Montana’s Most Notorious Labor Strike

This Date in History: March 29, 1968

In 1967 and 1968, Butte was home to the longest and costliest labor strike in Montana history. Fed up with poor wages and nearly non-existent benefits, 7,200 Anaconda Company copper miners walked off the job on July 14, 1967. Despite labor relations meetings and desperate attempts to draw the employees back to work, Butte’s copper mines sat idle for 250 days. On March 29, 1968, the state’s most notorious labor strike finally ended when workers voted three to one for a settlement. The company agreed to gradually phase in salary increases of fifty cents an hour, as well as increases in health insurance, disability, pension, and unemployment insurance. As an extra bonus, the company agreed to pay workers’ medical expenses that were incurred during the strike.

Although some miners stayed in Butte to wait out the strike on the picket lines, many left Butte in search of temporary employment. It is estimated that workers traveled to at least fifteen other states during the strike in an effort to make up the more than $34 million they lost in wages during the company strike. Within days of the strike’s end, workers were back on the job site, but it took months before the deteriorated mining equipment was back up and running efficiently.