Last miners union in 'Salt of the Earth' area ends

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Last miners union in 'Salt of the Earth' area ends
The Associated Press
September 23, 2014 Updated 13 minutes ago

SILVER CITY, N.M. — Miners in a southwestern New Mexico county once famous for its labor activism have voted against participating in the union.

The United Steelworkers Union members at Chino Mine in Hurley, New Mexico, recently voted 236 to 83 against participating in the union in a decertification election, the Silver City Sun-News reports (http://goo.gl/L7ktPx).

Grant County, where the 1954 "Salt of the Earth" movie based on an actual strike against the Empire Zinc Mine was filmed, now won't have union representation at any mine within the county.

The decertification vote was brought about by one man who began a successful petition to end the union.

~snip~
"Salt of the Earth" was blacklisted in the U.S. during Cold War retribution against communist filmmakers and gained an underground following more than a decade later when it was finally shown. In the film, Mexican-American miners barred by federal law from striking against a zinc company were replaced on the picket lines by their wives.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/09/23/3390579_last-miners-union-in-salt-of-the.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

[malthaussen]

1. Damn, they killed Joe Hill at last?

-- Mal

[Judi Lynn]

10. Hope it's just a rumor. Joe Hill must come back. Thanks for that wonderful video.

You might find this info. interesting, by the way, if you haven't seen it already:

Examining a Labor Hero’s Death

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

Published: August 26, 2011

At Woodstock, Joan Baez sang a famous folk ballad celebrating Joe Hill, the itinerant miner, songwriter and union activist who was executed by a Utah firing squad in 1915. “I never died, said he” is the song’s refrain.

Hill’s status as a labor icon and the debate about his conviction certainly never died. And now a new biography makes the strongest case yet that Hill was wrongfully convicted of murdering a local grocer, the charge that led to his execution at age 36.

The book’s author, William M. Adler, argues that Hill was a victim of authorities and a jury eager to deal a blow to his radical labor union, as well as his own desire to protect the identity of his sweetheart.

A Salt Lake City jury convicted Hill largely because of one piece of circumstantial evidence: he had suffered a gunshot wound to the chest on the same night — Jan. 10, 1914 — that the grocer and his son were killed. At the trial, prosecutors argued that he had been shot by the grocer’s son, and Hill refused to offer any alternative explanation.

Mr. Adler uncovered a long-forgotten letter from Hill’s sweetheart that said that he had been shot by a rival for her affections, undermining the prosecution’s key assertion. The book, “The Man Who Never Died,” also offers extensive evidence suggesting that an early suspect in the case, a violent career criminal, was the murderer.

Hill, who bounced around the West as a miner, longshoreman and union organizer, was the leading songwriter for the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies, a prominent union that was widely feared and deplored for its militant tactics. He penned dozens of songs that excoriated bosses and capitalism and wrote the well-known lyric “You’ll get pie in the sky when you die.”

His conviction was so controversial that President Woodrow Wilson twice wrote to Utah’s governor to urge him to spare Hill’s life, and unions as far away as Australia protested on his behalf.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/us/27hill.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[malthaussen]

20. I did a history paper on the Wobblies in the 9th grade.

They still taught labor history then. I didn't know about Adler's book, I'll have to check it out.

-- Mal

[hobbit709]

2. The working class has been brainwashed into voting against their own interests.

[adirondacker]

3. Salt of the Earth is available on youtub in it's entirety...

"the system is working"

[FailureToCommunicate]

11. Really worth watching! Because of the Hollywood witch hunt by Joe McCarthy, the black-listed

directors used many non-actors. The performances are pretty amazing. The film is as much about women's rights as the miners...

Juan Chacon and Rosaura Revueltas!

[Judi Lynn]

16. The non-actors were great! The film was history, itself. n/t

[adirondacker]

18. +1000. Woman's rights, Race discrimination and Economic equality

It's an absolutely perfect movie for our present times.

[adirondacker]

21. I watched it last night and thought to myself... Holy Shit!

60 years ahead of their time! It was Great acting and Awesome directing and production. I loved it when they gave up the radio.

Pretty sad on how far we haven't come though.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Very interesting history behind that film. Thank you, so much. n/t

[adirondacker]

19. Thank you for posting this OP.

I would have never found and watched the movie if it hadn't been posted. As I mentioned up thread, this is a movie that fits so well into our present time.

Solidarity!

[mountain grammy]

4. Well, I'm sure management will be grateful and treat everyone well................ NOT!

The union shop where I was a steward voted out the union 5 years after I left. They've had their pay frozen twice and their vacation benefits we bargained so hard for rolled back. The idiots still think they're better off. Some people just don't deserve a union.

[aggiesal]

5. Their pay will be cut to ...

$0.77 per dollar, and the company that runs the Chino Mine will now claim
[Font color=Red]Pay Equality[/font], since the men will not make the same as the women.

Do I need to put the emoticon?

[shaayecanaan]

6. here

Santa Maria said the mine workers voted overwhelmingly against the union, because "greed got to them." He claims mine workers receive a bonus at the Tyrone Mine which workers at Chino Mine did not because they were unionized. Freeport McMoRan did not confirm or deny this statement by press time.

http://www.scsun-news.com/silver_city-news/ci_26584947

[amandabeech]

7. Now it is likely that workers in neither mine will receive a bonus.

The bonus was probably paid to keep workers satisfied sufficiently that they wouldn't bring in a union.

Now, without union competition, the mine owner and others in the area will just push down wages, benefits and working conditions.

[salib]

9. Perhaps the workers believe that they are getting the most they an this way

And can always vote for a union (presumably a more effective on, or so they think) later.

It would not be the first time.

[Judi Lynn]

14. Good to see this photo in your link:

[center][/center]
Thank you.

What a shame the parasites at the top won this time.

I'm convinced the real workers are going to win, in time.

[BarbaRosa]

8. I was once a union copper miner in Grant Co.

I worked with some of Juan Chacon's relatives back in the '70's-'80's. Not at Chino, but a smaller copper mine in the area.

I was in the Operating Engineers Union, drove a haulage truck and operated some heavy machinery until I "froze" myself on the haulage trucks.


Euclid 50 ton

[shaayecanaan]

12. Why do you think that they've decertified the union? nt

[BarbaRosa]

17. I have no idea,

it's been a long time since I have anything to do with the mines or the unions and I haven't kept up.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Amazing machine! Thank you for sharing the photo. n/t

[Octafish]

22. Shame what greed does.

How many millions of lives have unions improved?

How many millions have died in the various unending wars on "Godless" communism to protect the property owners?