The Columbine Strike and Recognition of the United Mine Workers

Abstract This chapter recounts the deadly 1927 Columbine Mine strike and its aftermath, focusing on Josephine Roche’s determined but fraught campaign to establish peaceful labor relations in Colorado’s coalfields. Initially an idealistic outsider, Roche sought to negotiate with the United Mine Workers (UMW) to end the strike without repeating the violent repression that had defined previous labor conflicts like Ludlow. However, her efforts were undermined by CF&I’s management, her own intransigent corporate board, state hostility toward the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and escalating violence—including the massacre of five unarmed picketers at Columbine by state law enforcement. The IWW, UMW, and Roches pursued models of industrial cooperation, but with irreconcilable views of legitimacy: Roche rejected the IWW as outside agitators, favoring the more conservative UMW. After gaining full control of RMFC, she signed a formal union contract, instituting higher wages, grievance procedures, and public health reforms. This achievement, however, came at great personal financial cost to her.