Organized Labor

Between 1880 and 1920, large-scale development of copper mining and smelting in Butte and Anaconda spurred the growth of railroads and industrialization and attracted thousands of workers from across the country and around the world. As the area assumed world leadership in copper production in 1887, trade and labor organizations, particularly those comprised of miners and smeltermen, came to the forefront. Most labor unions in Anaconda were formed between 1890 and 1900, and many were affiliated with national groups. By 1920, Anaconda had 30 trade union and labor organizations, including groups representing labor councils, mill and smelter workers, printers, barbers, blacksmiths, bricklayers, cigarmakers, brewery workers, iron molders, machinists, musicians, and shoemakers. Although the copper industry boomed and profits rose in the years leading up to World War I, wages increased only from an average of $3.00 per day in 1900 to $3.85 per day in 1915, while dissatisfaction with working conditions also grew. The 1917 Granite Mountain/Speculator Mine fire, in which 164 men were lost, incited labor unrest in Butte and Anaconda. Within days, a general strike demanded a $5.00 per day wage and better working conditions, and federal troops were garrisoned in both communities to head off violence. The strike ended six months later with adoption of a sliding wage scale based on the price of copper, but a second strike two years later gave the upper hand to management. With the copper market depressed and the Company expanding its foreign holdings and reducing its dependence on Butte ore, the smelter shut down for a time in 1920, and when it reopened in 1921, wages had decreased. This recurring pattern of gains and losses became familiar to smeltermen and their families, yet the labor movement and union solidarity remained firmly woven into the fabric of Anaconda.

Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, Montana · United States