On this day in Labor History the year was 1892.
That was the day that 3,800 workers at the Carnegie Steel Company, in Homestead, Pennsylvania were thrown into the streets and locked out of their jobs.
The plant was located seven miles south-east of Pittsburgh.
The general manager of the plant, Henry Clay Frick, was determined to break the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers union.
The union had won a strong contract three years before and Frick wanted to weaken their position.
The union only represented the skilled workers in the plant.
Frick calculated he could break the union, because they only accounted for less than a fifth of the work force.
But when Frick began to slash wages and demand increased production, even the unorganized workers voted overwhelmingly to support a strike.
The workers refused to accept the changes and Frick locked them out.
Conveniently Andrew Carnegie was travelling in England and Scotland during the conflict. But he supported his manager’s decisions.
Carnegie sent Frick a message reading “We approve of anything you do…we are with you to the end.”
Frick ordered the construction of a giant wall around the plant.
The wall stretched three miles long and twelve feet high and was topped with sharp barbed-wire.
The workers called it Fort Frick.
They in turn organized Homestead. Picket shifts and patrols were formed.
Henry Clay Frick sent his personal army of 300 Pinkerton on a barge to try and sneak into town.
The workers’ patrols spotted the barge and sounded an alarm.
Frick’s Pinkertons were met by thousands of workers in a bloody battle.
Nine workers and three Pinkertons were killed.
In the end Pennsylvania Governor Robert E. Pattison sent in the state militia thus clearing the way for scabs to enter the plant.
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Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show