Jensen,Vernon H

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.

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.

Harlow Pease was a liberal attorney living in Butte, Mont. He sometimes acted as counsel for the Industrial Workers of the World.

Robert L. Stutz was a student at the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell Univ., and the author of an unpublished paper, "The attempted secession of the Ansonia Brass Workers Union Local 445 from the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers."

The Cripple Creek mining district of Colorado was the site of a long and violent strike begun in 1903, led by the Western Federation of Miners. Several strike leaders were arrested during this period on a variety of charges. William D. Haywood and other leaders of the WFM were tried for causing the assassination of Frank Steunenberg, the former governor of Idaho. All four WFM defendants in this latter case were eventually acquitted or had the charges against them dismissed.

Lew McLenegan served as secretary of the Butte Miners' Union (Local No. 1 of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (IUMMSW)) and on the Executive Board of the International Union (1933-1934). He played a major role in the union's organizing activities during the New Deal period.

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.

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.