The Copper Country strike of 1913–1914 was a major strike affecting all copper mines in the Copper Country of Michigan. The strike, organized by the Western Federation of Miners, was the first unionized strike within the Copper Country. 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. While unsuccessful, the strike is considered a turning point in the history of the Copper Country.
Background
The Keweenaw Peninsula is the site of many rich native copper deposits. This copper was originally mined by native miners, and many French and British explorers noted the richness of the deposits in the area. Douglass Houghton explored the area in 1831 and 1832, and surveyed the peninsula in 1840 as Michigan State Geologist. Houghton's report of 1841 spent more than twenty-seven pages discussing the copper and copper ore. 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." He noted that samples of ore he had tested were richer than the copper ore being then mined in Cornwall. Houghton's report prompted a major rush of settlers to the peninsula.
While most of the early mines failed, a few became successful, and eventually several major mines became established. The Copper Country quickly became the first major copper mining region in the United States. By 1913, the majority of copper in the Copper Country was produced by three companies: the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, by far the largest and richest mine in the Copper Country, as well as the Quincy Mine and the mines owned by the Copper Range Company.
Most early successful mines were operated by Cornish miners. At the time, many mines in Cornwall were failing, and Cornish miners began to travel to newer mining regions around the world. Cornish miners brought with them a system of mine operations based on contracts. In this system, miners formed working groups (usually consisting of family members) which then contracted with mine operators to perform specific mining activities. Typically, miners were paid by the cubic fathom of mine rock extracted, at rates designated in their contracts.
Because of the Cornish influence in the Copper Country mines, the contract system was also used in the Copper Country. However, contracts were only used with miners, who identified and blasted out copper-bearing rock. 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.
Major issues
Several major issues contributed to the strike of 1913–1914. One of the major complaints was the paternalism of the mines. The Copper Country copper mines operated a heavily paternalistic system, in which the mines watched closely over workers' lives both in and out of the mines. Historically, this developed for several reasons. Early mines in the distant Keweenaw wilderness had no nearby towns to supply their needs, and so the mines provided all services themselves. Most mines provided housing and schooling for miners and their families, as well as doctors, hospitalization, and even the construction of roads. Houses were assigned with preference to miners and other skilled laborers (as opposed to trammers), and to men with families (as opposed to single men). Additionally, most houses were given to certain favored ethnic groups, especially non-immigrants and Cornishmen. In exchange, miners were expected to act as the mines desired. Miners who fought, drank excessively, or were otherwise found to act improperly could be fired by the mines at any time.
Another major complaint was the one-man drill. In a system of hard-rock mining inherited from Cornish mines, miners drilled blast holes in a three-man team. One man held a steel drill, while two other men took turns hitting the steel with sledgehammers. Mines began to look for improvements to this system as early as the 1870s. The first improvement came with the "two man drill", which was a mechanical drill operated by compressed air. This drill was much more efficient than the three-man system, but still required two men to set up and operate. In addition, some mines allowed three men to work on the drill. As a result, the changeover from the three-man system to the two-man drill was relatively smooth.
