Montana labor news., 1934-07-19
LABOR wins MAJORITY OF ENDORSEMENTS
Labor War Looms
In Arizona Mines

LOWELL, Ariz.-(FP)-The old
battle with the anti-union Phelps
Dodge Corp. in its mines at Bisbee
and smelter at Douglas is about to be
resumed, with the strongest unions in
the two cities that have ever been
known.
In 1907 the old Western Federation
OF Miners came out on strike for the
S-hour day. 1t was just a militant lit
tie union-about IS members. The
union lost the strike but gained the g.
hour day, as the bill was Immediately
passed through the state legislature.
Il was a victory for labor, but also a
compromise, with the corporation leg
islature using it to ward off the
growth of organized labor in the state.
In 1917 came one Of the tragedies Of
labor history of the old mining camp
the famous Bisbee deportation on
July II, 1917, OF several hundred union
men and their families. They were
herded in boxcars like cattle by COM
pany gunner and turned loose on the
New Mexico desert.
The Phelps-Do Corp. has again
shown its hatred of unionism, the gov
eminent and the law. Miners have
been discharged for union activities.
The cases were taken before the Los
Angeles Regional Labor Board. The
company management refused concili-
alton or compromises offered by the
board and the cases are still pending.
Bisbee Miners Union No. 80, Inter
national Union OF Mine, Mill & Smell
ter Workers, affiliated with the Amer
lean Federation Of Labor, elected a
collective bargaining committee to ap-
proach J. P. Hodgson, manager of the
mines division. He rejected all pro-
posals of the miners for the setting up
Of machinery for collective bargaining
and recognition, pointing out that they
had an Employees Representation Plan
in the mines. He was so unfair in his
attitude toward the unions attempt to
gain the rights guaranteed under Sec
ton Ia of MIRA in a harmonious
manner, that when the workers re-
port went in, the Los Angeles Regional
Labor Board informed Hodgson that
meeting the committee and rejecting
all proposals was not collective bar
gaining" as intended under the law.
Hodgson was instructed to meet with
the committee again, but the results of
the second meeting were the same as
the first-his answer was mo" to all
proposals.
The day after the meeting a mem
Der of the miners committee was Or
dered to vacate a company house in
which he had lived for years. The
company has been hiring many men in
the past three weeks with the purpose
Of defeating true collective bargaining
and recognition as granted under the
recovery act.
Such treatment has forced the min
ers of this district to organize into the
largest union in the state and the
strongest in the history of copper min
ing in Arizona. The miners have
voted unanimously to have an election
under the supervision of the Regional
Labor Board to determine their proper
representatives for collective bargain
ing.
The same conditions exist at Doug
las, % miles from Bisbee, where the
smelter is located. The smeltermen
report they are 90 per cent organized,
over $50 men belonging to this union.
At Ajo, where the company operates
mines, and owns everything, there is a
company union and a miners union
affiliated with the A. F. of L.
These workers have been brow
beaten, abused in their private lives and
personal privileges, kicked around and
starved by corporation politicians for
the last three years. They realize that
they are up against an enemy that will
shoot to kill. Nevertheless, these
miners, who belong to bona fide
unions, know they have the men to
vote out the company union, and they
are confident Of the governments abil-
ity to see hat the election is carried
out honestly. They are resorting to
peaceful means of gaining their rights,
but at the same time they are deter
mined and will stop at no obstacles to
attain those rights granted to them by
the law of the United States.