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On October vj, 1950, in the Grant County town of Hanover, New Mexico, workers at the Empire Zinc mine finished their shifts, formed a picket line, and began a fifteenmonth strike. Represented by Local 890 of the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers (Mine-Mill), the miners, overwhelmingly Mexican American, had voted to strike after reaching an impasse with the company over " collar- to-collar" pay (rather than paying only for the time workers spent at their individual work places inside the mine), lack of paid holidays, and the high number of job classifications (which allowed the company to reserve the lowest-paying jobs for Mexican Americans - the "Mexican wage"). In June 1951, after the strikers had shut down production for eight months, the company obtained an injunction against any further picketing. Wary of the mass jailings and massive fines that would result from violating the court order, yet not wanting to give up their strike, the workers reluctantly agreed to a novel idea proposed by several woman activists in Mine-Mill Ladies Auxiliary 209. Since they were not legally striking workers, the wives of strikers, as well as other women and children, would take over the picket line. For the next seven months, the women held the line in the face of violence from strikebreakers, mass arrests by the sheriff, and opposition from many of their own husbands, who were suddenly faced with the responsibilities of caring for children, washing clothes, and doing the dishes. In January 1952, the strikers returned to work with a new contract. They had failed to win their major demands, but did obtain significant pay increases that, in effect, undermined the Mexican wage. Several weeks later, Empire Zinc installed hot water plumbing in Mexican American workers' houses - a major issue pushed by the women of these households (r).
At first glance, this story might seem far removed from the familiar history of the early Cold WarChurchill's "Iron Curtain" speech, the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, or the hot war raging in Korea. And yet, Mine-Mill was no stranger to these controversies, as it was one of eleven national labor unions expelled in 194950 from the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) for alleged Communist domination. Indeed, a substantial number...