Homestead+Strike+of+1892

__ Homestead Strike of 1892 __ //By Nicholas Bradford and Miranda Murray, Block// //A////.//  Task: http://laborstrifewiki.wikispaces.com/Home

**Overview**

 In 1892 workers seized control of the Homestead Steel Works owned by Carnegie Steel, and in the ensuing retaliation by the company and state militia many people were killed or injured. This strike remains infamous in America's recent history, and helped to illustrate the changes and principles brought on by the times and by the Second Industrial Revolution.

**Problems**

//"It was May 1892. News from Pittsburg announced that trouble had broken out between the Carnegie Steel Company and its employees organized in the AAISW. It was one of the biggest and most efficient labour bodies of the country, consisting mostly of Americans, men and decision and grit, who would assert their rights. The Carnegie company, on the other hand, was a powerful corporation, known as a hard master. It was particularly significant that Andrew Carnegie, its president, had temporarily turned over the entire management to the company chairman, Henry Clay Frick, a man known for his enmity to labour."// - Emma Goldman.

**The Company**  The price of rolled steel dropped in the early 1890's, and the company faced heavy competition. Thus they had the desire to cut wages and eliminate the union at Homestead Steel Works, the AAISW (Amalgated Association fo Iron and Steel Workers). In addition Henry Clay Frick, the man placed in charge of Carnegie Steel at the time, was hostile to organized labor.

**The Workers**  Newly implemented open-hearth steel mills no longer necessitated skilled laborers, who previously formed a respected and authoritative class of leaders among the workers.The workers at were angered at pay cuts and feared losing their jobs. However, they were unwilling to surrender their union, and disliked the notion of the company hiring non-union workers.

**Increased Tension**  In early 1982, when the union's contract was soon going to expire, Frick announced that when it happened the union was no longer going to be recognized as a legitimate entity. Workers were enraged, and Frick, forseeing this reaction, began to secure the factory by installing 12-foot tall barbed-wire fences and hiring over 300 Pinkerton operatives to act as a private security force, and locked everything in.

**Strike!**

**Revolt**  On June 29, 1982, the entire work force at the manufacturing plant went on strike. Only 750 of the workers were actually represented by the union, and Frick had not prepared for the other 3000 or more workers joining in the strike, which also had the support of the local community, businesses, and even the major. The workers seized control of the facility, and set up a committee to set guards and issue rules.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**Response** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Frisk retaliated with a ship sent downriver to the factory filled with 300 Pinkerton agents, who were spotted by the guards the workers set and warned not to disembark. When they ignored the warning, shots broke out on both sides, and after a battle lasting 14 hours, seven workers and three operatives lay dead with many more wounded. Temporarily set back, the Pinkerton guards surrendered.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">//Pennsylvania state militia enters Homestead to quell the violence.// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**Conclusion** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Shortly thereafter, the Pennsylvania state militia arrived and seized control of the factory, which they retained under guard. Steel production began again with temporary workers Frisk brought in from out of town, and after four months the old workers of the factory relented and returned to their jobs.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">//Strikebreakers ("scabs") brought in to replace the striking workers in the months following the strike.// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px;">

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">**Effects**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">//"Everywhere were grimy men with sallow and lean faces. The work was of the inhuman sort that hardens and coarsens."// - Hamlin Garland.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**Immediate Effects** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The most noticeable affect of the entire string of events was that AAISW union was dissolved and no worker union would gain a foothold around Pittsburg's Monongahela River for 40 years. Steel industrialists ruled entirely without opposition.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**Long-term Effects** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Looking back on history, the Homestead strike helped reveal the changes sweeping U.S. during Second Industrial Revolution. It showed the limited ability of organized labor to improve worker conditions, and helped signal a shift in the balance of power away from workers and towards the company.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">**Citations**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**Sources**
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"Homestead Strike." //Abc-Clio//. Accessed 14 May 2011; available from http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/909246?terms=Homestead+Strike+of+1892.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Burgoyne, Arthur G. //The Homestead Strike of 1892// [book on-line]. Pittsburg, PA: Rawsthorne Engraving and Printing Co., 1914, accessed 14 May 2011; available from http://books.google.com/books?id=pVDqcWY7BF0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=homestead+strike&source=bl&ots=UCDeQS-JL2&sig=EqCKcG8bs02zFLsj7L_o_dOYSh4&hl=en&ei=42bfS_ryH4nc9ATMktStBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CC4Q6AEwCTge#v=onepage&q&f=false.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Garland, Hamlin. "Homestead and it's Perilous Trades: Impressions of a visit" [article on-line]. //McClure's Magazine//, June 1894. Accessed 14 May 2011; available from http://www1.assumption.edu/users/mcclymer/His130/P-H/shootingFrick/default.html.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Emma Goldman. //Living My Life// [document on-line]. Accessed 14 May 2011; available from <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">http://www1.assumption.edu/users/mcclymer/His130/P-H/shootingFrick/default.html.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"Homestead." //Digital History//. Accessed 14 May 2011; available from [].

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**Pictography**
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">[]
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">[]