Colorado Fuel And Iron Company Case Study

COLORADO FUEL AND IRON COMPANY

Colorado fuel and Iron Company in 1903 the city’s main industry was known to be a large steel concentration company. This company was owned and controlled by Johan D. Rockefeller and Jay Gould. They operated in coal mines throughout southern Colorado and iron mines in Wyoming and Utah. This company was known to be the first and the only steel concentration company in the west till the World War 2.through the process of vertical integration, the company owned more than just one steel plant. It was known that during that time the market for steel was quite idle due to the intense competition from the eastern mills and due to which the company turned to the production of coke and coal and open additional mines.
On this day the company along with the association of the Colorado military shot and burned around 18-20 miners who had set out their tent colony after being displaced from their houses which were provided to them by the CF&I company.
Mining was known to be dangerous and difficult work. There was always a risk of suffocation, explosion, collapsing of the mine walls etc and the workers tried their best to put forward their grievances to the management. Despite which there was a very little opportunity for their grievances to be heard.
Frustrated with the working conditions the workers constantly tried to unionize. In the 1990s, the UMWA began organising coal workers in the western states and that’s when the workers along with the UMWA were able to focus on the harsh managements tactics of the CF&I company. Despite various attempts of suppression the workers along with the UMWA put forward their demands. Their demands were subsequently rejected in 1913, after which the UMWA called a strike. Upon striking the miners were removed from their company owned houses and hence they were forced to set up a colony of tents where they then stayed along with their families. They had built their colony of tents strategically near the canyons that lead to the coal camps for the purpose to block the strike breakers
There a lot of fighting after this between the military an the workers and caused a up to 75 people being killed. On December 10th the strike had been called off after the UMWA ran out of money. Despite all this the workers demand was not met and the workers on strike were replaced with new workers.
A monument has been erected in Ludlow by the UMWA in remembrance of all the brave and innocent souls that were lost in fighting for freedom and dignity.

HOW COULD HAVE THE MASSACRE BEEN AVOIDED

As it can be seen from the entire event that occurred in 1914, the company Colorado fuel and Iron Company’s management style was authoritarian. They did provide many basic amenities like housing and basic education for the workers and their families, but they failed to listen to their workers basic demand of safety. Since in a mining business is of utmost importance the management should have kept that in their line of focus.
The following things could have been done by the company in order to avoid such a big massacre from taking place:
• The company could have listen to the demands of the workers and fulfilled them
• If they weren’t able to do so the company could have provided medical facilities to the workers who hand been Injured on site
• They shouldn’t have appointed another agency in order to break the