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Copper Crucible: How the Arizona Miners' Strike of 1983 Recast Labor-Management Relations in America
An unusual insight to a defining labor-management dispute.
256 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 9, 2009
My wife's father was involved in this stike. Angel Rodriquez was heroic but the union's analysis was outdated and the consequences were horrific for the families. The company had tried to break the union for more than 20 years and they finally accomplished it
September 7, 2026
Everyone should read this book. Okay, I have no real education in unions and have not read anything serious about the 1980s so there could be a better book out there but from where I sit right now this book should be required reading for basic social studies.
What I have read provided some good background. First Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class and then Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983. The 10 year edition of that book by Barbara Kingsolver and this book each reference each other. You can find more about mining history specifically on my “mining” bookshelf. I in particular recommend Santa Rita del Cobre: A Copper Mining Community in New Mexico about the mine now known as the Chino Mine and featured in the strike movie Salt of the Earth.
Absolutely everything about American history flows through the 1983 miners’ strike. When Governor Babbett sends in the National Guard, he cites the history of the Whiskey Rebellion put down by George Washington. Meanwhile, as Reagan putting down air traffic controllers strike is in the foreground, in the background Babbett and Clinton are part of a group developing the concept of neoliberalism to stab workers in the back.
Mining can seem so remote. But every famous name you know from New York has been involved in mining. The richest and most powerful people in the world directly exploit the mines of the southwest. Much like how Jane Austin exposed upper class England’s ties to slavery, mining is also the reason it is rude to talk about money.
The exploitation must be held onto at all costs. Everyone in the world--government, business people, academics, the general public, the military—was turned against this tiny town. For what?
At the end of the day it served no purpose. The European gentry lost the colonies. The New York masters of the universe lost the mine ownership to foreign conglomerates. The strike cost them $92,000 per striker in stock price losses. They sold out their fellow-citizens (and even slaves were, properly, fellow-citizens) for nothing.
As the strike was ongoing, major universities and their scholars were developing a strikebreaking “bible” and developing the economic “scissors” theory that because of a feed-back cycle mines could never pay COLA (1). The theory was that as copper prices went down COLA went up, indefinitely. First of all, how does this story end? Is the idea that only slavery can be used to staff a mine? Secondly, so what. If a business can’t pay its workers then it shouldn’t be a business. But also it turns out that they were straight up lying – in the years in question COLA was around 5% but the mine workers were making efficiency increases of over 12% per year.
The strike represented a rough crossroads that rural strike leaders were not ready to face – the tough guy line up at the mine gates was passe. The new labor methods had to go directly to the heart of the corporation – their financial backers and political protectors. According to the book, the union leaders made the turn, but too late.
Later, the company has been able to keep the union gone (and after the time period covered in this book, get the famous “Salt of the Earth” union decertified) though what they call shifting from town feudalism to “worker freedom” including switching from pension to 401(k). As the union leaders interviewed note, that is all well and good for when times are good but how is that going to go when times aren’t so good.
This has led me, it should be again noted that I am a person with no actual knowledge or training in union or labor matters, to a few thoughts:
-Democracy has never been tried. If we lived in a democracy, it would be a no brainer for the Governor of Arizona to take the side of his voters over the side of a corporation from New York. Even the “neutrality” he claimed he was attempting would have been the wrong move.
-Unions and democracy are tightly linked. The Mexican-American majority town of Clifton, the center of the Morenci union, had zero Mexican-Americans on the town council until a union was formed. Then there were three. After the union is broken, the book ends with an unhinged company lead “vote” on 12 hour shifts that is a a mockery of democracy. That’s mockery is what we live in now.
-The regulatory state such as OSHA and the EPA are pro-worker not just because their task is to directly to protect workers but because they are inherently democratic; they put workers in the drivers seat in any conflict.
-The opponent is not other workers. (The book ends with an excellent five pages on “solidarity” and the author may think of this topic differently from me, I’m not sure.) The focus on the scab and the picket line crosser represent something about good and right behavior of fellow citizens, but it is misplaced as a primary focus of activism. The opponent is always always always the corporation.
(1) COLA – cost of living allowance, generally annual pay increases to keep up with inflation.
My Visit to the Morenci Mine
The day before writing this review I was able to visit Clifton and Morenci. I drove 1/2 an hour across the mine, losing all sense of reality as if I had entered an unknown land of the dinosaurs that passed by me, to the Morenci Mine Overlook.
Clifton probably doesn't look very much different from how it did in 1983. The old town is still there, beneath a flood gate that can be closed across the highway in hopes to protect the town from future floods. The gate has been closed once, in 2020, but the flooding did not reach the gate so it is as yet untested. The buildings are shabby. The "European-style hotel" gleams with fresh white but is empty. The mine has their own hotel for corporate visitors, complete with a Starbucks. I didn't see it, but that feels like as alien of a scene here as the mine itself.
While there I learned that a month earlier, on 06 July 2026, Charles Ray McCargish, Jr., aged 69 and a 19-year Morenci mine worker, died when his haul truck collided with another haul truck. At this time the full accident report is still outstanding. Morenci has in general had a good safety record in recent years, one of the reasons younger workers cite for their lack of interest in forming in a new union.
What I have read provided some good background. First Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class and then Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983. The 10 year edition of that book by Barbara Kingsolver and this book each reference each other. You can find more about mining history specifically on my “mining” bookshelf. I in particular recommend Santa Rita del Cobre: A Copper Mining Community in New Mexico about the mine now known as the Chino Mine and featured in the strike movie Salt of the Earth.
Absolutely everything about American history flows through the 1983 miners’ strike. When Governor Babbett sends in the National Guard, he cites the history of the Whiskey Rebellion put down by George Washington. Meanwhile, as Reagan putting down air traffic controllers strike is in the foreground, in the background Babbett and Clinton are part of a group developing the concept of neoliberalism to stab workers in the back.
Mining can seem so remote. But every famous name you know from New York has been involved in mining. The richest and most powerful people in the world directly exploit the mines of the southwest. Much like how Jane Austin exposed upper class England’s ties to slavery, mining is also the reason it is rude to talk about money.
The exploitation must be held onto at all costs. Everyone in the world--government, business people, academics, the general public, the military—was turned against this tiny town. For what?
At the end of the day it served no purpose. The European gentry lost the colonies. The New York masters of the universe lost the mine ownership to foreign conglomerates. The strike cost them $92,000 per striker in stock price losses. They sold out their fellow-citizens (and even slaves were, properly, fellow-citizens) for nothing.
As the strike was ongoing, major universities and their scholars were developing a strikebreaking “bible” and developing the economic “scissors” theory that because of a feed-back cycle mines could never pay COLA (1). The theory was that as copper prices went down COLA went up, indefinitely. First of all, how does this story end? Is the idea that only slavery can be used to staff a mine? Secondly, so what. If a business can’t pay its workers then it shouldn’t be a business. But also it turns out that they were straight up lying – in the years in question COLA was around 5% but the mine workers were making efficiency increases of over 12% per year.
The strike represented a rough crossroads that rural strike leaders were not ready to face – the tough guy line up at the mine gates was passe. The new labor methods had to go directly to the heart of the corporation – their financial backers and political protectors. According to the book, the union leaders made the turn, but too late.
Later, the company has been able to keep the union gone (and after the time period covered in this book, get the famous “Salt of the Earth” union decertified) though what they call shifting from town feudalism to “worker freedom” including switching from pension to 401(k). As the union leaders interviewed note, that is all well and good for when times are good but how is that going to go when times aren’t so good.
This has led me, it should be again noted that I am a person with no actual knowledge or training in union or labor matters, to a few thoughts:
-Democracy has never been tried. If we lived in a democracy, it would be a no brainer for the Governor of Arizona to take the side of his voters over the side of a corporation from New York. Even the “neutrality” he claimed he was attempting would have been the wrong move.
-Unions and democracy are tightly linked. The Mexican-American majority town of Clifton, the center of the Morenci union, had zero Mexican-Americans on the town council until a union was formed. Then there were three. After the union is broken, the book ends with an unhinged company lead “vote” on 12 hour shifts that is a a mockery of democracy. That’s mockery is what we live in now.
-The regulatory state such as OSHA and the EPA are pro-worker not just because their task is to directly to protect workers but because they are inherently democratic; they put workers in the drivers seat in any conflict.
-The opponent is not other workers. (The book ends with an excellent five pages on “solidarity” and the author may think of this topic differently from me, I’m not sure.) The focus on the scab and the picket line crosser represent something about good and right behavior of fellow citizens, but it is misplaced as a primary focus of activism. The opponent is always always always the corporation.
(1) COLA – cost of living allowance, generally annual pay increases to keep up with inflation.
My Visit to the Morenci Mine
The day before writing this review I was able to visit Clifton and Morenci. I drove 1/2 an hour across the mine, losing all sense of reality as if I had entered an unknown land of the dinosaurs that passed by me, to the Morenci Mine Overlook.
Clifton probably doesn't look very much different from how it did in 1983. The old town is still there, beneath a flood gate that can be closed across the highway in hopes to protect the town from future floods. The gate has been closed once, in 2020, but the flooding did not reach the gate so it is as yet untested. The buildings are shabby. The "European-style hotel" gleams with fresh white but is empty. The mine has their own hotel for corporate visitors, complete with a Starbucks. I didn't see it, but that feels like as alien of a scene here as the mine itself.
While there I learned that a month earlier, on 06 July 2026, Charles Ray McCargish, Jr., aged 69 and a 19-year Morenci mine worker, died when his haul truck collided with another haul truck. At this time the full accident report is still outstanding. Morenci has in general had a good safety record in recent years, one of the reasons younger workers cite for their lack of interest in forming in a new union.
December 4, 2020
A piece of American History I was totally unfamiliar with. An incredible story of bravery, corruption, and conflict.
July 12, 2013
This was required reading for a class on conflict resolution. Very well researched and interesting .
June 30, 2017
Reagan firing the air traffic controllers was symbolic. The way that Phelps-Dodge busted its union in 1983 - documented here - became the blueprint.
Read
September 29, 2020Read for a class studying conflict, was expecting it to be hard to get through but this was a compelling read, especially for someone who is not typically excited by historical accounts.
January 16, 2025
Great book about a terrible labor strike in Arizona in the early/mid 80s. The author had great access to the principal players. The union mishandled it (mostly the national Steelers union) and the corporation behaved terribly - they clearly violated labor practices looking back at what transpired. The mine workers had practically everything stacked against them, and they ended up getting wiped out.
July 31, 2018
This book introduced me to an important part of American history. I found the story fascinating, however, I think parts of the book were too granular or repetitive. In the end, I'm glad I read it.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews