page_title: Colorado Labor Wars
section_title: First Colorado City mill workers strike, March and April 1903
hierarchical_section_title: Colorado Labor Wars / First Colorado City mill workers strike, March and April 1903
caption_attribution_description: English: photograph, photo caption: THE "LAST DOLLAR" AND OTHER MINES, INDEPENDENCE, COLORADO
context_page_description: The Colorado labor wars were a series of labor strikes in 1903 and 1904 in the US state of Colorado, by gold and silver miners and mill workers represented by the Western Federation of Miners. Opposing the WFM were associations of mine owners and businessmen at each location, supported by the Colorado state government. The strikes were notable and controversial for the accompanying violence, and the imposition of martial law by the Colorado National Guard in order to put down the strikes.
  A nearly simultaneous strike in Colorado's northern and southern coal fields was also met with a military response by the Colorado National Guard.
  Colorado's most significant battles between labor and capital occurred between miners and mine operators. In these battles the state government, with one exception, sided with the mine operators. Additional participants have included the National Guard, often informally called the militia; private contractors such as the Pinkertons, Baldwin–Felts, and Thiel detective agencies; and various labor entities, Mine Owners' Associations, and vigilante groups and business-dominated groups such as the Citizens' Alliance.
context_section_description: In August 1902, the WFM organized the mill workers of Colorado City, who refined the ore brought down from the Cripple Creek District. The mill operators hired Pinkerton detective A.H. Crane to infiltrate and spy upon the local union. Crane became "rather influential" in the union, and forty-two union men were fired. It was "practically admitted" that the dismissals were simply for joining the union.p.73 Charles MacNeill, vice-president and general manager of the United States Reduction and Refining Company (USRRC), refused to negotiate with the union,p.200 declining even to accept a document with the union's list of demands. The demands were the rehiring of the union workers, the right to organize, and a wage increase.p.47 Thwarted in their efforts to negotiate, the mill workers went on strike on February 14 to protest the dismissals. When other mills also declined to accept the union's terms, they were struck as well.
  There was close cooperation between the mill operators and El Paso County law enforcement. General Manager MacNeill received an appointment as deputy sheriff, and for a time the USRRC paid the salaries of additional deputies protecting its properties. Limited production continued with non-union workers,p.47 and strike-breakers were hired with the understanding that their jobs were permanent. Tensions mounted on the picket line, and the sheriff appointed more than seventy men for strike duty. But MacNeill was demanding 250 guards for the USRRC properties alone. 
  W.R. Gilbert, sheriff of El Paso County, requested troops from the governor, writing: "It has been brought to my attention that men have been severely beaten, and there is grave danger of destruction of property. I accordingly notify you of the existence of a mob,  and armed bodies of men are patrolling the territory, from which there is a danger of commission of felony."p.91
  Historian Benjamin Rastall declared that there was "No apparent necessity for the presence of troops... Colorado City was quiet... No destruction of property had occurred, and 65 deputies would seem an ample number."p.76 Gilbert later testified that the troops were necessary not to suppress existing violence, but to prevent it. The investigation revealed enormous pressure on the sheriff from the refining companiesp.48 to secure state troops.
caption: The "Last Dollar" and other mines, Independence, Colorado, c. 1904.
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