Overview:
The article examines the 1917 Bisbee Deportation, a violent suppression of striking miners at the Copper Queen Mine in Bisbee, Arizona. Over a thousand miners, organized by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), went on strike to protest unsafe working conditions, wage instability, and discriminatory employment practices under the Phelps Dodge Company. In response, a company-backed mob forcibly expelled miners and their families into the desert. The article details the miners’ safety concerns, wage disputes, and union demands, as well as the company’s aggressive anti-union actions. Although federal authorities investigated, no criminal charges were filed. The event remains a notable example of anti-labor and anti-immigrant actions in early 20th-century America and is remembered through historical exhibits in Bisbee.
Bisbee Deportation: Labor Struggle in Arizona
In June 1917, more than 1,000 miners at the Copper Queen Mine in Bisbee, Arizona, went on strike because they thought the working conditions were dangerous. On July 12, 1917, less than a month later, a mob backed by the company forced striking miners and their families out of the city and into the Arizona desert. This event is now known as the Bisbee Deportation.
The Copper Queen Mine and Its Hazards
The Copper Queen Mine had a lot of safety issues, and the Phelps Dodge Company ran it. Miners often worked alone with machines, and pneumatic drills, which were nicknamed “widowmakers,” made it easy for workers to breathe in silica dust. Sometimes, when other miners were still in the tunnels, dynamite went off. This hurt and killed people who could have been saved.
Management didn’t want people to use proven safety measures like timbering (wooden supports to keep things from falling down), and they often thought deaths from cave-ins or lung disease were unavoidable.
Targeting Workers: Physical Exams and Discrimination
Phelps Dodge implemented unannounced physical examinations, dismissing workers who failed to meet company standards. Historical accounts indicate that these exams were sometimes used to target union activists.
Mining companies paid miners on a sliding scale tied to copper prices, which created income instability. Employers often paid immigrant workers less than European or white American workers and prevented them from working in higher-paying jobs.
About Phelps Dodge
Phelps Dodge ran copper mines, smelters, and refineries in the Southwestern US and had businesses in the Midwest and Northeast as well. The business kept going until March 2007, when Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. bought it.
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
The founders started the IWW, or Wobblies, in 1905 to bring together workers from all kinds of jobs and backgrounds. In early 1917, the IWW hired miners at the Copper Queen Mine and asked for better pay and working conditions. The miners went on strike when Phelps Dodge refused to meet their demands.
The Bisbee Deportation Legacy
Federal authorities investigated the events but did not file criminal charges, as no federal or state laws directly applied. People mostly settled civil lawsuits out of court.
The IWW used the deportation as a rallying point for labor activism, although the union’s influence declined over time. Today, the Wobblies help workers in the service industry who are unionized.
The Bisbee Deportation is still one of the most important examples of organized anti-labor and anti-immigrant actions in early 20th-century America. Historical exhibits and tours of the Copper Queen Mine site in Bisbee can help visitors learn more about this time.
Sources
- Northrup, David. “A Sociological Interpretation of the Bisbee Deportation.” Pacific Historical Review, vol. 37, no. 4, 1968, pp. 4
- “The Bisbee Deportation in Words and Images.” Bisbee History Project.
- “Bisbee Remembers Deportation on 102nd Anniversary.” Local News Archives.
- Zinn Education Project. “The Bisbee Deportation.”
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