Born about 1892, Massarotti began work in a copper mine at age 15, with 2 brothers. He was first a union member from 1911, part of the Western Federation. In 1914, he was in Grand Junction during the massacre at Ludlow; the call went out for armed volunteers to help the strikers. He served in the army in WWI, on the Belgian front. He started coal mining in 1924 in Berwind Canyon and soon became a timberman. He also married that year, in Berwind Canyon. During the 1927 IWW strike, he moved his family to Trinidad and lived off the money his wife had gradually saved from his earnings. He thought the IWW was "just a bunch of bull." He had returned to work when a Ku Klux Klan member falsely accused him of IWW membership. Massarotti describes his job as timberman: he was paid as company work, not by tonnage; his last payment was $7.75/day (at a time when leaders were earning 50-cents/ton). His mine unionized in 1933, under FDR. The company cooperated with the union, but also recruited "spies" within the union, to inform on union activities. He describes Cokedale as "the best camp in southern Colorado", with a schoolhouse, hotel, clubhouse, baseball team, and saloon. Each house had a lawn and (during WWII especially) a garden. People hunted and fished, but the game was eventually depleted. Massarotti describes in detail the Boncarbo mine, which at one time employed 500 men.
description
Born about 1892, Massarotti began work in a copper mine at age 15, with 2 brothers. He was first a union member from 1911, part of the Western Federation. In 1914, he was in Grand Junction during the massacre at Ludlow; the call went out for armed volunteers to help the strikers. He served in the army in WWI, on the Belgian front. He started coal mining in 1924 in Berwind Canyon and soon became a timberman. He also married that year, in Berwind Canyon. During the 1927 IWW strike, he moved his family to Trinidad and lived off the money his wife had gradually saved from his earnings. He thought the IWW was "just a bunch of bull." He had returned to work when a Ku Klux Klan member falsely accused him of IWW membership. Massarotti describes his job as timberman: he was paid as company work, not by tonnage; his last payment was $7.75/day (at a time when leaders were earning 50-cents/ton). His mine unionized in 1933, under FDR. The company cooperated with the union, but also recruited "spies" within the union, to inform on union activities. He describes Cokedale as "the best camp in southern Colorado", with a schoolhouse, hotel, clubhouse, baseball team, and saloon. Each house had a lawn and (during WWII especially) a garden. People hunted and fished, but the game was eventually depleted. Massarotti describes in detail the Boncarbo mine, which at one time employed 500 men.
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