history, which became known as the Homestead strike of 1892. The works was also the site of one of the more serious labor disputes in U.S. The company developed in the nineteenth century as an extensive plant served by tributary coal and iron fields, a railway 425 miles (684 km) long, and a line of lake steamships.

Homestead Steel Works was a large steel works located on the Monongahela River at Homestead, Pennsylvania in the United States.

Now, it provides restrooms within for visitors and cyclists traveling on the Great Allegheny Passage trail. The water tower of the pumphouse is one of the few structures remaining from the 1800s. “It set a benchmark in history where the industrialists were essentially given cart blanche to do what they wanted and see their employees as property, as opposed to having a legal right to negotiate and have a voice in the terms and conditions of their work,” he said.Steel works in Pennsylvania, United States Steel workers gaze on as molten steel is poured from ladle to casts at Homestead Steel Works. Haer believes if the strikers had prevailed there would have been shared power with management. “Had the (state) militia not intervened with hired soldiers from Philadelphia, I believe that we would have a whole different society today and a whole different workplace where workers would be earning living wages. “They won the battle but they lost the war,” she said.

“Observing the anniversary lets us reflect on the role of organized labor in fighting the extreme economic inequality endangering our nation in 2022.”īattle of Homestead Foundation board member Rosemary Trump said the Homestead Steel Strike was ultimately a disaster for the workers. “The 1892 steel strike was a defining event in America’s ongoing struggle to ensure workplace rights,” said Haer. But on that day the union workers overpowered the security agents sent to quash their efforts. The ensuing battle left 12 dead, mostly workers and townspeople along with at least two Pinkerton agents, and hundreds wounded. When the security men, members of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, crossed the Monongahela to the steel plant before dawn on that day, the workers and some of the townspeople were there to meet them. The skilled iron and steel makers were members of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, one of the largest unions at the time, according to Haer. It was on Jthat striking steel workers at the factory, embroiled in a labor dispute with owner Andrew Carnegie and determined to keep the plant closed, confronted private security agents hired by Carnegie and his chairman Henry Frick to break the strike. The building houses the only remaining fixtures of the Homestead Steel Works that date back to 1892. to noon at the Pump House on Waterfront Drive in Munhall. “It was actually a kind of workers’ republic at the time.” “The event will commemorate and celebrate the incredible solidarity of the workers and townspeople, portraying and discussing the kind of environment that existed in Homestead at the time,” said Battle of Homestead Foundation president John Haer. It’s the first in-person event for the Foundation since the start of the pandemic and will include historians and labor educators offering insights on the legacy of this seminal labor conflict. The Battle of Homestead Foundation will hold a special event on July 6 to commemorate the 130 th anniversary of a deadly confrontation that was part the Homestead Steel strike of 1892.

Homestead strike date and location