Mike Livoda came to the United states from Yugoslavia in 1904 when he was sixteen. He worked in a Montana coal mine in 1907, and then came to Denver, Colorado in 1910 as a union man. Livoda worked in Denver until 1912, when he began organizing miners in Walsenburg, as a part of the United Mine Workers of America. He was severely beat up in Ravenwood, Colorado, three miles out of Walsenburg, for his union role.