Western Federation of Miners and International Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Records on Microfilm, 1903-1955
Collection Number: 5412 mf

Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Cornell University Library


DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

Title:
Western Federation of Miners and International Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Records on Microfilm, 1903-1955
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Collection Number:
5412 mf
Abstract:
Union governance documents (constitutions and collective agreements) and publications, correspondence, tapes of radio broadcasts, reports and other documents regarding the history of the non-ferrous metals industry
Creator:
Western Federation of Miners (WFM)
International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers (Mine Mill)
Quanitities:
1 cubic feet
Language:
Collection material in English

Biographical / Historical

Documents collected by Professor Vernon H. Jensen for his work on the non-ferrous metals industry. The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) and its successor, the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (IUMMSW) were historically considered the radical wing of the non-ferrous metals miners' unions.
Professor Jensen (Ph.D., Univ. of California, 1939) taught labor economics at the University of Colorado between 1937 and 1945 and was a public panel member of the National War Labor Board during World War II. He was appointed to the faculty of the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University in 1946, where he remained for the balance of his academic career. He is an authority on collective bargaining and has written extensively on the history of labor relations on the waterfront and in the non-ferrous metals industry. The documents in this collection were gathered primarily for the latter project.

Biographical / Historical

The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was founded in 1893 by the Butte, Montana Miners' Union (WFM No. 1) and other Western hard rock miners' unions in Utah, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, and South Dakota, in response to two decades of violent opposition by various mining corporations, and the federal, state and local governments.
An independent union until its affiliation with the American Federation of Labor in 1896, the WFM broke away from the A.F. of L. two years later, when it sponsored the Western Labor Union. It formed part of the Industrial Workers of the World from 1905-1907, re-affiliating with the A.F. of L. in 1911, at which time it changed its name to the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (IUMMSW). An early affiliate of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), it was expelled from that organization in 1950. In 1967, the IUMMSW merged with the United Steelworkers of America.

Consist of union governance documents (constitutions and collective agreements) and publications. Also, correspondence, tapes of radio broadcasts, reports and other documents regarding the history of the non-ferrous metals industry; union organizing and strikes; the murder, imprisonment, persecution, and deportation of aliens and striking miners; court trials of William "Big Bill" Haywood and other WFM miners (1903-1907); rivalry between the WFM and the Industrial Workers of the World; the secession of the Ansonia Brass Workers from the IUMMSW (1947-1948); the split between the CIO and the IUMMSW (1947-1952); and the Butte, Montana miners rank and file revolt (1955).
Documents regarding the history of the non-ferrous metals industry in the western United States.
Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference archivist for access to these materials.
Conditions Governing Use

This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and Procedures for Document Use.

INFORMATION FOR USERS

Preferred Citation

Western Federation of Miners and International Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Records on Microfilm #5412 mf. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.

Related Materials

Related Collections: 5412: Western Federation of Miners Parker Trial Proceedings on CD

SUBJECTS

Names:
Haywood, Big Bill, 1869-1928.
Jensen, Vernon H.
Ansonia Brass Workers' Union.
Congress of Industrial Organizations (U.S.)
Industrial Workers of the World.
International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers.
Western Federation of Miners
Subjects:
Foreign workers z United States.
Nonferrous metal industries z United States.
Miners.
Copper miners.

CONTAINER LIST
Container
Description
Date
Reel 1
Record Group C-25: Haywood Transcript
Scope and Contents
reel #1 of 7 -- positive
Reel 2
Record Group C-25: Haywood Transcript
Scope and Contents
reel #2 of 7
Reel 3
Record Group C-25: Haywood Transcript
Scope and Contents
reel #3 of 7 -- positive
Reel 4
Record Group C-25: Parker Trial Proceedings
Scope and Contents
reel #4 of 7 (2 copies) -- positive
Reel 5
Record Group C-25: Governor's Report on the Cripple Creek Strike
Scope and Contents
reel #5 of 7 -- positive
Reel 6
Record Group C-25: Pinkerton Reports on the WFM
Scope and Contents
reel #6 of 7 -- positive
Reel 7
Record Group C-25: Factional Dispute Within Local 445, IUMMSW
Scope and Contents
reel #7 of 7 (2 copies) -- negative
Reel 8
Factional Dispute within Local 445, IUMMSW
Reel 9
Parker Trial Proceedings (copy 2 of reel #4): 16 mm