MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in Labor History July 1, 1983: Copper miners began a strike against Phelps-Dodge in Clifton, Arizona. During the strike, company-owned railroad bridges were set on fire and strikers smashed windows of scab vehicles. Governor Bruce Babbitt repeatedly sent in state police and National Guardsmen to suppress and ultimately crush the 3-year-long strike. Replacement workers then voted to decertify the union in the largest mass decertification in U.S. history. 35 locals of 13 different unions representing Phelps-Dodge workers were all decertified. Within a couple of years, their profits skyrocketed 15-fold to $420 million per year. This was one of the most effective and historically significant union-busting campaigns of the post-WWII era, along with the PACTCO strike, and Reagan’s mass-firing of the air traffic controllers in 1981.</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/copper" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>copper</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/miners" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>miners</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/arizona" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>arizona</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/unionbusting" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>unionbusting</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/union" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>union</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/strike" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>strike</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/police" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>police</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/policebrutality" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>policebrutality</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/phelpsdodge" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>phelpsdodge</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/patco" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>patco</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Reagan" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Reagan</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/scabs" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>scabs</span></a></p>