for the purpose of promoting the...
s and their allies convinced the WFM that acting in a non-threatening manner wasn't going to accomplish anything worthwhile. Many union members had begun to reconsider their conservative assumptions about confrontation and violence. By the late 1890s, the WFM believed that it would have to go toe to toe with mine owners and other employers. The WFM even considered creating rifle clubs for carefully chosen members.
The miners in the WFM realized that the old form of organization could not compete with "plutocracy". They concluded that the interests of employers were "always antagonizing" toward the interests of the union federation. The AFL ("organized labor of the east") could not help with the unique problems of the western miners. The solution was organizing western laborers and western unions into a new umbrella-like federation. These conclusions represented "an absolute rejection" of the AFL, of its conservative philosophy and its complacent demeanor.
Western Federation of Miners relationship with the American Federation of Labor
The WFM had joined the American Federation of LaborAmerican Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
(AFL) hoping for substantial financial support which had been promised by the larger federation. The WFM also hoped that the AFL would call out some of its members to support strikes by WFM locals, if necessary. During the Leadville strike, WFM President Boyce went east to ask for help in person from Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers was an English-born American cigar maker who became a labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor , and served as that organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924...
of the AFL, but was rebuffed. The AFL failed to provide financial support, and it refused to call out any of its unions in Leadville in support of the CCMU.
Boyce later found common ground with former American Railway Union
American Railway Union
The American Railway Union , was the largest labor union of its time, and one of the first industrial unions in the United States. It was founded on June 20, 1893, by railway workers gathered in Chicago, Illinois, and under the leadership of Eugene V...
(ARU) leader Eugene Debs, who had become a socialist
Socialist Party USA
The Socialist Party USA is a multi-tendency democratic-socialist party in the United States. The party states that it is the rightful continuation and successor to the tradition of the Socialist Party of America, which had lasted from 1901 to 1972.The party is officially committed to left-wing...
after a strike by the ARU was crushed
Pullman Strike
The Pullman Strike was a nationwide conflict between labor unions and railroads that occurred in the United States in 1894. The conflict began in the town of Pullman, Illinois on May 11 when approximately 3,000 employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company began a wildcat strike in response to recent...
by government intervention.
Western Federation of Miners relationship with elected officials
During the WFM's first major strike in Cripple CreekCripple Creek miners' strike of 1894
The Cripple Creek miners' strike of 1894 was a five-month strike by the Western Federation of Miners in Cripple Creek, Colorado, USA. It resulted in a victory for the union and was followed in 1903 by the Colorado Labor Wars...
just two years earlier, Colorado Governor Waite
Davis Hanson Waite
Davis Hanson Waite , U.S. Populist Party and Democratic Party politician, served as the eighth Governor of Colorado from 1893 to 1895...
, a Populist, called out the Colorado National Guard
Colorado National Guard
The Colorado Department of Military and Veterans Affairs is a state agency of the Government of Colorado. It supervises both the Colorado National Guard , and non-military state safety agencies.The Department consists of the Department of Military Affairs, and the Division of Veterans' Affairs, and...
to protect strikers. This action, and the results of that strike, encouraged working class support for Populists. However, the fear of union militancy, and particularly a negative reaction to the WFM's successful Cripple Creek strike, helped to sweep Populists from power. Subsequently the hostility of both Democratic and Republican officials during the Leadville strike caused some workers to distrust both major parties.
In 1899, members of the CCMU formed a chapter of the Socialist Labor Party. A western federation of labor called the Western Labor Union
Western Labor Union
The Western Labor Union was a labor federation created by the Western Federation of Miners after the disastrous Leadville strike of 1896-97. The WLU was conceived in November, 1897 in a proclamation of the State Trades and Labor Council of Montana, and gained support from the WFM's executive...
, formed by the WFM and other western unions in Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
in 1898, endorsed socialist candidates, and called for the abolition of the wage system. While the rank and file of the WFM did not specifically endorse socialism, they did pass resolutions which gave them a reputation for radical and revolutionary sentiments.
Legacy of the strike
WFM leaders and federation members realized that they needed to build a more powerful organization. To do so, they jettisoned the "conservative and divisive self-interest" that had characterized the AFL and the western miners' organizations themselves up to that point.The Leadville strike had winnowed out miners who were antagonistic toward, or not fully supportive of the union's goals. The members who were left agreed that they were engaged in a class-based struggle that called for a more militant and confrontational disposition. Employers themselves had dictated the old rules for the struggle, but after Leadville the union no longer believed those rules applied. Many of the WFM members were moving beyond reformist sentiments, to a realization that if they were to obtain the just solution that they sought, the system needed to be overturned. In a document called the November 1897 proclamation
November 1897 proclamation
The November 1897 proclamation of the State Trades and Labor Council of Montana was a reflection of western labor's assessment of the struggle between labor and capital after the failed Leadville Colorado, Miners' Strike...
, the union miners and their allies vowed to launch a new federation which would reflect their growing class consciousness
Class consciousness
Class consciousness is consciousness of one's social class or economic rank in society. From the perspective of Marxist theory, it refers to the self-awareness, or lack thereof, of a particular class; its capacity to act in its own rational interests; or its awareness of the historical tasks...
.
The Leadville strike set the scene not only for the WFM's consideration of militant tactics and its embrace of radicalism, but also for the birth of the Western Labor Union
Western Labor Union
The Western Labor Union was a labor federation created by the Western Federation of Miners after the disastrous Leadville strike of 1896-97. The WLU was conceived in November, 1897 in a proclamation of the State Trades and Labor Council of Montana, and gained support from the WFM's executive...
(which became the American Labor Union
American Labor Union
When the Western Labor Union , a labor federation formed by the Western Federation of Miners, decided to overtly challenge the American Federation of Labor in 1902, it changed its name to the American Labor Union . The ALU was created because the WFM wanted a class-wide labor body with which to...
), the WFM's participation in the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
, and for events which culminated in the Colorado Labor Wars
Colorado Labor Wars
Colorado's most significant battles between labor and capital occurred primarily between miners and mine operators. In these battles the state government, with one clear exception, always took the side of the mine operators....
.
See also
- Colorado Labor WarsColorado Labor WarsColorado's most significant battles between labor and capital occurred primarily between miners and mine operators. In these battles the state government, with one clear exception, always took the side of the mine operators....
- Ed BoyceEd BoyceEd Boyce was president of the Western Federation of Miners, a radical American labor organizer, socialist and hard rock mine owner.-Early life:...
- Labor federation competition in the United States
- One Big Union (concept)