Local 890: Correspondence, 1951

The Clinton Jencks Papers contain materials documenting Jencks' labor organizing activities with the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelters Workers in the southwest from 1950 to 1957. Of particular interest are the items showing the fifteen-month Empire Zinc strike in Hanover, New Mexico (led by Local 890, IUMMSW) and the Jencks Case. Also included are IUMMSW union memorandums; newsletters; and newspaper articles, magazine articles, and printed matter discussing Jencks' activities as the International Union Representative of the Amalgamated Bayard District Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Local 890 (whose membership was primarily Mexican American). The collection has been divided into six series.

Series I: Jencks Case consists primarily of memorandums written by John Clark, then President of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, between 1953 and 1956. These documents urge union members to support Clinton Jencks' legal defense after Jencks was falsely accused of being a member of the Communist Party. Also included are newspaper articles about the Jencks case and trial dating from 1953 to 1955; printed matter circulated by the Jencks Defense Committee describing the legal proceedings and events of the Jencks Trial held in El Paso, Texas in 1954; and a copy of the legal document attested to by Harvey M. Matusow, a self-acknowledged Communist and undercover FBI informant, who later confessed to lying in his testimony about Jencks' ties to Communism. The United States Supreme Court cited this retraction as justification for declaring the case invalid in 1957.

Series II: Mine Mill Defense Fund houses memorandums written by various union officials calling for financial support for Clinton Jencks' legal defense. These documents encourage union members to be generous with their donations.

Series III: Union Locals contains International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers union correspondence and newsletters published by union locals in Ray-Sonora and Morenci, Arizona; Bayard, New Mexico; and El Paso, Texas from 1951 to 1955. These newsletters describe such events as labor disputes, the Empire Zinc strike, and contract negotiations between unions and management. Some of the newsletters are written in both English and Spanish.

Series IV: Empire Zinc Strike includes information describing Mine Mill Local 890 at Hanover, New Mexico's strike against the Empire Zinc Company, a division of the New Jersey Zinc Company, from October 1950 to January 1951. Also included is information about the pro-labor motion picture Salt of the Earth, which was filmed near Bayard, New Mexico in 1953. This film depicts the events surrounding the Empire Zinc Strike and was released (and subsequently suppressed) in 1954.

Series V: Union Newsletters houses Mine-Mill union newsletters and bulletins published by union affiliates in Ray, Arizona and Denver, Colorado in 1954 and 1955. Among the issues discussed are union contracts and wages for workers employed by the Ray Mines Division of the Kennecott Copper Company.

Series VI: Miscellaneous contains a variety of materials including a report about the trade union movement in Mexico and Latin America delivered at an international conference in Mexico City in 1953 and a mother's statement attesting to her son's innocence of an assault charge. Also included is an image of an IUMMSW 1961 convention badge.