U.S. Fact-Finding Board on the Non-ferrous Metals Industry

The U.S. Secretary of Labor appointed a Factfinding Board on March 20, 1946 to report on the issues involved in labor disputes between Congress of Industrial Organizations and American Federation of Labor metal trades unions, particularly the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers, and non-ferrous mining companies located predominantly in the Coeur D'Alene mining district of Idaho, These disputes had developed or were threatening to develop into work stoppages.

Corporations party to the dispute included the Phelps Dodge Corporation, the Kennecott Copper Company, the American Smelting and Refining Company, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, and the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company, among other non-ferrous mining companies. The main issue in dispute was a wage increase. The unions believed that their demands were consistent with Executive Order 9607, which extended the life of the Wage Stabilization Board, and the Factfinding Board agreed with them. It recommended, among other things, an eighteen and one-half cent wage increase with five cents of this increase retroactive to September 1, 1945.