Synopsis:
Throughout the 1920s and 30s, the Tri-State Mining District of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri was the world's leading producer of lead and zinc concentrates. Traditionally, the Tri-State had been a nonunion district, but in the early 1930s the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers organized seven locals there. Unable to gain recognition from the mining and milling companies as the exclusive bargaining agent for the district workers, union officials called a strike in May 1935, a strike that completely shut down operations and left thousands of men unemployed in the midst of the Great Depression. In this book Suggs examines the Tri-State metal workers' strike as a microcosm of the many currents of change affecting labor in the watershed years of the thirties. The walkout of the metal workers failed to generate a great deal of national interest, although their strike was as tempestuous as the more publicized walkouts elsewhere. Like the others, it provoked mass demonstrations, a back-to-work movement, military intervention by the national guards of two states, the emergence of a strongly supported company union, subtle and overt intimidation of the striking workers, destruction of property, a bloody shoot-out and brawls, charges of communist leadership, and federal intervention under the prolabor laws of the new Deal. The strike involved thousands of workers and dramatic episodes of violence, but it was largely ignored by the news media because of the physical remoteness of the district and the labor unrest then occurring in more populous industrial centers. Based on extensive research in the records of the National Labor Relations Board, state historical societies, selected manuscript collections, state and federal documents, newspapers, interviews, correspondence, and secondary sources, the author has written a book important for what it tells about labor and management nationwide during the 30s and 40s.
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