The Homestead Lockout and Strike was a violent labour dispute between the Carnegie Steel Company and its workers. Workers who belonged to the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers struck the steel company to protest a proposed wage cut; however, Henry C. Frick, the company's general manager, was determined to break the union. 300 Pinkerton detectives were hired to protect the plant from the rioters. After an armed battle between the workers and the detectives, the governor called out the state militia. The strike was then officially called off on November 20. The Homestead strike ended badly for the steel workers. Most of the strikers gave up, accepted the pay cut, and returned to work at the steel mill. The strike was a failure …show more content…
Homestead demonstrated the ability of workers to organize their struggles, resist the attacks of the capitalist class, achieve an active solidarity in struggle, organize their own power to rival the local state apparatus and exercise it judiciously. The skilled workers at the steel mills were members of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, a labor union who did a great job at bargaining good wages and work rules; therefore, Homestead's management was determined to lower its costs of production by breaking the union. Frick built a three feet long and twelve feet high fence around the plant and had deputy sheriffs swore in to guard the property in response to the workers’ vote to strike, but the workers ordered the sheriffs out of town and guarded the plant themselves. This action showcased the different attitudes the management and labor had towards the plant. The workers felt entitled in the mill and believed that the property had become theirs; whereas Carnegie viewed it as a simple moneymaker, which was why he didn’t consider how the workers would feel when he made the decision to cut