Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor strike of 1892
Encyclopedia
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
.
The strike of 1892 erupted in violence when labor union miners discovered they had been infiltrated by a Pinkerton
agent who had routinely provided union information to the mine owners. The response to that violence, disastrous for the local miners' union, became the primary motivation for the formation of the Western Federation of Miners
(WFM) the following year.
The confrontation of 1899 resulted from the miners' frustrations with mine operators that paid lower wages, hired Pinkerton or Thiel
operatives to infiltrate the union, and routinely fired any miner who held a union card.
. In 1891, silver/lead ore worth nine million dollars had been shipped out of the Coeur d'Alene mining district, plus a quarter million dollars worth of gold bullion. Mine owners were making fortunes, but hardrock miners and common laborers were not.
Mine operators found a reduction in wages the easiest way to mitigate increased costs. After the machines were installed, the mine owners were going to pay the mine workers $3.00 to $3.50 per day, depending upon their specific jobs. The operators also increased miners' work hours from nine to ten hours per day, with no corresponding increase in pay. The work week would be seven days long, with an occasional Sunday off for those who didn't have pumping duty. The miners had other grievances — for example, high payments for room and board in company lodging, and check cashing fees at company saloons.
In 1892, the miners declared a strike against the reduction of wages and the increase in work hours. The miners demanded that a "living wage" of $3.50 per day be paid to every man working underground—the common laborer as well as the skilled. In an era when many unions were AFL
craft unions
, in which skilled workers frequently looked after their own kind, this was an unusual circumstance—approximately three thousand higher-paid miners standing up for five hundred lower-paid, in this case common laborers. This principle of industrial unionism
would animate Western hardrock miners for the next several decades.
When the union miners walked out of the mines, mining company recruiters used deception to entice replacement workers to Coeur d'Alene during the strike. They advertised in Michigan, in some cases touting mining jobs in Montana, mentioning nothing about the strike. Guards were assigned to the trains that transported the men seeking work, and at least some of the workers felt they were in the "custody of the guards."
Soon every inbound train was filled with replacement workers. But groups of armed, striking miners would frequently meet them, and often persuaded the workers not to take the jobs during a strike.
The silver-mine owners responded by hiring Pinkertons
and the Thiel Detective Agency agents
to infiltrate the union and suppress strike activity
. Pinkertons and strong-arm agents went into the district in large numbers.
Soon there was a significant private army available to protect new workers coming into the mines. For a time the struggle manifested as a war of words in the local newspapers, with mine owners and mine workers denouncing each other. There were incidents of brawling, and arrests for carrying weapons. Two mines settled and opened with union men, and these mine operators were ostracized by other mine owners who didn't want the union. But two large mines, the Gem mine and the Frisco mine in Burke-Canyon
, were operating full scale.
In July a union miner was killed by mine guards, and the tension between strikers and strike breakers grew. An undercover Pinkerton agent, soon-to-be well-known lawman Charlie Siringo
, had worked in the Gem mine. Siringo used the alias C. Leon Allison to join the union, ingratiating himself by buying drinks and loaning money to his fellow miners. Siringo had been installed early enough to have been elected Recording Secretary, a key position for a labor spy
, providing him with access to all of the union's books and records.
Siringo promptly began to report all union business to his employers, allowing the mine owners to outmaneuver the miners on a number of occasions. Strikers planned to intercept a train of incoming strike breakers, so the mine owners dropped off the replacement workers in an unexpected location. When the local union president, Oliver Hughes, ordered Siringo to remove a page from the union record book that recorded a conversation about possibly flooding the mines, the agent mailed that page to the Mine Owners' Association
(MOA). Siringo also "told his employer's clients what they wanted to hear," referring to union officials such as George Pettibone
as "dangerous anarchists."
Siringo was suspected as a spy when the MOA's newspaper, the Coeur d'Alene Barbarian, began publishing union secrets. Although the union had advised the miners against violence, their anger at discovering the infiltration prompted them to seek a confrontation with the companies.
On Sunday night, July 10, armed union miners gathered on the hills above the Frisco mine. More union miners were arriving from surrounding communities, and a showdown was inevitable. At five in the morning, shots rang out, and the firing became continuous. The miners claimed the guards fired first, the guards accused the miners. The union miners, exposed on the logged-off hillside, hadn't positioned themselves for a gunfight, while mine guards were able to shelter in buildings. The union men circled above the mill, and got into a position where they could send a box of black powder down the flume
into one of the mine buildings. The building exploded, killing one company man and injuring several others. The union miners fired into a remaining structure where the guards had taken shelter. A second company man was killed, and sixty or so guards surrendered. Union men marched their prisoners to the union hall.
Minutes after the explosion at the Frisco mine, hundreds of miners converged on Siringo's boarding house. But Siringo sawed a hole in the floor, dropped through and covered the hole with a trunk, then crawled for half a block under a wooden boardwalk. Above him, he could hear union men talking about the spy in their midst. Siringo escaped, and fled to the wooded hills above Burke-Canyon
Creek.
Meanwhile, a more deadly fight broke out at the nearby Gem mine. Guards at the mine had thrown up barricades from which they could pour deadly fire into buildings in the town of Gem, including Daxon's saloon, which was a union hangout.
A man crossing a footbridge was killed, probably by union fire. Company guards and non-union workers fired into the saloon where fifty or so union men were sheltering.
Three union men had been killed, and the union sought a ceasefire and surrender of the men in the Gem mine. After company forces evacuated the Gem mine, hundreds of union men converged on the Bunker Hill mine at Wardner
. This mine was also evacuated, meaning that the union miners had closed down three major mining facilities that had been using replacement workers. About 130 non-union miners were disarmed and expelled from the area. While these men waited to board a boat at Coeur d’Alene Lake
, there was another incident of gunfire, and at least seventeen were wounded. More than a hundred of the men decided not to wait for the boat, and they hiked out of the area.
The miners considered the battle over and the union issued a statement deploring "the unfortunate affair at Gem and Frisco." Funerals were Wednesday afternoon, July 13. Three union men and two company men were buried.
The violence provided the mine owners and the governor with an excuse to declare Martial Law, and bring in six companies of the Idaho National Guard
to "suppress insurrection and violence." Federal troops also arrived, and they confined six hundred miners in bullpens without any hearings or formal charges. Some were later "sent up" for violating injunctions, others for obstructing the United States mail.
After the Guard and federal troops secured the area, Siringo came out of the mountains to identify union leaders, and those who had participated in the attacks on the Gem and Frisco mines. He wrote that for days he was busy "putting unruly cattle in the bull pen." Siringo then returned to Denver.
Military rule lasted for four months.
One of the union leaders, George Pettibone
, was convicted of contempt of court and criminal conspiracy. Pettibone was sent to Detroit and held until a decision of the Supreme Court released him. The Court concluded that the prisoners were held illegally. Union members held in jail in Boise, Idaho were also released under the court decision.
(WFM) as a direct result of their experiences in Coeur d'Alene
. The WFM immediately called for outlawing the hiring of labor spies, but their demand was ignored.
The WFM embraced the tradition that their organization was born in the Boise, Idaho, jail. Many years later, WFM Secretary-Treasurer Bill Haywood
stated at a convention of the United Mine Workers of America that the Western Federation of Miners:
Charlie Siringo was not the only agent to have infiltrated the Coeur d'Alene miners' unions. In his book Big Trouble, author J. Anthony Lukas mentions that Thiel
Operative 53 had also infiltrated, and had been the union secretary at Wardner. One of the demands of the WFM's founding Preamble was the prohibition of armed detectives.
Soon after its founding, the WFM was involved in a significant strike in the Cripple Creek
district in Colorado. The miners called it "The Bull Hill War
."
Coeur d'Alene Miners engaged in another confrontation with mine owners in the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899
.
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Coeur d'Alene is the largest city and county seat of Kootenai County, Idaho, United States. It is the principal city of the Coeur d'Alene Metropolitan Statistical Area. Coeur d'Alene has the second largest metropolitan area in the state of Idaho. As of the 2010 census the population of Coeur...
: the labor strike of 1892, and the labor confrontation of 1899
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899
There were two related incidents between miners and mine owners in Coeur d'Alene: the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor strike of 1892, and the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899....
.
The strike of 1892 erupted in violence when labor union miners discovered they had been infiltrated by a Pinkerton
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...
agent who had routinely provided union information to the mine owners. The response to that violence, disastrous for the local miners' union, became the primary motivation for the formation 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...
(WFM) the following year.
The confrontation of 1899 resulted from the miners' frustrations with mine operators that paid lower wages, hired Pinkerton or Thiel
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...
operatives to infiltrate the union, and routinely fired any miner who held a union card.
History
Shoshone County, Idaho area miners organized into several local unions during the 1880s. Mine owners responded by forming a 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...
. In 1891, silver/lead ore worth nine million dollars had been shipped out of the Coeur d'Alene mining district, plus a quarter million dollars worth of gold bullion. Mine owners were making fortunes, but hardrock miners and common laborers were not.
Strike of 1892
Then mine operators got into a dispute with the railroads which had raised rates for hauling ore. Mine operators also introduced hole-boring machines into the mines. The new machines displaced single-jack and double-jack miners, forcing the men into new, lower-paid jobs as trammers or muckers.Mine operators found a reduction in wages the easiest way to mitigate increased costs. After the machines were installed, the mine owners were going to pay the mine workers $3.00 to $3.50 per day, depending upon their specific jobs. The operators also increased miners' work hours from nine to ten hours per day, with no corresponding increase in pay. The work week would be seven days long, with an occasional Sunday off for those who didn't have pumping duty. The miners had other grievances — for example, high payments for room and board in company lodging, and check cashing fees at company saloons.
In 1892, the miners declared a strike against the reduction of wages and the increase in work hours. The miners demanded that a "living wage" of $3.50 per day be paid to every man working underground—the common laborer as well as the skilled. In an era when many unions were AFL
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...
craft unions
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...
, in which skilled workers frequently looked after their own kind, this was an unusual circumstance—approximately three thousand higher-paid miners standing up for five hundred lower-paid, in this case common laborers. This principle of industrial unionism
Industrial unionism
Industrial unionism is a labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union—regardless of skill or trade—thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations...
would animate Western hardrock miners for the next several decades.
When the union miners walked out of the mines, mining company recruiters used deception to entice replacement workers to Coeur d'Alene during the strike. They advertised in Michigan, in some cases touting mining jobs in Montana, mentioning nothing about the strike. Guards were assigned to the trains that transported the men seeking work, and at least some of the workers felt they were in the "custody of the guards."
Soon every inbound train was filled with replacement workers. But groups of armed, striking miners would frequently meet them, and often persuaded the workers not to take the jobs during a strike.
The silver-mine owners responded by hiring Pinkertons
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...
and the Thiel Detective Agency agents
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...
to infiltrate the union and suppress strike activity
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....
. Pinkertons and strong-arm agents went into the district in large numbers.
Soon there was a significant private army available to protect new workers coming into the mines. For a time the struggle manifested as a war of words in the local newspapers, with mine owners and mine workers denouncing each other. There were incidents of brawling, and arrests for carrying weapons. Two mines settled and opened with union men, and these mine operators were ostracized by other mine owners who didn't want the union. But two large mines, the Gem mine and the Frisco mine in Burke-Canyon
Burke-Canyon
Burke-Canyon is the canyon of the Burke-Canyon Creek, in the northernmost part of Shoshone County, Idaho. There are several ghost towns and/or remnants of former communities along the Burke-Canyon Road, which runs through the canyon....
, were operating full scale.
In July a union miner was killed by mine guards, and the tension between strikers and strike breakers grew. An undercover Pinkerton agent, soon-to-be well-known lawman Charlie Siringo
Charlie Siringo
Charles Angelo Siringo , was an American lawman, detective, and agent for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency during the late 19th century and early 20th century.-Early life:...
, had worked in the Gem mine. Siringo used the alias C. Leon Allison to join the union, ingratiating himself by buying drinks and loaning money to his fellow miners. Siringo had been installed early enough to have been elected Recording Secretary, a key position for a labor spy
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....
, providing him with access to all of the union's books and records.
Siringo promptly began to report all union business to his employers, allowing the mine owners to outmaneuver the miners on a number of occasions. Strikers planned to intercept a train of incoming strike breakers, so the mine owners dropped off the replacement workers in an unexpected location. When the local union president, Oliver Hughes, ordered Siringo to remove a page from the union record book that recorded a conversation about possibly flooding the mines, the agent mailed that page to the Mine Owners' Association
Mine 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...
(MOA). Siringo also "told his employer's clients what they wanted to hear," referring to union officials such as George Pettibone
George Pettibone
George Pettibone was an Idaho miner. He was convicted of contempt of court and criminal conspiracy in the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899....
as "dangerous anarchists."
Siringo was suspected as a spy when the MOA's newspaper, the Coeur d'Alene Barbarian, began publishing union secrets. Although the union had advised the miners against violence, their anger at discovering the infiltration prompted them to seek a confrontation with the companies.
On Sunday night, July 10, armed union miners gathered on the hills above the Frisco mine. More union miners were arriving from surrounding communities, and a showdown was inevitable. At five in the morning, shots rang out, and the firing became continuous. The miners claimed the guards fired first, the guards accused the miners. The union miners, exposed on the logged-off hillside, hadn't positioned themselves for a gunfight, while mine guards were able to shelter in buildings. The union men circled above the mill, and got into a position where they could send a box of black powder down the flume
Flume
A flume is an open artificial water channel, in the form of a gravity chute, that leads water from a diversion dam or weir completely aside a natural flow. Often, the flume is an elevated box structure that follows the natural contours of the land. These have been extensively used in hydraulic...
into one of the mine buildings. The building exploded, killing one company man and injuring several others. The union miners fired into a remaining structure where the guards had taken shelter. A second company man was killed, and sixty or so guards surrendered. Union men marched their prisoners to the union hall.
Minutes after the explosion at the Frisco mine, hundreds of miners converged on Siringo's boarding house. But Siringo sawed a hole in the floor, dropped through and covered the hole with a trunk, then crawled for half a block under a wooden boardwalk. Above him, he could hear union men talking about the spy in their midst. Siringo escaped, and fled to the wooded hills above Burke-Canyon
Burke-Canyon
Burke-Canyon is the canyon of the Burke-Canyon Creek, in the northernmost part of Shoshone County, Idaho. There are several ghost towns and/or remnants of former communities along the Burke-Canyon Road, which runs through the canyon....
Creek.
Meanwhile, a more deadly fight broke out at the nearby Gem mine. Guards at the mine had thrown up barricades from which they could pour deadly fire into buildings in the town of Gem, including Daxon's saloon, which was a union hangout.
A man crossing a footbridge was killed, probably by union fire. Company guards and non-union workers fired into the saloon where fifty or so union men were sheltering.
Three union men had been killed, and the union sought a ceasefire and surrender of the men in the Gem mine. After company forces evacuated the Gem mine, hundreds of union men converged on the Bunker Hill mine at Wardner
Wardner, Idaho
Wardner is a city in Shoshone County, Idaho, United States. The population was 188 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Wardner is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all the land....
. This mine was also evacuated, meaning that the union miners had closed down three major mining facilities that had been using replacement workers. About 130 non-union miners were disarmed and expelled from the area. While these men waited to board a boat at Coeur d’Alene Lake
Lake Coeur d'Alene
Lake Coeur d'Alene is a natural lake in the Idaho Panhandle, located in the vicinity of the city of the same name. It spans long, ranges from 1 to wide and has over of shoreline for boaters and vacationers to explore and enjoy.-Geology and geography:...
, there was another incident of gunfire, and at least seventeen were wounded. More than a hundred of the men decided not to wait for the boat, and they hiked out of the area.
The miners considered the battle over and the union issued a statement deploring "the unfortunate affair at Gem and Frisco." Funerals were Wednesday afternoon, July 13. Three union men and two company men were buried.
The violence provided the mine owners and the governor with an excuse to declare Martial Law, and bring in six companies of the Idaho National Guard
Idaho National Guard
The Idaho National Guard consists of the:*Idaho Army National Guard*Idaho Air National Guard-External links:*...
to "suppress insurrection and violence." Federal troops also arrived, and they confined six hundred miners in bullpens without any hearings or formal charges. Some were later "sent up" for violating injunctions, others for obstructing the United States mail.
After the Guard and federal troops secured the area, Siringo came out of the mountains to identify union leaders, and those who had participated in the attacks on the Gem and Frisco mines. He wrote that for days he was busy "putting unruly cattle in the bull pen." Siringo then returned to Denver.
Military rule lasted for four months.
One of the union leaders, George Pettibone
George Pettibone
George Pettibone was an Idaho miner. He was convicted of contempt of court and criminal conspiracy in the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899....
, was convicted of contempt of court and criminal conspiracy. Pettibone was sent to Detroit and held until a decision of the Supreme Court released him. The Court concluded that the prisoners were held illegally. Union members held in jail in Boise, Idaho were also released under the court decision.
Founding of the Western Federation of Miners
On May 15, 1893, in Butte, Montana, the miners formed the Western Federation of MinersWestern 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) as a direct result of their experiences in Coeur d'Alene
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Coeur d'Alene is the largest city and county seat of Kootenai County, Idaho, United States. It is the principal city of the Coeur d'Alene Metropolitan Statistical Area. Coeur d'Alene has the second largest metropolitan area in the state of Idaho. As of the 2010 census the population of Coeur...
. The WFM immediately called for outlawing the hiring of labor spies, but their demand was ignored.
The WFM embraced the tradition that their organization was born in the Boise, Idaho, jail. Many years later, WFM Secretary-Treasurer Bill Haywood
Bill Haywood
William Dudley Haywood , better known as "Big Bill" Haywood, was a founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World , and a member of the Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of America...
stated at a convention of the United Mine Workers of America that the Western Federation of Miners:
...are not ashamed of having been born in jail, because many great things and many good things have emanated from prison cells.
Charlie Siringo was not the only agent to have infiltrated the Coeur d'Alene miners' unions. In his book Big Trouble, author J. Anthony Lukas mentions that Thiel
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...
Operative 53 had also infiltrated, and had been the union secretary at Wardner. One of the demands of the WFM's founding Preamble was the prohibition of armed detectives.
Soon after its founding, the WFM was involved in a significant strike in the Cripple Creek
Cripple Creek, Colorado
The City of Cripple Creek is a Statutory City that is the county seat of Teller County, Colorado, United States. Cripple Creek is a former gold mining camp located southwest of Colorado Springs near the base of Pikes Peak. The Cripple Creek Historic District, which received National Historic...
district in Colorado. The miners called it "The Bull Hill War
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...
."
Coeur d'Alene Miners engaged in another confrontation with mine owners in the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899
There were two related incidents between miners and mine owners in Coeur d'Alene: the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor strike of 1892, and the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899....
.
See also
- Bunker Hill Mine and Smelting ComplexBunker Hill Mine and Smelting ComplexThe Bunker Hill Mine and Smelting Complex , was a large smelter located in Kellogg, Idaho. When built, it was the largest smelting facility in the world....
- Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899There were two related incidents between miners and mine owners in Coeur d'Alene: the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor strike of 1892, and the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899....
- Coeur d'Alene miners' disputeCoeur d'Alene miners' disputeThere were two related incidents between miners and mine owners in the Coeur d'Alene Mining District of North Idaho: the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor strike of 1892, and the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899. This article is a brief overview of both events.The strike of 1892 had its...
(overview of both Coeur d'Alene incidents) - 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:...
, WFM leader - Charlie SiringoCharlie SiringoCharles Angelo Siringo , was an American lawman, detective, and agent for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency during the late 19th century and early 20th century.-Early life:...
, Pinkerton agent, labor spy, and hired gunman - George PettiboneGeorge PettiboneGeorge Pettibone was an Idaho miner. He was convicted of contempt of court and criminal conspiracy in the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899....
, WFM union supporter, later accused and acquitted of conspiracy to murder former Idaho Governor Steunenberg - Labor spiesLabor spiesLabor 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....
- Cripple Creek miners' strike of 1894Cripple Creek miners' strike of 1894The 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...
, the WFM in Colorado - 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....
of 1903-04
Further reading
- New Politics, vol. 7, no. 1 (new series), whole no. 25, Summer 1998 by Steve Early http://www.wpunj.edu/~newpol/issue25/early25.htm
- Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America by J. Anthony LukasJ. Anthony LukasJay Anthony Lukas, aka J. Anthony Lucas , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist and author, probably best known for his 1985 book Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families, a classic study of race relations and school busing in Boston, Massachusetts, as...