Homestead+Strike

The Homestead Strike By Drew Mignosa and Pat Beckman The Company- The Homestead Steel Plant was owned by the Carnegie Steel Company. During the Homestead Strike, it was lead by Henry Frick, the President of the Carnegie Company. The union representing the workers, the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, contract was about to expire, but Frick didn't want to give the union m embers a raise like they asked. Instead, he wanted to cut pay, as well as dismantle the union. One advantage the Carnegie Steel Company had was its size; the company could afford a strike so long as it didn't drag out too much because they had many other plants to make steel for them as well. Frick then built a twelve foot high fence around the plant. Frick ten needed some way to protect any workers he could bring in to work during the strike. As he later explained, "From past experience, not only with the present sheriff but with all others, we have found that he has been unable to furnish us with a sufficient number of deputies to guard our property and protect the men who were anxious to work on our terms...in order to protect our workmen, it was necessary for us to secure our own watchmen to assist the sheriff, and we knew of no other source from which to obtain them than from Pinkerton agencies, and to them we applied." The Pinkerton agencies were a private detective agency that also provided workers who also worked as security guards. He hired a force of 300 Pinkertons and waited for the contract to expire and the strike to begin.

The Workers- The plant employed 3,800 men, only 750 of which were in a union. Their union was called the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers. This union had a contract with Carnegie Steel that was about to expire. The Union wanted a pay raise, but the company wanted pay cuts due to the decreasing price in steel. Neither side was willing to compromise enough, so the contract expired. Carnegie Steel warned that pay cuts would be made, and that the union would no longer be recognized. The union went on strike, along with 2,250 nonunion workers. These workers were lead in the strike by Hugh O’Donnell.

The Problems- The union's contract with the plant was set to expire soon, so the two sides began negotiating. The plant didn't want to give the union a pay raise, while the union didn't want to take a pay cut. The Plant was unworried by the possibility of a strike as they were able to stockpile extra steel, plus there were enough other Carnegie Steel plants to satisfy demands for a while. The union workers needed the money to pay for simple, everyday things like food and clothing. Because neither side was willing to negotiate, the contract expired without a new one being created. The plant could always hire new people, anyways. Steel work was not a job that required much skill due to all the new machinary. The union saw no other way to get what it wanted but to go on strike, while Carnegie Steel was prepared to wait out a strike in order to get what they wanted.

The Strike- When the union voted to go on strike, many of the nonunion factory workers decided to join them. In total, about 3,000 workers went on strike. This huge number of strikers suprised Carnegie Steel. They had to call in the hired Pinkertons to come protect the plant so that nonunion workers could land and work in the plant. The Pinkertons floated down the river to the plant in two barges, hoping to catch the strikers by surprise early in the morning. The Pinkertons were spotted by a lookout, and all the strikers came to the plant where the barges were attempting to land. The strikers were joined by sympathetic townspeople until a force of nearly 10,000 people was waiting for the Pinkertons. They then attempted to come ashore despite being warned not to by Hugh O'Donnell, the leader of the union and of the strike. This led to a fourteen hour battle between the Pinkertons and the strikers. The Pinkertons attempted to escape on the barges, but were not able to. Some of the strikers even attempted to light the barges on fire with oil, but were unable to light the oil. The Pinkertons eventually surrendered to the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers but not before 9 workers and 7 Pinkertons had died and many others had been wounded. These deaths gained national attention, a song called "Father was Killed by the Pinkerton Men" was written about the brave workers who "fought for home and right to live where they had toiled so long/But ere the sun had set some were laid low". The crowd beat many of the Pinkertons after they surrendered, despite the efforts of union guards, leading to more injured Pinkertons. The state militia was then called in. They were able to take control of the plant quickly, especially as the strikers lost the support of many of the townspeople when Alex Berkman, a sympathetic anarchist, attempted to assassinate Frick. The plant was able to resume operations with scabs, though the workers remained on strike.

Back to Work- After the Pinkertons were defeated, and the State Militia took control, the plant was operated by scabs. These scabs had to be brought in by armored train car. These scabs were able to operate the plant, and were able to operate the plant while the workers remained on strike. The union paid the workers a small salary for the time they were on strike. However, both the union money and the workers' money began to run out. Eventually, the union voted to go back to work. This meant accepting the conditions set by the plant, no more union and lower pay. However, many of them could not go back to work as they had been blacklisted by steel companies. This meant that their names went on a list of people that steel companies would not hire. Also, even those who had not been blacklisted had difficulty getting jobs as many of the jobs had been filled by scabs while the workers were on strike. Those who could not get work at the plant ended up leaving town and often had to get work in other industries. For the next forty years, there would be no more unions in Carnegie Steel or its successor, US Steel. The strike was ultimately unsuccessful, and actually ended up hurting the strikers.

A video about the Homestead Strike

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Resources- · ABC-CLIO Social Studies Databases: Login ." ABC-CLIO Social Studies Databases: Login . [], (accessed May 6, 2010).

“Father Was Killed by the Pinkerton Men”: Sigmund Spaeth, //Weep Some More, My Lady// (Garden City, N.Y.: 1927), 235–236. Reprinted in Phillip S. Foner, //American Labor Songs of the Nineteenth Century// (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975), 244. · 

"Frick's Fracas: Henry Frick Makes His Case." History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web. [] (accessed May 6, 2010). · 

"Industrialization and the Working Class." Digital History. [] (accessed May 6, 2010) o > > Pictography- > > Picture of Frick. Library of Congress. Accessed form abc-clio.com > > Color Engraving of Homestead Strike. Harper’s Weekly, 1892. Accessed from  [|http://explorepahistory.com/displayimage.php?imgId=4558].
 * Gardner, Joseph Lawrence, and Bernard A. Weisberger. //Labor on the March: The Story of America's Unions (American Heritage Junior Library)//. New York: American Heritage Pub. Co, 1969.