Clinton Jencks, 1918-2005

Clinton Jencks, the Mine, Mill and Smelter (IUMMSW) rep who helped lead the 1950-51 Empire Zinc Strike "Salt of the Earth" strike, (and, basically, like many of the strikers portrayed "himself" in the movie,) passed on last month. Go watch Salt of The Earth. It's pretty much the best movie ever. And for more on Jencks, Juan Chacon (the president of the local), and the organizers who made up the women's auxiliary and led the strike to victory, read this book.

'Salt of the Earth' labor leader dead
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- The
U.S. labor movement lost an iconic figure with the death of union organizer
Clinton Jencks. He was 87.
Jencks died Dec. 14 of natural causes in San
Diego, the Los Angeles Times said Friday.
His fight to unionize New Mexico
mineworkers in a McCarthy-era strike more than 50 years ago was chronicled in
the classic motion picture "Salt of the Earth."
Beginning in 1950, Jencks
led a 15-month strike near Bayard, N.M., against Empire Zinc Co. by the
Amalgamated Bayard District Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers. The largely
Latino strikers wanted to be paid what white miners were paid. When Empire got
an injunction barring the men from picketing, their wives and children took
their place. Then, when they were also arrested and jailed, the families made so
much noise in jail that the sheriff let them go.
Eventually, Jencks and his
workers won.
But payback was swift: Jencks was convicted of perjury in 1954
and sentenced to five years in prison for supposedly lying about being a
Communist. Three years later the Supreme Court overturned his conviction.
Jencks went on to earn an economics doctorate and teach from 1964 until his
retirement in 1988