Copper Country Strike of 1913 was a labor union strike (work stoppage) by copper miners in Michigan from July 1913 to April 1914. The strike took place in Michigan’s “Copper Country,” an area in the state’s Upper Peninsula once known for copper mining. (Michigan, a state in the Midwestern United States, has two separate land areas, called the Upper Peninsula and the Lower Peninsula.) The strike failed to achieve its modest goals and is remembered mainly for a controversial Christmas -time disaster in which 74 people died.
The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) trade union was formed in 1893 to help improve miners’ pay, working conditions, and working hours. In an effort to achieve these goals, the WFM organized strikes and bargained with mining companies. In some areas, miners began to gain some improvements. The strikes and labor negotiations often proved heated, however, leading to a number of violent incidents. By 1913, many Michigan copper miners had joined the WFM. Workers demanded that mine owners recognize the union and establish formal systems for hearing workers’ grievances. The workers demanded an 8-hour workday and a $3 minimum daily wage for all underground mine workers. They also wanted an end to the use of the “one-man drill,” a dangerous but labor-saving tool. Copper Country companies refused the demands, and the WFM called a general strike on July 23.
The strike closed the mines, and union workers blocked the entrances to try to stop nonunion miners from replacing them. Copper mine owners enlisted the state’s National Guard to protect the nonunion replacement workers, and the mines resumed limited production. Many striking workers, unable to support themselves, abandoned the strike and moved elsewhere to look for work. Most, however, continued the strike, which suffered from violent incidents and a few deaths.
On Dec. 24, 1913, the WFM organized a Christmas banquet at the Italian Hall in Calumet, Michigan. Hundreds of people from the miners’ families attended the banquet. During the party, someone shouted, “Fire!” People panicked and trampled each other trying to escape from the hall. Seventy-four people died as a result of the panic, most of them children, but there was no fire. It was never proven who started the panic, but many suspected it was someone from an antiunion group organized by the mine owners.
In 1914, few WFM workers wanted to continue the strike. On April 12, the members voted to end it, having achieved only an 8-hour workday and a slightly improved grievance system. Some workers turned in their union cards and returned to the copper mines, but many left Copper Country for opportunities elsewhere. The WFM also left Copper Country, and in 1916, it was renamed the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers (IUMMSW). The IUMMSW reorganized Upper Peninsula copper miners in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. By the 1960’s, however, after decades of decline, most of Michigan’s copper mines had closed. The last Copper Country mine shut down in 1995.
