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Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 19, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – U. M. W. District 15 Convention Issues Strike Call
-Strike to begin Tuesday September 23rd. Demands put forth.
The Demands of District 15
United Mine Workers of America
The demands agreed upon during the Special Convention which voted to strike on Tuesday, September 16th, are seven in number:
1. Union recognition
2. A wage scale for various types of mine work
3. The eight-hour work day
4. Pay for all narrow work and dead work
(The coal companies have historically expected the men to work without pay when brushing, timbering, removing falls, handling impurities, etc.)
5. A checkweighman at every mine, elected by the miners
6. The right of the miners to shop where they please, board where they please, and to choose their own doctors.
7. Enforcement of the Colorado Mining Laws and:
abolition of the the notorious and criminal guard system which has prevailed in the mining camps of Colorado for many years.
As the convention ended, Vice President Hayes told the cheering delegates that most of the demands were simply a demand for compliance by the coal companies with mining laws which were on the law books of the state of Colorado, and had been for many years.
Hayes continued:
I was never more hopeful for success than I am in this strike. I do not think it will last long. The operators cannot fight an organization of 450,000 men for long. I think we shall realize in Colorado the greatest victory in the history of our organization. I know we cannot lose because our demands are just, and, having made every honorable effort to adjust the differences, the responsibility rest not on us, but on the operators. I hope that when next Tuesday comes every miner will lay down his tools and never take them up again until they take them up as United Mine Workers, recognized by the operators.
[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Conditions in the Coal Mines of Colorado:
Hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Mines and Mining, House of Representatives, Sixty-third Congress, second session, pursuant to H. res. 387, a resolution authorizing and directing the Committee on Mines and Mining to make an investigation of conditions in the coal mines of Colorado
-United States. Congress. House. Committee on Mines and Mining
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1914
Part VI, page 2658
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011159608
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31158007755969&seq=866
Out of the Depths
Barron B. Beshoar
(1st ed 1942)
CO, 1980
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 18, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – U. M. W. District 15 Holds Special Convention
-Mother Jones Speaks; Miners Vote to Strike
https://weneverforget.org/hellraisers-journal-rise-up-and-strike-mother-jones-speaks-at-umw-district-15-special-convention-miners-vote-to-strike/
Tag: Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1913-1914
https://weneverforget.org/tag/colorado-coalfield-strike-of-1913-1914/
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The Union Forever – Colorado Strike Song
(ερμηνεία: μουσικό σχήμα “Ρωμιοσύνη”) / Χαλυβουργία Ελλάδος