Homestead Lockout
United States 1892
Synopsis
Besides being one of the most violent episodes in American labor history, the importance of the Homestead lockout derives from two factors: the fame of the men who ran Carnegie Steel and the effect that it had on the Amalgamated Association, thought to be the strongest union of its day. In early 1892 the Carnegie Steel Company built a fence around its Homestead, Pennsylvania, mill. When its contract with the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers expired on 29 June 1892, Carnegie Steel management locked out the 3,800 employees who worked there. On the morning of 6 July, two barges carrying 300 Pinkerton agents sailed up the Monongahela River toward Homestead to protect the new nonunion workers whom Carnegie Steel planned to hire to return the mill to operation. Tipped off about their arrival, a mob met the barges and started a gun battle that lasted all day. Ten people died in the fighting, including three detectives and seven townspeople. After the Pinkertons surrendered, the crowd marched the survivors through the streets of Homestead, beating and kicking them. The agents escaped by rail that night under sheriff's custody.
On 10 July the governor of Pennsylvania called in 8,500 Pennsylvania National Guardsmen, who quickly restored order.
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