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Copyright 2008 by Larry Wichterman

HOMESTEAD STEEL STRIKE


Troubles for Labor

One of the bloodiest confrontations between labor and owners occurred on July 6, 1892. The results of this battle, known as the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892, set labor back 40 years.

The general manager of the Carnegie Steel Company, Henry C. Frick, was determined to break the union - the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers. Frick's wage offer was an 18% cut in wages. Negotiations had been going on for five months when the member workers announced a strike June 29, 1892, and Frick closed the plant to lock out thw workers on June 30, just before the current contract expired. Frick hired 300 Pinkerton detectives to protect the plant, protect strike-breakers, and to break the union. On July 6, as the Pinkertons approached the Homestead plant on the banks of the Monongahelia River, thousands of armed workers, friends, and family members gathered to fight them off. They did just that, after a day-long battle that resulted in seven locals and three Pinkertons killed. Several more people would die later from wounds.

The workers, having driven the Pinkertons off and now in control of the battleground, felt they had won a great victory. However, this temporary victory resulted in a serious weakening of unionism in the steel industry which would last until the 1930s. Pennsylvania's Governor Pattison called in 8,000 members of the state militia to take control of the situation, nonunion workers stayed on the job, most participants were blacklisted from employment, pay was reduced, working hours were lengthened, and the union was destroyed. The union officially voted to end the strike in November, but it was well over by then. Homestead was one of the most important strikes of the 1890's, which set industrial policy for years to come. Workers lost rights to bargain with management for wages as well as to participate in making decisions in the work place. For 45 years after 1892, the steel industry was mostly non-union, noted for its low wages and 12 hour workdays. 

See Also:

The Strike at Homestead, 1892

Labor History Timeline

I Will Kill Frick - Emma Goldman's account on the attempted murder of Henry Clay Frick