Chapter 43 continues
The story so far: The women continue to lead the strike.
The Oliver Mining Company was losing millions of dollars. Their operations were barely running. Katka wrote in Strikers News about the numerous reasons the company had to be worried. She believed that they were.
But apparently not enough to negotiate. The strike committee kept sending and resending their list of demands. They had them published in every newspaper from Biwabik to Duluth to Minneapolis.
Finally, a representative from the Duluth office came up to meet with Mr. Stone. "Perhaps you should negotiate with the miners," he suggested. "They're not asking for much."
"Never," Stone said. "We cannot give a bunch of immigrants the idea that they can make the rules. We've got a business to run."
"A business that's losing money every day."
"Not for long. I have a new plan that will break the women's picket lines. Then we'll be able to get the replacement workers in from Minneapolis. I got a hundred or so men lined up to arrive next Tuesday. I guarantee we'll get them in. I got a man making a list of every woman walking the line on every shift in each of the seven Oliver mines. I got another man making a list of every union organizer in town. Something big is about to happen."
