Ed Boyce
| Edward "Ed" Boyce | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 8, 1862 County Donegal, Ireland |
| Died | December 24, 1941 (aged 79) Portland, Oregon, U.S. |
| Occupation | Labor leader, hotelier, mine owner |
| Spouse(s) | Eleanor Day Boyce (1901-1941; his death) |
Edward "Ed" Boyce (November 8, 1862 – December 24, 1941) was president of the Western Federation of Miners, a radical American labor organizer, socialist and hard rock mine owner.
Edward Boyce was born in County Donegal, Ireland in 1862 and was the youngest of four children. His father died at an early age. Young Boyce was educated in local schools. He emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts at age 19.
He worked as a railway construction worker in Wisconsin before moving to Leadville, Colorado, in 1884. He joined the Leadville Miners' Union, an affiliate of the Knights of Labor, but quit in 1886. He worked at various mines in the Coeur d'Alene district and in Butte, Montana before moving to Wardner, Idaho. He joined the Wardner Miners' Union in 1888, and was later elected its corresponding secretary.
In 1892, the 30-year-old Boyce became an active leader in a strike near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. In January 1892, railroad companies serving the area increased the shipping rate of ore. The mine owners decided to close the mines for four months until a compromise with the railroads could be reached. This action threw 1,600 miners out of work.
The mines reopened two months early, but wages had been slashed by 15 percent. The miners struck. The owners offered to restore wages to their previous levels but refused to recognize the union, an offer Boyce and the other union leaders rejected. When three scab workers were forced to join the union by a mob of miners (a fourth fled the county), the Coeur d'Alene Mine Owners' Association obtained an injunction from the United States district court at Boise, Idaho, preventing anyone from interfering with the working of the mines. The mine owners began importing scabs at the rate of 16 workers a day from outside the region. Company militia provided protection. (Idaho's state constitution contained a prohibition against the creation or use of private militia, but the law was not enforced.)
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