Clinton Jencks, Union Organizer, 87

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Clinton Jencks, who led New Mexico mineworkers in a McCarthy-era strike
chronicled in the classic 1953 motion picture "Salt of the Earth," died
December 14, 2005, in San Diego, California, no cause of death being
reported, at the age of 87.

An organizer for a progressive union, Mr. Jencks led a 15-month strike
begun in 1950 near Bayard, New Mexico, against Empire Zinc Co. by the
Amalgamated Bayard District Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers
Local 890. The largely Hispanic strikers sought pay equal to that of
white workers, improved safety conditions and health care -- goals they
eventually won with great effort.

When company officials obtained an injunction barring the men from
picketing, their wives and children took their place. Arrested and
jailed, the families made such noise in jail that a sheriff let them
go.

Hollywood could not ignore such a drama. A blacklisted producer,
director, screenwriter and actors made the film, supported by
mineworkers as extras. The movie is one of 400 selected by the Library
of Congress for the National Film Registry.

When the movie came out, it was no box office success. Under
McCarthyism pressure from the House Committee on Un-American
Activities, the Screen Actors Guild and the International Alliance of
Theater and Stage Employees, the film was shut out of all but 13
theaters across the country.

Washington Post