![]() ![]() Public opinion was initially against Carnegie Steel in this dispute- but not because of the bloodshed or the damage that resulted from the conflict. The strikers surrendered, and on July 12 eight thousand state troopers marched into Homestead and took control. It is not clear who fired the first shot, but when gunfire had ceased, seven strikers and three detectives were dead, with numerous others injured. With both sides armed, on July 6 they battled from 4 AM until 5 PM. Citizens of the town joined Carnegie Steel's displaced workers and confronted the Pinkerton detectives just outside the mill. By this time, workers had already barricaded themselves inside the steel plant.įrick never had the chance to carry out his plan to hire strikebreakers. He paid $5 a day to each of three hundred detectives to act as guards at the mill. In addition to the 3 miles of fencing he had built, Frick contacted Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Frick used this event as an excuse to order a lockout (an event in which workers are forbidden to work and are refused pay). Potter sent men to tear down the dummies, but Carnegie employees turned the water hoses on them. Workers soon called it “Fort Frick.”Īs meetings continued to be held without progress, frustrated workers made dummies that looked like Frick and superintendent J. Instead, he ordered the construction of a solid-wood fence topped with barbed wire built around the mill. Frick refused to consider any negotiations. Gates (1855–1911) met with Frick throughout June in the hopes of reaching a compromise that both sides could accept. The union would not accept the new contract proposed by Carnegie Steel as it required workers to accept an 18 to 26 percent decrease in wages. He had no patience for workers who complained and would not tolerate rebellion in any form. Frick was known for his hardhearted antiunion attitude. ![]() Negotiations were in the hands of Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919), chairman of Carnegie Steel. In 1892, Carnegie was out of the country visiting his homeland of Scotland. He even implied that he understood how their frustration led to violence. ![]() Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919), owner of the mill, had publicly empathized with (claimed to understand) strikers in other industries. Their expectations did not seem unrealistic. Members were expecting better terms upon expiration of the old contract. Of the eight hundred skilled workers, all but twenty were members of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers union (formally organized association of workers that advances its members' views on wages, work hours, and labor conditions). This agreement between management and labor was due to expire on June 30, 1892. But twenty and fourteen cents an hour was the average. If the market price dropped, so did wages. This means that the higher the market price (the price paid to the steel companies by other businesses who bought their product) being paid, the higher the wages would be. In 1889, these wages were paid on a sliding scale that was dependent on the market price being paid for steel. Unskilled laborers earned fourteen cents an hour. Of those employees, eight hundred were skilled and earned an average of $2.43 for a twelve-hour shift, or roughly twenty cents an hour. Of those inhabitants, just over thirty-four hundred were employed by Carnegie Steel Company. Near the end of the nineteenth century, Homestead, Pennsylvania, was a steel mill town with a population of more than ten thousand people. ![]()
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