The 1916 Iron Ore Strike w/ Gary Kaunonen
On June 2, 1916, forty mostly immigrant mineworkers at the St. James Mine in Aurora, Minnesota, walked off the job. This seemingly small labor disturbance would mushroom into one of the regionâs, if not the nationâs, most contentious and significant battles between organized labor and management in the early twentieth century.My guest, Gary Kaunoen, is an International Falls labor historian and author of the book "Flames of Discontent: The 1916 Minnesota Iron Ore Strike". He talks about the origin of the conflict, the Finnish immigrant miners who fought mining company forces with help from the Industrial Workers of the World (aka "The Wobblies"), and how the deadly conflict ultimately ended. The author's University of Minnesota Press page: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/flames-of-discontentNorthern Minnesota's Labor Wars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AklJBH6SBGA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Episode Details
About This Episode
On June 2, 1916, forty mostly immigrant mineworkers at the St. James Mine in Aurora, Minnesota, walked off the job. This seemingly small labor disturbance would mushroom into one of the regionâs, if not the nationâs, most contentious and significant battles between organized labor and management in the early twentieth century.My guest, Gary Kaunoen, is an International Falls labor historian and author of the book "Flames of Discontent: The 1916 Minnesota Iron Ore Strike". He talks about the orig...