Denver labor bulletin., 1916-01-29
COPPER STRIKE
ENDS IN ARIZONA
WITH HIGHER PAY
Settlement Reached Monday
by Labor Representatives
No Recognition Of Union Granted in
Specific Terms: All Nom Union Miners
HaveLeft District: President Meyer
Says It Is Victory for Strikers

Not recognizing the union in written
terms, but granting wage demands of
5000 strikers in the Clifton Morenei-
Metcalf district, the Arizona copper
strike ended Monday afternoon and the
men will probably all be at work next
Monday. First information to this ef-
feet reached Western Federation of
Miners headquarters in Denver thru As
sociated Press dispatches and was later
confirmed in kilograms to President
Charles H Meyer.
An agreement between the strikers
and mine operators was brought about
BY Commissioners Davies and Myers of
the United States Department of Labor,
who conferred with both the coal oper-
ators and committees OF the striking
miners.
New Scale of Wages.
Under the terms of settlement, the
companies involved will introduce slid
ing scale of pay, under which the miners
viii receive, at the present price OF cop
per, SAL per day.
Carpenters will be paid So per day.
machinists and boilermakers $5.3I and
laborers $3.50.
A grievance committee will meet the
mine managers each month to discuss
and adjust grievances.
There was no question of a shorter
day. The Arizona law provides that
men shall not work underground more
than eight hours a day.
: The proposition of the managers ex-
tended the sliding wage scale to in
clude copper at "a cents per pound Prior
to the strike, the scale stopped increas-
ing after copper reached 20 cents
No Violence or Bloodshed.
The strike had many moved features
There was no violence and the strikers.
while out. served guards for millions
OF dollars in property of the men they
were fighting. For the first time, prob
ably, IN history, mining camp wage
war ended without bloodshed Not only
that, but the employers voluntarily made
overtures which the men accepted. altho
the terms did not include union recoy-
nition-
State militia. in varying numbers were
on duty for almost the entire period of
the strike and in this particular also
the strike violated precedents. The state
soldiers We're received with open arms
by the strikers and served strictly as
peace officers and not as strikebreakers.
quite in contrast with recent strikes in
Colorado, Michigan and West Virginia.
Non-union Men Left District.
Many times n-union men were beat
en-. but the strikers declared they acted
only after great provocation. Many men
who refused to join the unions formed
in each OF the three camps were invited
to leave and they entered a refugee camp
~ hfrta.as, -. w..
The windows of the Arizona Copper
Company's general offices were broken.
but these Were only breaches OF order.
Soon after the strike began. ]. w
Bennie. Norman Carmichael and NJ H.
MeLain, managers of the operating com
panies, boarded a locomotive and left
for El Paso. to which city the strikers
sent several delegations to treat for
peace, without result
Strike Not Officially Authorized.
In speaking to The Bulletin of the
President Meyer of the West
ern Federation of Labor, said:
The strike was never officially au-
thorized by the Western Federation, tho
after IT was on we extended such moral
and financial support to the men as pos
sible. l personally visited the district
and endeavored to bring about settle
ment, but the operators remained in FL
Paso and refused to confer with me or
a committee of the strikers. Thru the
agreements reached the copper miners
have gained a substantial advance in
wages. Before the strike the minimum
for lahorers about the mines was Sl.62
per day. while it will now be 81 so.
Other conditions will be materially i'm
proved as a result OF the strike"