In the Nevada gold-rush boomtown of Goldfield, the IWW built one of its first great western strongholds between 1906 and 1907. Working alongside the Western Federation of Miners, the Wobblies organized not only the miners but also the town’s clerks, dishwashers, and laborers into a single local, briefly winning some of the highest wages in the mining West and demonstrating the appeal of industry-wide organization.
The employers struck back through the Goldfield Mine Owners’ Association, which used a bank panic, wage cuts, and the pretext of disorder to break the union. At the operators’ request the governor secured federal troops in late 1907; with soldiers in the streets the mine owners imposed lower wages and blacklisted union members. Goldfield established the Wobblies as a serious force in the West — and previewed the alliance of employers and government power that would confront them for the next two decades.