Hellraisers Journal: Miners of Michigan Copper Country Request Meeting with Operators to Discuss Working Conditions

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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday July 16, 1913
Hancock, Michigan – Organized Copper Miners Request Meeting with Operators

From The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of July 8, 1913:

Letter from Copper District Union (W. F. of M.) to C. & H. Mines,
James MacNaughton, Manager:

Copper District Union
Western Federation of Miners
Box 217, Hancock Mich., July 14, 1913

To the Calumet & Hecla, Tamarack, Ahmeek, Allouez, Centennial, Superior, Laurium, Isle Royale, and all other mining companies connected with and under the management of Calumet & Hecla; James MacNaughton, manager.

GENTLEMEN: Your employees, organized into various unions of the Western Federation of Miners, have decided by referendum vote to ask that you meet their representatives in conference on some day during this month for the purpose of discussing the possibilities of shortening the working day, raising wages, and making some changes in the working conditions.

The men working in your mines are dissatisfied with the wages, hours, and other conditions of employment. Realizing that as individuals they would not have sufficient strength to correct these evils or to lessen the burden placed upon them, they have organized into the local unions of the Western Federation of Miners, and through the local unions they have formed one compact body of the whole copper district, with an understanding and hope that from now on they may be enabled to sell their labor collectively with greater advantages for themselves as well as their employers.

While the men have decided that they must have greater remuneration for their services and that the working day must be shortened, it is not their or our desire that we should have a strike, with all the sufferings that it is bound to bring to them, to the employers, and to the general public. On the other hand, we earnestly hope that the questions that have arisen between us would be settled amicably, with fairness and justice to both sides. Should you have the same feeling, we believe that the friendly relations that have existed between you and your employees in the past will continue in the future.

However, should you follow the example given by some of the most stupid and unfair mine owners in the past, the men have instructed us by the same referendum vote to call as strike in all the mines owned and controlled by your company.

We deem it unnecessary to set forth the facts and reasons for the demand for higher wages, shorter hours, and other things, in this letter, as we intend to do that in the conference – should you be fair enough to meet us.

We hope you realize that labor has just as much right to organize as capital, and that at this age these two forces, labor and capital, while their interests are not identical, must get together and solve the problems that confront them.

We expect to have your answer not later than on the 21st of this month. If you agree to meet us our representatives will be ready for a conference on any day and at any place you may choose; provided you do not set the date any later than the 28th of this month. Your failure to answer this will be taken as proof that you are not willing to meet us and to have the matters settled peacefully.

Hoping to hear from you soon, we remain,

Respectfully, yours.

Dan Sullivan,
President Copper District Union
of the Western Federation of Miners
C.E. Hietala,
Secretary Copper District Union
of the Western Federation of Miners

[Emphasis added.]

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SOURCES & IMAGES

Wealth to Producer, WFM Motto, Miners Mag Jan 1, 1914
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112043506416&view=2up&seq=523

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle
(Brooklyn, New York, New York)
-July 8, 1913
https://www.newspapers.com/image/685746342/

July 14, 1913-Letter from WFM Copper District Union to Operators
https://www.hu.mtu.edu/vup/Strike/letter.html

See also:

Strike in the Copper Mining District of Michigan.
-Letter from the U. S. Secretary of Labor, William B. Wilson, transmitting in response to a Senate resolution of January 29, 1914, a report in regard to the strike of mine workers in the Michigan copper district which began on July 23, 1913
by
United States. Dept. of Labor; United States. Bureau of Labor 
https://archive.org/details/strikeincoppermi00unit/mode/2up

Referred to the Committee on Education and Labor and ordered printed January 30, 1914
W. B. Wilson, Secretary of Labor
Running title : Michigan Copper District Strike

Report of the Commissioner of Labor Statistics in regard to the strike, prepared by Walter B. Palmer, with appendixes: I. Agreement between Western Federation of Miners and Butte & Superior Copper Co. II. Organization and properties of the Calumet & Hecla Mining Co. and subsidiary companies. III. Capital paid in dividends, and cost of production of Lake Superior mines.

Reports of John B. Densmore, solicitor of the Dept. of labor, and of John A. Moffitt, immigrant inspector, detailed as commissioners of conciliation on efforts to secure a settlement of the strike

There Is Power in a Union · Street Dogs

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle(Brooklyn, New York, New York)-July 8, 1913https://www.newspapers.com/image/685746342/