After an eight-month labor strike waged by the United Steelworkers AFL-CIO Local 4312 against Universal Oil Product Company’s Calumet & Hecla mines, UOP had had enough. On April 9, 1969, strikers were informed they no longer had jobs.

“As of this morning,” the notice read,” your employment with the company has terminated.”

While the union had refused repeated negotiation efforts, its rank and file appears to to have lacked understanding, or concern, of conditions facing the Calumet Division of C&H, nor the company reaching the end of its tolerance of the union and its constant production disruptions. The union had not been in a real position to demand wage increases or any other concessions in over a decade, because C&H did not generate enough revenue to meet the demands while keeping the mines operating, even if they wanted to.

According to the Congressional Record, proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, Feb. 26 to March 5, 1968, C&H was producing about 10,000 tons of refined copper per year, less than 1% of the nation’s total output. C&H was no longer even a marginal producer.

About 1,000 mine workers were directly involved in the strike, which shut down the remaining native copper mines in Michigan and had rippling affects. The strike also idled C&H stamp mills, along with its smelter effecting some 2,000 workers, including the company’s railroad, which, as anyone might guess, created financial hardship on wives, children and entire families.

The U.S. Work Incentive Program – survey of Selected Welfare and Employment Service Agencies for Jan. 1970 reported:

“In August, of 1968, a strike was called against the Calumet and Hecla Mining Co. (now Universal Oil Products Co.), and this increased the number of ADCU (public assistance) cases. Our main concern has been to get as many of these ADCU fathers trained or employed as we can. The mining company closed down operations in the local area and many men have been unable to find other work in the area.”

The Work Incentive Program (WIN) was established in 1967 to assist able-bodied persons receiving assistance under Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) in getting off of welfare rolls and onto payrolls by providing training and work experience and by helping them find permanent jobs.

The Keweenaw County’s welfare office’s sole case worker stated in its report:

“Although we haven’t provided child care to date, we will provide it for any mother who is otherwise appropriate for referral. The strike has caused additional marital and family burdens on many of our families and, in numerous cases, we find mothers inappropriate, since it is in the “best interest of the family” to remain at home. In almost all instances, the problems are eliminated when the father finds employment or enters training. The wives are not used to having their husbands home all the time.”

The case worker reported that about 30 percent of the fathers, mothers, and older children could benefit from referral to WIN.

“Our county assessment and referral policy is to study all clients to see whether or not they are potential referrals to WIN,” Keweenaw County’s report states. “If we believe a client can profit by WIN’s services, he or she is referred.”

In Oct. 1968, the county referred three ADCU recipients to WIN, all fathers. In Dec., 28 more referrals were made, again, all fathers. Between Sept. 1968 and 1969, Keweenaw County referred 64 ADCU fathers to WIN for its services.

In Houghton County, the situation was equally grim.

“We lost our major industry, employing some 1,200 persons (Champion mine and its mill), more than a year ago,” the Houghton office reported. “Many of them have left the area. It might be that our population would not support day care centers.”

Between Sept. 1968-Dec. 1969, Houghton County’s office referred some 400 people to WIN.

The Houghton office was not at all pleased with the program.

“I must frankly say that I am not satisfied with the accomplishments of WIN to date,” the report commented. “With very few exceptions, none of our clients have progressed beyond the referral-screening-counciling phase. The exceptions are those few clients who were temporarily placed in stop-gap type programs, such as in a local sheltered workshop.”

The Copper Country was now facing its most significant drawback: It had always been a single-industry region — mining. Nearly every other local industry depended on mining. For instance, when the Calumet mines were permanently closed, so too did its stamp mills and refinery. With those closed, its railroad, the Hecla & Torch Lake R.R. had no further purpose and was stopped.

The year before, when the Champion mine, along with its mill at Freda, closed, and the Quincy Mining Reclamation plant in Mason closed, the Copper Range R.R. lost most of its freight revenue. In 1970, the Quincy’s last remaining facility, its smelter, closed. The C.R.R.R., unable to afford operating, ran its last train on Oct. 10, 1971. A year later, the company petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) for abandonment of its track mileage. The railroad’s union petitioned to keep the railroad in November, but was denied. On March 31, 1973, the Copper Range Railroad was officially abandoned. The railroad, which had been started by Charles A. Wright back in 1896, to provide rail service to the Copper Country’s mines and communities, was dissolved in April, 1980 and ceased to exist.

The closure of the mines eliminated ancillary businesses, such as railroads, foundries and machine shops. The men who worked those jobs were trained, specialized, and extensively experienced. Other large employers in the area by 1970 included public schools, hospitals, a college and a state university, as well as many construction companies. Few of them had room on their payrolls for machinists, miners, mill workers, diesel locomotive mechanics and smelter workers.

While some 2,000 former C&H employees could be trained to perform other jobs, it was proving incredibly difficult to find 2,000 job openings for them to fill. Between 1967 and 1969, across Houghton and Keweenaw counties, more than 4,000 high-paid jobs disappeared. The financial loss to the region would cause the downfall of countless private retail businesses, as well as declining revenue to counties and municipalities, negatively impacting providing essential services. The Copper Country would pay a price for being a one-industry region.