Homestead Strike

In 1892, the Carnegie Steel Company in Homestead, Pennsylvania fired workers from the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers Union. A bloodstained altercation proceeded between the workers and the appointed Pinkerton security guards, eventually killing 16 people and involving countless injuries. The ensuing strike persisted for over four months. The militia marched into Homestead, Congress held hearings in Homestead, thirty-three steel workers were charged with treason, and anarchist Alexander Birkman tried to assassinate Carnegie Steel Company Chairman Henry Clay Frick. Eventually, the Amalgamated Association union voted to halt limitations on working at the Carnegie Steel Company, leaving the union essentially ruined. The strike motivated workers, but it emphasized how challenging it was for unions to question the collective influence of companies and the government (Demarest, 2008). Its important to remember that the influence of big money ultimately won out and the strike, after a few months, was broken down. However, it facilitated an influential trade union movement in the steel industry where regulation and struggles for justice, became the lucrative technique of preference for workers struggling for their rights.

Demarest, David. “1892 Homestead Strike: AFL-CIO.” AFL-CIO, 2008. https://aflcio.org/about/history/labor-history-events/1892-homestead-strike.

This gives a detailed summary highlighting how the Homestead strike that transpired.

The Homestead riot / drawn by W.P. Snyder after a photograph by Dabbs, Pittsburg. Pennsylvania Homestead, 1892. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/00650151/.

Pinkerton men leave the barges after their surrender during the Homestead strike.