Blast hole drilling crew at the
Mahoning Mine, Hibbing,
Minnesota Historical Society,
1901.
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On the Iron Range of Northern Minnesota, immigrant workers were often hired for the most dangerous jobs where they worked for long hours in dangerous conditions for little pay. Since the onset of iron mining on the Mesabi Range in 1892, worker unrest grew. By1905, Finnish miners asked the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) to help them organize in Mesabi. Eventually, on July 16th, 1907, dock workers began a strike in Duluth, and to not have their strike go unnoticed, the Mesabi miners sent their demands to the Oliver Iron Mining Company on July 19th. The Company fired 200 workers on the spot and targeted immigrant miners and organizers from then on. On July 20th, 10,000-16,000 miners went on strike. The strike was for the most part peaceful, and the strikers held out for two months until the strike was ended by strikebreakers. Although the strikers’ demands for better wages and conditions were not fulfilled, the 1907 strike left a lasting example of labor activism that would continue to grow on the Iron Range.
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