The copper era and Morenci leader., 1917-10-19
INCREASED WAGES AND DECREASED
 EFFICIENCY

As an interesting instructive com mentary upon the effect of greatly increased wages on the manuel eff ciency of a certain class of mine-la- bor the accompanying diagram speaks for itself, says Walter Douglas in the Mining and Scientific Press under date of September Sth.
 In the summer of the year 1915, i at which time a sliding scale of wages was put into effect by the manage 1 ment Of the Detroit Copper Co.,, the | average. pay of wageearners in the mine department was approximately $2 30 per day, which average sinclud- | ed a large force of surface laborers whose s2 rate served to offset the considerably higher pay earned by the miner and other underground labor At this time the number of tens mined per man, exclusive of those engaged on development work, was 26 For the first six months of the year 1917, with an increase of wages that brought the average daily
 earning to s4 10, the number of tons of ore mined per man dropped to 2.1S
 in other words, the cost for labor to
 mine a ton of ore in the early part
 of 1915 was 90 cents, while for the first six months of 1917 it increased
 to $1 90 The miner who earned
 36 1-2 cents per hour, based on .15c
 copper, during the former period earned 56 1-2c. per hour in the latter
 period on 2sc copper.
 The labor employed in the mine department of the Detroit Copper Go.
 since the initiation of the company's operations in 1880, has been, and is now, largely Mexican, with a substan-
 tial proportion of Spaniards and
 few Italians.
 In September of 1915 the Western Federation of Miners sent organizers
 into the district; these, largely ow- Ing to the strained relations existing
 between the United States and Mexi-
 co at the time, were successful in
 inducing all the Spaniards and a mum Der of MeXicans to join their. organi-
 zation. They then demanded recog
 milton of the union, which being re-
 fused. a strike was called. It is un-
 necessary here to recite the history
 0i this strike, which. though incen
 diary speeches by the then Governor
 Of the State. assumed the aspect of a
 revolution, in which all workers who
 would not join the Federation were
 deported from the district. No at
 tempt was made by the operators
 to introduce outside labor, and in
 February, 1916, through the efforts of
 Federal mediators, Messrs. Myers and Davies,, the union surrendered it's charter, work being resumed un- der the same conditions as existed before the strike was called.
 At the suggestion of the mediators, the operators consented to the elec-I k,,y lr committees to discuss with the man. agement matters relating to wages, conditions of labor, etc. Unfortuna- tely for the future peace of the dis trict, the men elected to these con- mittees were of the most radical type Prompted by J. l.. Donnelly and oth- CT officials, of the Arizona Federation of Labor, they assumed the right to dictate to the operators not only who
 should or who would not be discharg- ed, but who should be employed or promoted. Whenever the manage ment declined to accede to these de-
 mands a strike was called either in one department at a time, or all the employees of the companies were
 called out simultaneously Nine O.
 these strikes have occurred in the r.
 months since operations were resum ed. These methods not having been entirely successful, in the opinion of the Federation, in obtaining all their demands. a system of sabotage was
 introduced underground. This ap- parenciy appealed strongly to the
 class of labor employed, and was et- fective in reducing the ton-man eff l ciency. As an example: In May, laet the management having decided to concentrate it's tool-sharpening op- eraticns, thereby being enabled to dispense with six or eight Mexican blacksIniths, the grievance commit tee protested, and not being able to convince the management of the validity of their contentious therewas introduced system whereby thous- apds of feet of steel was buried in the stope-fliing and the company not only put to great expense, but its op- erations necessarily hindered until an additional supply could be obtain ed. Discipline underground became impossible and insubordination was rife.
 In June last the employees Of all the eoInpanies operating in the dis, trict, through the instigation of the Ari8oba Federation of Labor, and with it's endorsement, demanded the so-ealled Miami wage scale. Dec1in- ing to await the arrival of MT. My CTS, the Federal mediator, they called Ia strike tbat has suspended all op- eratjons ir the district for the past five weeks.
 It is an interesting fact that while the operators in the so-called Morenci Tetca-f-Clifton district do not recog- nize the uniOp-the grievance com
 mittees consisting exclusively Of en-
 pioyees of the mining companies-yet this district is the most completely unionjzed in the State of Arizona. The s'instructions to the : grievance committee are issued by he union and the strLite was called by 1t. When 1t is understood that the ton nAge Of nra nFoduced per man in the