Coal mining in Colorado
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Early coal mining in Colorado, a state of the United States was spread across the state. Some early coal-mining areas are currently inactive, including the Denver Basin Raton Basin coal fields along the Front Range. There are currently 11 active coal mines, all in western Colorado.
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[edit] History
[edit] Labor struggles
The early history of coal mining in Colorado was one of discontent on the part of miners, and periodic confrontations with the mine operators. The work was dangerous, and Colorado's death rate in the mines was very high.
The United Mine Workers (UMW) were defeated by company spies in a strike in the southern field in 1903-04.
The UMW called another strike in Colorado's northern coal fields north of Denver in 1910. The strike was inconclusive, but prompted a 10 percent wage increase for ten thousand Colorado miners. The union's real target in Colorado was the larger southern field. A state-wide strike called in September of 1913 resulted in the Ludlow Massacre. [1] Neutralized by the dispatch of federal troops after ten days of skirmishes provoked by the massacre, the UMW essentially suspended most activities in Colorado for more than a decade. Meanwhile the organization grew stronger in the east until about 1920, when it collapsed after a national strike.
The United Mine Workers were defeated during the 1913-14 strike in Colorado and focused their attention elsewhere. In 1927 Colorado coal miners again laid down their tools, this time under the banner of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Colorado Fuel and Iron, a major conglomerate of steel mills in Pueblo and coal mines around the region, opposed the strike. The company once again hired spies to infiltrate the union.
The 1927-28 strike is best remembered for the Columbine mine massacre. This strike also led directly to Rocky Mountain Fuel Company's decision to unionize the workforce, and President Josephine Roche announced that she would recognize any union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. In announcing this policy, President Roche avoided recognizing the radical IWW, which had successfully shut down 113 of the state's 125 coalmines. [2] Thus, in 1928 the United Mine Workers was awarded its first contract in Colorado.
In 1933, legislation enabled unionization throughout Colorado's coal fields.
[edit] Current production
Colorado is the seventh-largest coal-producing state in the country. In 2007, Colorado mines produced 32.7 million tonnes (36.1 million short tons) of coal, and employed 2,069 miners. Most Colorado coal is used for electric power generation. Eleven coal mines operate in Colorado, including eight underground mines in Delta, Garfield, Gunnison, La Plata, Rio Blanco, and Routt counties, and three surface mines in Moffat and Montrose counties. All active coal mines are on the western slope, although the New Elk coal mine in Las Animas County is being permitted to reopen.[3]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Out Of the Depths, Barron B. Beshoar, 1942
- ^ Slaughter in Serene: the Columbine Coal Strike Reader, 2005
- ^ J. Burnell and C. Carroll, "Colorado," Mining Engineering, May 2008, p.p.81-82.
