Robert E. Pattison
131-588: The Homestead strike , also known as the Homestead steel strike , Homestead massacre , or Battle of Homestead , was an industrial lockout and strike that began on July 1, 1892, culminating in a battle in which strikers defeated private security agents on July 6, 1892. The governor responded by sending in the National Guard to protect strikebreakers. The dispute occurred at the Homestead Steel Works in
262-404: A New York anarchist with no connection to steel or to organized labor, plotted with his lover Emma Goldman to assassinate Frick. He came in from New York, gained entrance to Frick's office, then shot and stabbed the executive. Frick survived and continued his role; Berkman was sentenced to 22 years in prison. The Berkman assassination attempt undermined public support for the union and prompted
393-610: A billion dollars of debt. One in four laborers in New York were out of work in the winter of 1873–1874. National construction of new rail lines dropped from 7,500 miles of track in 1872 to just 1,600 miles in 1875, and production in iron and steel alone dropped as much as 45%. When the Civil War ended, a boom in railroad construction ensued, with roughly 35,000 miles (55,000 kilometers) of new track being laid from coast to coast between 1866 and 1873. The railroads, then
524-516: A church, a political party or a trade union; that it is our duty as American citizens to resist by every legal and ordinary means the unconstitutional, anarchic and revolutionary policy of the Carnegie Company, which seems to evince a contempt [for] public and private interests and a disdain [for] the public conscience. . . . The strikers were determined to keep the plant closed. They secured a steam-powered river launch and several rowboats to patrol
655-428: A complete victory for the union. The AA struck the steel plant again on July 1, 1889, when negotiations for a new three-year collective bargaining agreement failed. The strikers seized the town and once again made common cause with various immigrant groups. Backed by 2,000 townspeople, the strikers drove off a trainload of strikebreakers on July 10. When the sheriff returned with 125 newly deputized agents two days later,
786-507: A large scale around the world during and after industrialization. Some of the lockout incidents are historically significant. The Dublin Lockout was a major industrial dispute between 20,000 workers and 300 employers in Dublin . The dispute lasted from 26 August 1913 to 18 January 1914, and is often viewed as the most severe and significant industrial dispute in the history of Ireland . Central to
917-557: A lockout of all domestic employees in the face of ongoing union industrial action . That cancelled all flights, grounding the entire fleet for several days. On August 15, 2005, 5,500 employees of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation , a Canadian public broadcaster were locked out by CEO Robert Rabinovitch in a dispute over future hiring practices. While services continued during the lock-out, programming consisted mainly of repeats, with news coverage being provided by
1048-435: A lockout. In September 2016, Long Island University became the first institution of higher education to use a lockout against its faculty members. On 8 April, 1998, stevedoring company Patrick Corporation sought to restructure its operations for productivity reasons. In an industrial watershed event , it sacked all its workers and imposed a lockout on wharves around Australia. On 29 October 2011, Qantas declared
1179-400: A national organization of predominately white Catholic workers, numbering 700,000 by the early 1880s. In the 1880s nearly 10,000 strike actions and lockouts took place. In 1886 nearly 700,000 workers went on strike. Business leaders strengthened their opposition to the unions, often firing men who tried to organize or join them. Nonetheless, the labor movement continued to grow. One result of
1310-511: A regiment for a week were also taken from the barges. On July 7, the strike committee sent a telegram to Governor Pattison to attempt to persuade him that law and order had been restored in the town. Pattison replied that he had heard differently. Union officials traveled to Harrisburg and met with Pattison on July 9. Their discussions revolved not around law and order, but the safety of the Carnegie plant. Pattison, however, remained unconvinced by
1441-464: A riot against the local Chinese population. This led to new alliances between workers and small business owners aimed at refusing to hire Chinese laborers and boycotting Chinese goods. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began to lose momentum when President Rutherford B. Hayes sent federal troops from city to city. This was a prime example of the U.S. military being used against industrial action. General Phillip Sheridan and his troops were sent from
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#17330852163851572-658: A small wage increase as compensation. The term lock-in refers to the practice of physically preventing workers from leaving a workplace. In most jurisdictions, it is illegal, but it is occasionally reported, especially in some developing countries. Lock-ins should not be confused with a sitdown strike , like the Flint sit-down strike between the United Automobile Workers and General Motors Corporation . More recently, lock-ins have been carried out by employees against management, which have been labeled ' bossnapping ' by
1703-478: A strike. For the above reasons, many American employers have historically been reluctant to impose lockouts and instead try to provoke a strike. However, as American unions have increasingly begun to resort to slowdowns rather than strikes, lockouts have become a more common tactic of many employers. Even as strikes are on the decline, lockouts are on the rise in the US. In 1892, after several wage cuts and disputes with
1834-413: A striker while trying to operate a switch , with the militiaman returning fire. Both were wounded, and the striker died. In the end, the militia failed to get the trains moving again, as strikebreakers were unwilling to operate them. Matthews then requested federal troops, which newly elected President Rutherford Hayes reluctantly agreed to send. The B&O billed the federal government for transporting
1965-431: A train arrival then proceeded to barrage the train with projectiles. The arrival of militiamen caused the crowd to rouse and throw their projectiles at the militia. A second night proceeded of attacks on the rail line. After the second night, the mayor rescinded the militia and ordered local police to protect the rail. Workers in the cities in industries other than railroads still attacked them because of how they cut through
2096-461: A year, since September 1892. Lockout (industry) A lockout is a work stoppage or denial of employment initiated by the management of a company during a labor dispute . In contrast to a strike , in which employees refuse to work, a lockout is initiated by employers or industry owners. Lockouts are usually implemented by simply refusing to admit employees onto company premises, and may include changing locks or hiring security guards for
2227-570: Is also caused by disagreement between employer and employees in a certain department. Great Railroad Strike of 1877 Monroe Heath The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 , sometimes referred to as the Great Upheaval , began on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia , after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) cut wages for the third time in a year. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
2358-474: Is generally an attempt to enforce specific terms of employment upon a group of employees during a dispute. It is often used to force unionized workers to accept new conditions, such as lower wages. If the union is asking for higher wages, better benefits, or maintaining benefits, a manager may use the threat of a lockout – or an actual lockout – to convince the union to relent. Far from all labour disputes involve lockouts (or strikes), but lockouts have been used on
2489-491: The Chicago Times screamed, "Terrors Reign, The Streets of Chicago Given Over to Howling Mobs of Thieves and Cutthroats". Order was finally restored. An estimated 20 men and boys died, none of whom were law enforcement or troops; scores more were wounded, and the loss of property was valued in the millions of dollars. On July 21, workers in the industrial rail hub of East St. Louis , Illinois, halted all freight traffic, with
2620-598: The BBC on TV and wire-service feeds on radio. The lock-out ended on October 11, 2005. On 2 April 2013, the Danish Union of Teachers ( Danish : Danmarks Lærerforening ) and the National Union of Municipalities ( Danish : Kommunernes Landsforening ) declared a lockout for more than 60,000 primary school teachers across the country. Over 600,000 students were also affected by the lockout and could not go to school. The dispute
2751-626: The Midwest after the Civil War, leaving many cities defenseless to civil unrest. In response to the Great Strike, West Virginia Governor Henry M. Mathews was the first state commander-in-chief to call up militia units to restore peace. This action has been viewed in retrospect as a catalyst that would transform the National Guard. In the years to come, the Guard would quell strikers and double their forces; in
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#17330852163852882-535: The Monongahela River , which ran alongside the plant. Men also divided themselves into units along military lines. Picket lines were thrown up around the plant and the town, and 24-hour shifts established. Ferries and trains were watched. Strangers were challenged to give explanations for their presence in town; if one was not forthcoming, they were escorted outside the city limits. Telegraph communications with AA locals in other cities were established to keep tabs on
3013-765: The National Basketball Association in the 1995 offseason , the 1996 offseason , and the 1998–99 and 2011–12 seasons , the National Hockey League in the 1994–95 , 2004–05 and 2012–13 seasons, and the National Football League in the 2011 offseason . The controversial 2012 NFL referee lockout involved referees, not players. In 2005, the NHL became the first major professional sports league in North America to cancel an entire season due to
3144-643: The Pittsburgh -area town of Homestead, Pennsylvania , between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (the AA) and the Carnegie Steel Company . The final result was a major defeat for the union strikers and a setback for their efforts to unionize steelworkers. The battle was a pivotal event in U.S. labor history . Carnegie Steel made major technological innovations in the 1880s, especially
3275-840: The Populist Party . The strike ultimately led to increased membership in the Knights of Labor as well. Labor rights became a major national issue for both the Republican and Democratic Parties due to the strike. The Bureau of Labor was also formed by Congress in 1884 after the national call for labor rights and the aftermath of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Strikers in Pittsburgh burned in total 39 buildings, 104 engines, 46–66 passenger cars, and 1,200–1,383 freight cars. Damage estimates ranged from five to 10 million dollars. After
3406-644: The Workingmen's Party organized demonstrations that drew crowds of 20,000 people. Judge Thomas Drummond of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit , who was overseeing numerous railroads that had declared bankruptcy in the wake of the earlier financial Panic of 1873 , ruled that, "A strike or other unlawful interference with the trains will be a violation of the United States law, and
3537-520: The 3rd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment under the command of Colonel George R. Snowden . On July 21, National Guard members bayoneted and fired on rock-throwing strikers, killing 20 people and wounding 29. Rather than quell the uprising, these actions infuriated the strikers, who retaliated and forced the National Guard to take refuge in a railroad roundhouse . Strikers set fires that razed 39 buildings and destroyed rolling stock, including 104 locomotives and 1,245 freight and passenger cars. On July 22,
3668-516: The AA. Workers at Carnegie plants in Pittsburgh , Duquesne , Union Mills and Beaver Falls struck in sympathy the same day. The Declaration of the Strike Committee, dated July 20, 1892 reads in part, The employees in the mill of Messrs. Carnegie, Phipps & Co., at Homestead, Pa., have built there a town with its homes, its schools and its churches; have for many years been faithful co-workers with
3799-593: The Advisory Committee on August 30 for making itself the law. Most of the men could not raise the bail bond, and went to jail or into hiding. A compromise was reached whereby both sides dropped their charges. Support for the strikers evaporated. The AFL refused to call for a boycott of Carnegie products in September 1892. Wholesale crossing of the picket line occurred, first among Eastern European immigrants and then among all workers. The strike had collapsed so much that
3930-626: The B&;O's general headquarters and main depot at the Camden Street Station to board waiting westward trains to Hagerstown and Cumberland. The Sixth assembled at its armory at East Fayette and North Front Streets (by the old Phoenix Shot Tower ) in the Old Town /Jonestown area and headed to Camden. It had to fight its way west through sympathetic Baltimore citizens, rioters and striking workers. The march erupted into bloodshed along Baltimore Street,
4061-528: The Civil War as the Maryland National Guard , were called up by Maryland Governor John Lee Carroll , at the request of powerful B&O President John Work Garrett. The Fifth marched down North Howard Street from its armory above the old Richmond Market (at present North Howard and West Read Streets) in the Mount Vernon-Belvedere neighborhood and were generally unopposed heading south for
Homestead strike - Misplaced Pages Continue
4192-531: The Co. as an increase of pay." Despite the strike not resulting in an immediate acceptance of worker demands, over the next several years many railroads restored all or part of the initial pay cuts and were reluctant to put further pressure on wages. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 led to the rise of certain political parties including the Workingmen's Party of the United States , the Greenback-Labor Party , and
4323-643: The Great Plains to Chicago to break up the strike. Federal troops from the South previously used in the Reconstruction after the Civil War were also sent to the striking cities to disperse the crowds. These troops from the South had just been guarding the statehouse in Louisiana a few weeks earlier. They were sent to stop the riots of both the railroad laborers and the residents of the striking cities. Many residents in
4454-415: The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, union organizers planned for their next battles while politicians and business leaders took steps to prevent a repetition of this chaos. Many states enacted conspiracy statutes . States formed new National Guard units and constructed armories in numerous industrial cities. For workers and employers alike, the strikes had shown the power of workers in combination to challenge
4585-579: The Homestead plant. Weihe wanted to prevent further trouble at Homestead, so he pleaded with Frick to confer with representatives of the Amalgamated to return to Homestead and stop the armed conflict. Weihe urged the strikers to let the Pinkertons surrender, but he was shouted down. Weihe tried to speak again, but this time his pleas were drowned out as the strikers bombarded the barges with fireworks left over from
4716-621: The National Guard mounted an assault on the strikers, shooting their way out of the roundhouse and killing 20 more people on their way out of the city. After more than a month of rioting and bloodshed in Pittsburgh, President Rutherford B. Hayes sent in federal troops as in West Virginia and Maryland to end the strikes. Three hundred miles to the east, Philadelphia strikers battled local National Guard units and set fire to much of downtown before Pennsylvania Governor John Hartranft gained assistance and federal troops from President Hayes to put down
4847-578: The National Guard, federal troops and private militias organized by the railroads, who all fought against the workers. Disruption was widespread and at its height, the strikes were supported by about 100,000 workers. With the intervention of federal troops in several locations, most of the strikes were suppressed by early August 1877. Labor continued to work to organize into unions to work for better wages and conditions. Fearing future social disruption, many cities built armories to support local National Guard units; these defensive buildings still stand as symbols of
4978-495: The Pinkertons shot first. The newspaper reported that the Pinkertons opened fire and wounded William Foy, a worker. Regardless of which side opened fire first, the first two individuals wounded were Frederick Heinde, captain of the Pinkertons, and Foy. The Pinkerton agents aboard the barges then fired into the crowd, killing two and wounding eleven. The crowd responded in kind, killing two and wounding twelve. The firefight continued for about 10 minutes. The strikers then huddled behind
5109-537: The agents themselves, who died was seven and who were wounded was eleven. According to one newspaper report, an agent under cannon fire jumped off a barge and drowned. John Shingle, the captain of the steamboat Little Bill was killed. Between thirty-three to thirty-five agents and one crewman of the Little Bill were reported in the hospital injured. The total number of captured Pinkertons was 324. A roster of 266 names and 360 Winchester rifles and enough provisions to feed
5240-496: The agreement with the strikers) but rather simply released. The announcement was made with the full concurrence of the AA attorney. A special train whisked the Pinkerton agents out of the city at 10:00 a.m. on July 7. William Pinkerton in his testimony before Congress stated that three Pinkerton agents died in the strike—two because of injuries and a third injured agent committed suicide. The total number of Pinkertons, according to
5371-688: The arrival of the Illinois National Guard and U.S. Army troops, mobilized by the governor. On July 25, violence between police and the mob erupted, with events reaching a peak the following day. These blood-soaked confrontations between police and enraged mobs are known as the Battle of the Viaduct , as they took place near the Halsted Street viaduct, although confrontations also took place at nearby 16th Street, on 12th, and on Canal Street. The headline of
Homestead strike - Misplaced Pages Continue
5502-498: The barges, but strike leaders shouted for restraint. The Pinkerton agents attempted to disembark, and more shots were fired. Conflicting testimony exists as to which side fired the first shot in this encounter. (Shooting having begun earlier when the barges were being towed up the river) John T. McCurry, a boatman on the steamboat Little Bill (which had been hired by the Pinkerton Detective Agency to ferry its agents to
5633-415: The barges. The strikers then loaded a railroad flatcar with drums of oil and set it afire. The flatcar hurtled down the rails toward the mill's wharf where the barges were docked. But the car stopped at the water's edge and burned itself out. Dynamite was thrown at the barges, but it only hit the mark once (causing a little damage to one barge). At 2:00 p.m., the workers poured oil onto the river, hoping
5764-518: The cities and dominated city life. Their resentment of the railroads' economic power was expressed in physical attacks against them at a time when many workers' wages were lowered. Protestors "included cross-class elements from other work sites, small businesses, and commercial establishments. Some protestors acted out of solidarity with the strikers, but many more vented militant displeasure against dangerous railroad traffic that crisscrossed urban centers in that area." Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , became
5895-407: The cities of Buffalo , Syracuse , and Albany, New York , joined the railroad workers in the strike because they were tired of their urban streets being used by the railroad companies. The railroads that ran through these cities were often very dangerous and caused plenty of issues for urban businesses and city dwellers alike. Even with the combined efforts of the railroad strikers and upset citizens,
6026-456: The city remaining in the control of the strikers for almost a week. The St. Louis Workingman's Party led a group of approximately 500 men across the Missouri River in an act of solidarity with the nearly 1,000 workers on strike. It was a catalyst for labor unrest spreading, with thousands of workers in several industries striking for the eight-hour day and a ban on child labor . This was
6157-479: The company in the business of the mill; have invested thousands of dollars of their savings in said mill in the expectation of spending their lives in Homestead and of working in the mill during the period of their efficiency. … "Therefore, the committee desires to express to the public as its firm belief that both the public and the employees aforesaid have equitable rights and interests in the said mill which cannot be modified or diverted without due process of law; that
6288-598: The company's attempts to hire replacement workers. Reporters were issued special badges which gave them safe passage through the town, but the badges were withdrawn if it was felt misleading or false information made it into the news. Tavern owners were even asked to prevent excessive drinking. Frick was also busy. The company placed ads for replacement workers in newspapers as far away as Boston , St. Louis and even Europe. But unprotected strikebreakers would be driven off. On July 4, Frick formally requested that Sheriff William H. McCleary intervene to allow supervisors access to
6419-501: The construction of a solid board fence topped with barbed wire around mill property. The workers dubbed the newly fortified mill "Fort Frick". Frick's intent was to open the works with nonunion men on July 6. Knox devised a plan to get the Pinkertons onto the mill property. With the mill ringed by striking workers, agents from the Pinkerton National Detective Agency , which Frick had contracted to provide security at
6550-461: The court will be bound to take notice of it and enforce the penalty". Drummond told the U.S. Marshals to protect the railroads and asked for federal troops to enforce his decision; he subsequently had strikers arrested and tried them for contempt of court . The Mayor of Chicago , Monroe Heath , recruited 5,000 men as an unofficial militia, asking for help in restoring order. They were partially successful, and shortly thereafter were reinforced by
6681-420: The crowd ransacked the barges, then burned them to the waterline. As the Pinkertons were marched through town to the opera house (which served as a temporary jail), the townspeople continued to assault the agents. The press expressed shock at the treatment of the Pinkerton agents, and the torrent of abuse helped turn media sympathies away from the strikers. The strike committee met with the town council to discuss
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#17330852163856812-719: The deaths of two persons. On August 1, 1877, in Scranton in northeast Pennsylvania, one day after railroad workers commenced a strike, a city posse of 51 men armed with new rifles and under the command of William Walker Scranton , general manager of the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company , returned fire on a group of rioters, strikers, and, most likely, bystanders. The posse immediately killed or fatally wounded four and wounded an undetermined number of others, estimated at 20 to 50, according to different sources. Pennsylvania Governor Hartranft declared Scranton to be under martial law; it
6943-485: The dispute was the right to unionize . In the United States , under federal labor law , an employer may hire only temporary replacements during a lockout. In a strike, unless it is an unfair labor practice strike, an employer may legally hire permanent replacements. Also, in many US states , employees who are locked out are eligible to receive unemployment benefits , but they are not eligible for such benefits during
7074-433: The effort to suppress the labor unrest of this period. With public attention on workers' wages and conditions, the B&O in 1880 founded an Employee Relief Association to provide death benefits and some health care. In 1884, it established a worker pension plan. Other improvements were implemented later. The Long Depression , beginning in the United States with the financial Panic of 1873 and lasting 65 months, became
7205-408: The employees have the right to continuous employment in the said mill during efficiency and good behavior without regard to religious, political or economic opinions or associations; that it is against public policy and subversive of the fundamental principles of American liberty that a whole community of workers should be denied employment or suffer any other social detriment on account of membership in
7336-498: The employers at the Homestead Steel Mill in Homestead, Pennsylvania , the union called for a strike after the company stopped discussing its decisions with the union. Henry Clay Frick shut down the plant and locked out all workers, preventing them from entering the mill. Recent notable lockout incidents have been reported in professional sports, notably involving Major League Baseball in the 1990 and 2021–22 offseasons,
7467-420: The end, only four workers were ever tried on the actual charges filed on July 18. Three AA members were found innocent of all charges. Hugh Dempsey, the leader of the local Knights of Labor District Assembly, was found guilty of conspiring to poison nonunion workers at the plant—despite the state's star witness recanting his testimony on the stand. Dempsey served a seven-year prison term. In February 1893, Knox and
7598-543: The final collapse of the strike. Hugh O'Donnell was removed as chair of the strike committee when he proposed to return to work at the lower wage scale if the unionists could get their jobs back. On August 12, the company announced that 1,700 men were working at the mill and production had resumed at full capacity. The national AFL refused to intervene, the East European workers ignored the union and it had no strategy left. The union voted to go back to work on Carnegie's terms;
7729-514: The first such general strike in the United States. The strike on both sides of the river was ended after the governor appealed for help and gained the intervention of some 3,000 federal troops and 5,000 deputized special police. These armed forces killed at least eighteen people in skirmishes around the city. On July 28, 1877, they took control of the Relay Depot, the command center for the uprising, and arrested some seventy strikers. When news of
7860-564: The handover of the agents to McCleary. But the real talks were taking place between McCleary and Weihe in McCleary's office. At 10:15 p.m., the two sides agreed to a transfer process. A special train arrived at 12:30 a.m. on July 7. McCleary, the international AA's lawyer and several town officials accompanied the Pinkerton agents to Pittsburgh. But when the Pinkerton agents arrived at their final destination in Pittsburgh, state officials declared that they would not be charged with murder (per
7991-455: The hills overlooking the steelworks. A 20-pounder brass cannon was set up on the shore opposite the steel mill, and an attempt was made to sink the barges. Six miles away in Pittsburgh, thousands of steelworkers gathered in the streets, listening to accounts of the attacks at Homestead; hundreds, many of them armed, began to move toward the town to assist the strikers. The Pinkertons attempted to disembark again at 8:00 a.m. A striker high up
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#17330852163858122-401: The independently owned Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Works in Homestead in 1881. The AA engaged in a strike at the Homestead works on January 1, 1882, in an effort to prevent management from including a non-union clause in the workers' contracts, known as a " yellow-dog contract ". The violence occurred on both sides, and the plant brought in numerous strikebreakers . The strike ended on March 20, in
8253-540: The installation of the open-hearth system at Homestead in 1886. It now became possible to make steel suitable for structural beams and for armor plate for the United States Navy , which paid far higher prices for the premium product. In addition, the plant moved increasingly toward the continuous system of production. Carnegie installed vastly improved systems of material-handling, like overhead cranes, hoists, charging machines, and buggies. All of this greatly sped up
8384-473: The leaders of the local AA union entered into negotiations in February. With the steel industry doing well and prices higher, the AA asked for a wage increase; the AA represented about 800 of the 3,800 workers at the plant. Frick immediately countered with a 22% wage decrease that would affect nearly half the union's membership and remove a number of positions from the bargaining unit. Carnegie encouraged Frick to use
8515-715: The longest economic contraction in American history, including the later more famous, 45-month-long Great Depression of the 1930s. The failure of the Jay Cooke bank in New York was followed quickly by that of Henry Clews , and this set off a chain reaction of bank failures, temporarily closing the New York stock market. Unemployment rose dramatically, reaching 14 percent by 1876, with many more severely underemployed , and wages overall dropping to 45% of their previous level. Thousands of American businesses failed, defaulting on more than
8646-523: The main downtown commercial thoroughfare and the way to get to Camden. It was a horrible scene reminiscent of the worst of the bloody "Pratt Street Riots" of the Civil War era in April 1861, over 15 years earlier. When the outnumbered troops of the 6th Regiment finally fired volleys on an attacking crowd, they killed 10 civilians and wounded 25. The rioters injured several members of the National Guard, damaged B&O engines and train cars, and burned portions of
8777-500: The mainstream media. In France during March 2009, 3M 's national manager was locked in his office for 24 hours by employees in a dispute over redundancies. The following month, union employees of a call center managed by Synovate in Auckland locked the front doors of the office, in response to management locking them out. Such practices bear some resemblance to the gherao in India. It
8908-458: The master of this situation." More than 4,000 soldiers surrounded the plant. Within 20 minutes they had displaced the picketers; by 10:00 a.m., company officials were back in their offices. Another 2,000 troops camped on the high ground overlooking the city. The company quickly brought in strikebreakers and restarted production under the protection of the militia. Despite the presence of AFL pickets in front of several recruitment offices across
9039-408: The mid-1800s had prompted the modernization of police forces, the violence of 1877 provided the impetus for modernizing the National Guard, "to aid the civil officers, to suppress or prevent riot or insurrections". In 2003 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Martinsburg Shops , where the strike began, were declared a National Historic Landmark . In 2013 a historical marker commemorating the event
9170-622: The modern age of labor relations in the United States. The AA strike at the Homestead steel mill in 1892 was different from previous large-scale strikes in American history such as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 or the Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886 . Earlier strikes had been largely leaderless and disorganized mass uprisings of workers. Andrew Carnegie placed industrialist Henry Clay Frick in charge of his company's operations in 1881. Frick resolved to break
9301-472: The more likely it was that Governor Robert E. Pattison would call out the state militia. Sheriff McCleary resisted attempts to call for state intervention until 10 a.m. on July 6. In a telegram to Governor Pattison, he described how his deputies and the Carnegie men had been driven off, and noted that the workers and their supporters actively resisting the landing numbered nearly 5,000. Pattison responded by requiring McCleary to exhaust every effort to restore
9432-431: The morning. When the tug attempted to retrieve the barges at 10:50 a.m., gunfire drove it off. More than 300 riflemen positioned themselves on the high ground and kept a steady stream of fire on the barges. Just before noon, a sniper shot and killed another Pinkerton agent. A Pinkerton agent on one of the barges was A.L. Wells, a Bennett Medical College student, who had joined the "expedition" to earn enough money during
9563-432: The nation, Frick easily found employees to work the mill. The company quickly built bunk houses, dining halls and kitchens on the mill grounds to accommodate the strikebreakers. New employees, many of them black, arrived on July 13, and the mill furnaces relit on July 15. When a few workers attempted to storm into the plant to stop the relighting of the furnaces, militiamen fought them off and wounded six with bayonets. But all
9694-493: The need to act. He had been elected with the backing of a Carnegie-supported political machine, and he could no longer refuse to protect Carnegie interests. The steelworkers resolved to meet the militia with open arms, hoping to establish good relations with the troops. But the militia managed to keep its arrival to the town a secret almost to the last moment. At 9:00 a.m. on July 12, the Pennsylvania state militia arrived at
9825-503: The negotiations to break the union: "...the Firm has decided that the minority must give way to the majority. These works, therefore, will be necessarily non-union after the expiration of the present agreement." Carnegie believed that the Amalgamated was a hindrance to efficiency; furthermore it was not representative of the workers. It admitted only a small group of skilled workers. It was in its own way an elitist, discriminatory organization that
9956-449: The new immigrant workers were Catholics , and their church had forbidden participation in secret societies since 1743, partially as a reaction against the anti-Catholicism of Freemasonry . But by the late 19th century, the Knights of Labor (KOL), a national and predominately European and Catholic organization, had 700,000 members seeking to represent all workers. In 1888, Archbishop James Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore sympathized with
10087-410: The oil slick would burn the barges; attempts to light the slick failed. The AA worked behind the scenes to avoid further bloodshed and defuse the tense situation. At 9:00 a.m., outgoing AA international president William Weihe rushed to the sheriff's office and asked McCleary to convey a request to Frick to meet. McCleary did so, but Frick refused. He knew that the more chaotic the situation became,
10218-420: The only railroad bridge offering connections to the west, in order to prevent local National Guard companies from being mustered to actions in the state capital of Harrisburg or Pittsburgh. Authorities used the National Guard, Coal and Iron Police , and Pinkerton detectives in an attempt to break the strike. Philadelphia and Reading Railway management mobilized a private militia, the members of which committed
10349-452: The organized violence coordinated against them by local, state, and federal governments. However, the high cost of organizing such violence in both fiscal and political terms was not lost on the corporate and government leaders behind it. Robert Harris of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was quoted as saying: "A reduction of pay to employes [ sic ] may be as expensive to
10480-432: The peace. McCleary asked again for help at noon, and Pattison responded by asking how many deputies the sheriff had. A third telegram, sent at 3:00 p.m., again elicited a response from the governor exhorting McCleary to raise his own troops. At 4:00 p.m., events at the mill quickly began to wind down. More than 5,000 men—most of them armed mill hands from the nearby South Side, Braddock and Duquesne works—arrived at
10611-418: The pig and scrap iron in the mill yard, while the Pinkertons cut holes in the side of the barges so they could fire on any who approached. The Pinkerton tug departed with the wounded agents, leaving the barges stranded. The strikers soon set to work building a rampart of steel beams further up the riverbank from which they could fire down on the barges. Hundreds of women continued to crowd on the riverbank between
10742-414: The plant and strictly limited management's ability to maximize output. For its part, the AA saw substantial gains after the 1889 strike. Membership doubled, and the local union treasury had a balance of $ 146,000. The Homestead union grew belligerent, and relationships between workers and managers became tense. The Homestead strike was organized and purposeful, a harbinger of the type of strike which marked
10873-632: The plant in April 1892, planned to access the plant grounds from the river. Three hundred Pinkerton agents assembled on the Davis Island Dam on the Ohio River about five miles below Pittsburgh at 10:30 p.m. on the night of July 5, 1892. They were given Winchester rifles , placed on two specially-equipped barges and towed upriver. They were also given badges which read "Watchman, Carnegie Company, Limited". Many had been hired out of lodging houses at $ 2.50 per day and were unaware of what their assignment
11004-403: The plant were protected, reinforced, or shielded. At a mass meeting on June 30, local AA leaders reviewed the final negotiating sessions and announced that the company had broken the contract by locking out workers a day before the contract expired. The Knights of Labor , which had organized the mechanics and transportation workers at Homestead, agreed to walk out alongside the skilled workers of
11135-399: The plant. The Pinkertons attempted to land under cover of darkness about 4 a.m. A large crowd of families had kept pace with the boats as they were towed by a tug into the town. A few shots were fired at the tug and barges, but no one was injured. The crowd tore down the barbed-wire fence and strikers and their families surged onto the Homestead plant grounds. Some in the crowd threw stones at
11266-458: The plant. Carnegie corporation attorney Philander Knox gave the go-ahead to the sheriff on July 5, and McCleary dispatched 11 deputies to the town to post handbills ordering the strikers to stop interfering with the plant's operation. The strikers tore down the handbills and told the deputies that they would not turn over the plant to nonunion workers. Then they herded the deputies onto a boat and sent them downriver to Pittsburgh. Frick had ordered
11397-453: The premises. Other implementations include a fine for showing up, or a simple refusal of clocking in on the time clock . For these reasons, lockouts are referred to as the antithesis of strikes. Lockouts are common in major league sports . In the United States and Canada, the National Football League , Major League Baseball , the National Basketball Association , and the National Hockey League have all experienced lockouts. A lockout
11528-400: The process of steelmaking, and allowed the production of vastly larger quantities of the product. As the mills expanded, the labor force grew rapidly, especially with unskilled workers. However, while Carnegie Steel grew and progressed, workers at Homestead were seeing their wages drop. The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA) was an American labor union formed in 1876. It
11659-567: The rail yards, shutting down both the Baltimore and Ohio and the Illinois Central railroads. Soon, other railroads throughout the state were brought to a standstill, with demonstrators shutting down railroad traffic in Bloomington , Aurora , Peoria , Decatur , Urbana and other rail centers throughout Illinois . In sympathy, coal miners in the pits at Braidwood , LaSalle , Springfield , and Carbondale went on strike as well. In Chicago,
11790-426: The railroads, the firm had become a federal agent for the government in the government's direct financing of railroad construction. As building new track in areas where land had not yet been cleared or settled required land grants and loans that only the government could provide, the use of Jay Cooke's firm as a conduit for federal funding worsened the effects that Cooke's bankruptcy had on the nation's economy. In
11921-424: The recent Independence Day celebration. Hugh O'Donnell , a heater in the plant and head of the union's strike committee, then spoke to the crowd. He demanded that each Pinkerton be charged with murder, forced to turn over his arms and then be removed from the town. The crowd shouted their approval. The Pinkertons also wished to surrender. At 5:00 p.m., they raised a white flag and two agents asked to speak with
12052-419: The revolt caused the strike's power to dissipate as well. In total, there were likely over 100,000 people that were involved in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Of those involved, nearly 1,000 people were jailed and about 100 were killed. The strike caused over 50% of the United States' freight being carried on the railroads to stop for some time. In the end, the strikers were unable to meaningfully resist
12183-471: The riverbank fired a shot. The Pinkertons returned fire, and four more strikers were killed (one by shrapnel sent flying when cannon fire hit one of the barges). Many of the Pinkerton agents refused to participate in the firefight any longer; the agents crowded onto the barge farthest from the shore. More experienced agents were barely able to stop the new recruits from abandoning the ships and swimming away. Intermittent gunfire from both sides continued throughout
12314-473: The same percentage. By July 14, 1877, it had spread to the Martinsburg, West Virginia station where strikers refused to let freight trains pass. A crowd had gathered in support of the railroad workers. Due to violence against workers refusing to take part in the strike, and since the police proved ineffective in stopping such violence, West Virginia Governor Henry M. Matthews sent in militia forces to move trains. This resulted in one militiaman getting shot by
12445-475: The second-largest employer outside of agriculture , required large amounts of capital investment, and thus entailed massive financial risk. Speculators fed large amounts of money into the industry, causing abnormal growth and over-expansion. Jay Cooke 's firm, like many other banking firms, invested a disproportionate share of depositors' funds in the railroads, thus laying the track for the ensuing collapse. In addition to Cooke's direct infusion of capital in
12576-604: The shootings in the city. On July 25, 1,000 men and boys, many of them coal miners, marched to the Reading Railroad Depot in Shamokin , east of Sunbury along the Susquehanna River valley. They looted the depot when the town announced it would pay them only $ 1/day for emergency public employment. The mayor, who owned coal mines, organized an unofficial militia. It committed 14 civilian shooting casualties, resulting in
12707-581: The site of the worst violence of related strikes. Thomas Alexander Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad , described as one of the first robber barons , suggested that the strikers should be given "a rifle diet for a few days and see how they like that kind of bread". As in some other cities and towns, local law enforcement officers such as sheriffs, deputies and police refused to fire on the strikers. Several Pennsylvania National Guard units were ordered into service by Governor John Hartranft , including
12838-480: The small Munhall train station near the Homestead mill (rather than the downtown train station as expected). Their commander, Major General George R. Snowden , made it clear to local officials that he sided with the owners. When Hugh O'Donnell, the head of the union's strike committee attempted to welcome Snowden and pledge the cooperation of the strikers, Snowden told him that the strikers had not been law abiding, and that "I want you to distinctly understand that I am
12969-399: The state militia pulled out on October 13, ending the 95-day occupation. The AA was nearly bankrupted by the job action. Weekly union relief for a member averaged $ 6.25 but totaled a staggering $ 10,000 per week when including 1,600 strikers. With only 192 out of more than 3,800 strikers in attendance, the Homestead chapter of the AA voted, 101 to 91, to return to work on November 20, 1892. In
13100-411: The status quo. A National Guard member in Pittsburgh, ordered to break the 1877 strike, pointed out that the workers were driven by "one spirit and one purpose among them – that they were justified in resorting to any means to break down the power of the corporations". Unions became better organized as well as more competent, and the number of strikes increased. The tumultuous Knights of Labor grew to be
13231-462: The steel mill) and one of the men wounded by the strikers, said: "The armed Pinkerton men commenced to climb up the banks. Then the workmen opened fire on the detectives. The men shot first, and not until three of the Pinkerton men had fallen did they respond to the fire. I am willing to take an oath that the workmen fired first, and that the Pinkerton men did not shoot until some of their number had been wounded." But according to The New York Times ,
13362-497: The strike had failed and the union had collapsed. The company had waged a second front in state court, and was winning. On July 18, sixteen of the strike leaders were charged with conspiracy, riot and murder. Each man was jailed for one night and forced to post a $ 10,000 bond. The union retaliated by charging company executives with murder as well. The company men, too, had to post a $ 10,000 bond, but they were not forced to spend any time in jail. One judge issued treason charges against
13493-513: The strike was hurting the Republican ticket and pleading with him to reopen talks. Frick refused. Frick, too, needed a way out of the strike. The company could not operate for long with strikebreakers living on the mill grounds, and permanent replacements had to be found. On July 18, the town was placed under martial law , further disheartening many of the strikers. National attention became riveted on Homestead when, on July 23, Alexander Berkman ,
13624-502: The strike was increased public awareness of the grievances of railroad workers. On May 1, 1880, the B&;O Railroad , which had the lowest wage rate of any major railroad, established the Baltimore and Ohio Employees' Relief Association , which provided coverage for sickness, injury from accidents, and a death benefit. In 1884, the B&O became the first major employer to offer a pension plan . Militias had almost completely disappeared in
13755-400: The strikers and the agents, calling on the strikers to 'kill the Pinkertons'. The strikers continued to sporadically fire on the barges. Union members took potshots at the ships from their rowboats and the steam-powered launch. The burgess of Homestead, John McLuckie, issued a proclamation at 6:00 a.m. asking for townspeople to help defend the peace; more than 5,000 people congregated on
13886-437: The strikers rallied 5,000 townspeople to their cause. Although victorious, the union agreed to significant wage cuts that left tonnage rates less than half those at the nearby Jones and Laughlin works, where technological improvements had not yet been made. Carnegie officials conceded that the AA essentially ran the Homestead plant after the 1889 strike. The union contract contained 58 pages of footnotes defining work rules at
14017-441: The strikers' arguments. Although Pattison had ordered the Pennsylvania militia to muster on July 6, he had not formally charged it with doing anything. Pattison's refusal to act rested largely on his concern that the union controlled the entire city of Homestead and commanded the allegiance of its citizens. Pattison refused to order the town taken by force, for fear a massacre would occur. But once emotions had died down, Pattison felt
14148-512: The strikers. O'Donnell guaranteed them safe passage out of town. Upon arrival, their arms were stripped from them. With heads uncovered, to distinguish them from the mill hands, they passed along between two rows of guards armed with Winchesters. As the Pinkertons crossed the grounds of the mill, the crowd formed a gantlet through which the agents passed. Men and women threw sand and stones at the Pinkerton agents, spat on them and beat them. Several Pinkertons were clubbed into unconsciousness. Members of
14279-534: The strikes reached the west coast, the Central Pacific Railroad rescinded its 10 percent wage cut, but this did not prevent the type of worker unrest seen in the east. In San Francisco, the Workingmen's Party called for a rally on July 23, which was attended by eight to ten thousand people. Despite attempts by the organizers to focus the crowd's energy against the railroad monopolies, the rally soon turned to
14410-407: The summer months. During the fighting, he played a vital role and attended to the injured on the barge. After a few more hours, the strikers attempted to burn the barges. They seized a raft, loaded it with oil-soaked timber and floated it toward the barges. The Pinkertons nearly panicked, and a Pinkerton captain had to threaten to shoot anyone who fled. But the fire burned itself out before it reached
14541-636: The system in vogue at Edgar Thomson and Duquesne." Frick locked workers out of the plate mill and one of the open hearth furnaces on the evening of June 28. When no collective bargaining agreement was reached by June 29, Frick locked the union out of the rest of the plant. A high fence topped with barbed wire, begun in January, was completed and the plant sealed to the workers. Sniper towers with searchlights were constructed near each mill building, and high-pressure water cannons (some capable of spraying boiling-hot liquid) were placed at each entrance. Various aspects of
14672-623: The train station at South Howard and West Camden Streets. The National Guard was trapped in the Camden Yards , besieged by armed rioters. President Hayes sent 2,000 federal troops and 600 U.S. Marines to Baltimore to restore order. There were further strike actions to the north in Albany , Syracuse and Buffalo, New York , on other railroad lines. On July 25, 1877, workers gathered on Van Woert Street Rail Crossing in Albany, New York. The workers waited for
14803-420: The trains from moving, with spiraling effects in other parts of the economy. Workers continued to organize to try to improve their conditions. Employers and liberals feared the spread of communism , particularly through organizations like the Workingmen's Party recently founded in Chicago , and often drew comparisons between such movements in the United States and the recent Paris Commune of 1871. Many of
14934-405: The troops into Martinsburg, and the strike moved on to Baltimore and then to Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, the strike also spread into western Maryland to the major railroad hub of Cumberland , county seat of Allegany County where railway workers stopped freight and passenger traffic. In Baltimore , the famous Fifth ("Dandy Fifth") and Sixth Regiments of the former state militia, reorganized since
15065-428: The troops stood their ground against the strikers and obeyed the orders received from their commanders. This, combined with the strikers' sporadic and unorganized revolts, ultimately led to the downfall of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. These troops broke strike after strike, until approximately 45 days after it had started, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was over. The lack of a political leader or party's support of
15196-476: The union agreed to drop the charges filed against one another, and no further prosecutions emerged from the events at Homestead. The striking AA affiliate in Beaver Falls gave in the same day as the Homestead lodge. The AA affiliate at Union Mills held out until August 14, 1893. But by then the union had only 53 members. The union had been broken; the company had been operating the plant at full capacity for almost
15327-418: The union at Homestead. "The mills have never been able to turn out the product they should, owing to being held back by the Amalgamated men," he complained in a letter to Carnegie. Carnegie was publicly in favor of labor unions. He condemned the use of strikebreakers and told associates that no steel mill was worth a single drop of blood. But Carnegie agreed with Frick's desire to break the union and "reorganize
15458-564: The unrest across the country. In Martinsburg, Pittsburgh , Philadelphia and other cities, workers burned down and destroyed both physical facilities and the rolling stock of the railroads—engines and railroad cars. Some locals feared that workers were rising in revolution, similar to the Paris Commune of 1871 , while others joined their efforts against the railroads. At the time, the workers were not represented by trade unions . The city and state governments were aided by unofficial militias,
15589-597: The uprising. Workers in Reading , Pennsylvania's third-largest industrial city at the time, also broke out into a strike. This city was home of the engine works and shops of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway , against which engineers had struck since April 1877. The National Guard shot 16 citizens. Preludes to the massacre included fresh work stoppage by all classes of the railroad's local workforce, mass marches, blocking of rail traffic, and trainyard arson . Workers burned down
15720-496: The wake of the Panic of 1873 , a bitter antagonism between workers and the leaders of industry developed. Immigration from Europe was underway, as was migration of rural workers into the cities, increasing competition for jobs and enabling companies to drive down wages and easily lay off workers. By 1877, 10 percent wage cuts, distrust of capitalists and poor working conditions led to workers conducting numerous railroad strikes that prevented
15851-411: The whole affair, and ... exact good reasons for employing every man. Far too many men required by Amalgamated rules." Carnegie ordered the Homestead plant to manufacture large amounts of inventory so the plant could weather a strike. He also drafted a notice (which Frick never released) withdrawing recognition of the union. With the collective bargaining agreement due to expire on June 30, 1892, Frick and
15982-607: The workers and collaborated with other bishops to lift the prohibition against workers joining the KOL. Other workers also took actions, and unrest marked the following decades. In 1886, Samuel Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor for the skilled craft trades, attracting skilled workers from other groups. Other labor organizing followed. The strike began when Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad president John W. Garrett cut wages by ten per cent to increase dividends by
16113-410: The years 1886–1895, the Guard put down 328 civil disorders, mostly in the industrial states of Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York; workers came to see the guardsmen as tools of their employers. Attempts to utilize the National Guard to quell violent outbreaks in 1877 highlighted its ineffectiveness, and in some cases its propensity to side with strikers and rioters. In response, as earlier riots in
16244-493: Was a craft union representing skilled iron and steelworkers. The AA's membership was concentrated in ironworks west of the Allegheny Mountains . The union negotiated national uniform wage scales on an annual basis; helped regulate working hours, workload levels and work speeds; and helped improve working conditions. It also acted as a hiring hall , helping employers find scarce puddlers and rollers. The AA organized
16375-483: Was about whether teachers should have extra working time, as the Local Government Association (KL) wanted. The Danish Union of Teachers (DFL) was against it and could not find a solution. After 24 days of being locked out, the teachers lost the labour dispute on 25 April 2013, with a government intervention to end the lockout. The government chose to apply all of KL's main demands, and the teachers received
16506-471: Was in Homestead. The strikers were prepared for the Pinkerton agents; the AA had learned of the Pinkertons as soon as they had left Boston for the embarkation point. The small flotilla of union boats went downriver to meet the barges. Strikers on the steam launch fired a few random shots at the barges, then withdrew—blowing the launch whistle to alert the plant. The strikers blew the plant whistle at 2:30 a.m., drawing thousands of men, women and children to
16637-446: Was not well inside the plant. A race war between nonunion black and white workers in the Homestead plant broke out on July 22, 1892. Desperate to find a way to continue the strike, the AA appealed to Whitelaw Reid , the Republican candidate for vice president , on July 16. The AA offered to make no demands or set any preconditions; the union merely asked that Carnegie Steel reopen the negotiations. Reid wrote to Frick, warning him that
16768-594: Was not worthy of the republic, Carnegie felt. Frick announced on April 30, 1892, that he would bargain for 29 more days. If no contract was reached, Carnegie Steel would cease to recognize the union. Carnegie formally approved Frick's tactics on May 4. Then Frick offered a slightly better wage scale and advised the superintendent to tell the workers, "We do not care whether a man belongs to a union or not, nor do we wish to interfere. He may belong to as many unions or organizations as he chooses, but we think our employees at Homestead Steel Works would fare much better working under
16899-449: Was occupied by state and federal troops armed with Gatling guns . Later the posse leader and about 20 of his men were charged with assault and murder. They were all acquitted. Under military occupation, and suffering the effects of protracted violence against them, the miners ended their strike without achieving any of their demands. On July 24, rail traffic in Chicago was paralyzed when angry mobs of unemployed citizens wreaked havoc in
17030-508: Was placed in Baltimore , Maryland , by the Maryland Historical Trust and Maryland State Highway Administration . Its inscription reads: The first national strike began July 16, 1877, with Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia , and Baltimore, Maryland. It spread across the nation halting rail traffic and closing factories in reaction to widespread worker discontent over wage cuts and conditions during
17161-498: Was the first strike that spread across multiple states in the U.S. The strike finally ended 52 days later, after it was put down by unofficial militias, the National Guard , and federal troops. Because of economic problems and pressure on wages by the railroads, workers in numerous other states, from New York , Pennsylvania and Maryland , into Illinois and Missouri , also went out on strike. An estimated 100 people were killed in
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