United Steel Workers of America, Local 616 Records

The lives of Mexican and Mexican American copper miners in the Clifton-Morenci area working in the local mines and for the Phelps Dodge Corporation are linked to their struggle to form a union, and their Local 616, in the years from 1900 to 1985. Labor strikes and conflicts in 1903, 1915, 1967-1968, and in later years have found workers and their families at odds with Phelps Dodge. The presence of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (IUMMSW), later known as the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union (MMSWU), prior to the 1940s facilitated the miners' efforts to form a union to represent their grievances with Phelps Dodge. By 1942, the copper workers in the Clifton-Morenci area were aligned with the United Steel Workers of America as Local 616.

In 1983, the price of copper plummeted and the Phelps Dodge Corporation dismissed an estimated 2,900 workers, causing one of the biggest strikes in mining and union history. The 1983 strike decertified the union, divided families, and pitted strikers against each other. Phelps Dodge did not follow traditional and industry-wide pattern contracting, rejected the union’s desire for a cost of living wage, and remained steadfast in refusing to negotiate with the Local 616.