Homestead Strike

Homestead strike, in U.S. history, a bitterly fought labor dispute. On June 29, 1892, workers belonging to the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers struck the Carnegie Steel Company at Homestead, Pa. to protest a proposed wage cut. Henry C. Frick, the company's general manager, determined to break the union. He hired 300 Pinkerton detectives to protect the plant and strikebreakers. After an armed battle between the workers and the detectives on July 6, in which several men were killed or wounded, the governor called out the state militia. The plant opened, nonunion workers stayed on the job, and the strike, which was officially called off on Nov. 20, was broken. The Homestead strike led to a serious weakening of unionism in the steel industry until the 1930s.

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Homestead Strike

U.S. labour strike at Andrew Carnegie's steelworks in Homestead, Pa., in July 1892. When the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers went on strike following a wage cut, the company's manager, Henry Clay Frick, hired strikebreakers, with Pinkerton Agency detectives to protect them. A gun battle resulted in which several people were killed and many injured; the governor sent state militiamen to support the company. The broken strike represented a major setback to the union movement that was felt for decades.

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Homestead Strike 

a strike of workers at the steelworks in Homestead, Pa., from June to November 1892, one of the sharpest class conflicts in the history of the US workers’ movement of the late 19th and early 20th century. The immediate cause of the strike was the lockout announced on June 30 in answer to the workers’ protests against the company’s demands for lower wages. Approximately 8,000 people took part in the strike. On July 12 troops were brought into the city, but the workers continued the struggle until November 20. A major reason for the defeat of the strike was the refusal of the leaders of the American Federation of Labor to organize a movement of solidarity with the strikers.