Donald H. Shelton Papers

Don Shelton was born on August 31, 1940 in Tucson, Arizona. He joined the Air Force 1959 and became a mechanic for jet fighters. After being honorably discharged in 1963, Shelton returned to Tucson and started working a variety of different jobs. By the end of 1964, the unsteady work drove him to apply at the San Manuel branch of Magma Copper Company. He started work on January 15, 1965. His first position with Magma was as an underground chute tapper. He transferred to pipe-fitter in June of 1965. While Shelton worked with the pipe-fitters, he met the current Union President, Eddy Jackson. After being unfairly transferred back to chute tapper, the union helped Shelton return to the pipe-fitter position.

As a result of his positive interaction with the union, Shelton became pro-union and began serving as a grievance man for Magma's pipe-fitters section. By 1967, Shelton had become the Vice-President of the Mine-Mill Union. Shelton was President of the union when women started working at the mine and he supported the female employees' presence, cautioning male workers against harassing female co-workers and refusing to support male workers accused of mistreating female coworkers. Shelton also worked to make Magma pay disability pensions owed to their workers and was successful in at least one case. During the merger of the United Steelworkers of America and the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, Shelton served as union officer. He also served as President of the USWA's Local #937 from 1982 to 1991.

Shelton became a board member of the AFL-CIO in 1979, served as President of the Board from 1987 to 1989, and stepped down in 1989. Shelton was an important part of the 1989 change in management at Magma that established the Joint Union-Managment Cooperation Council (JUMCC). Although it took time for both Magma and the unions to recognize that working together would work, the JUMCC changed the atmosphere at Magma, helping to raise profits and stocks in the company and to decrease costs of business and production. Shelton retired from the mine in January of 1998.