The Ludlow Massacre and Beyond: Occupational Medicine and Corporate Welfare in Early 20th Century Colorado

CME/MOC: 1.5
TRACK: Other

Victoria Miller, Steelworks Center for the American West, Pueblo, CO
Fawn-Amber Montoya, MD, Colorado State University, Pueblo, CO
Jonathan Rees, MD, Colorado State University, Pueblo, CO

This session will summarize and discuss the implications for occupational medicine of the Ludlow Massacre, the culmination of the great Colorado Coalfield War of 1913-1914. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the primary owner of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, used this dispute as a reason to increase many aspects of that firm’s corporate welfare program including its pioneering medical programs. The ramifications of those actions echo through the American industrial landscape down to this day.