The Most Significant Strike of the Late 1800’s

Name
Institution

The Most Significant Strike of the Late 1800’s
In our times, we have heard, seen, or experienced several strikes. For instance, the 2007 writers’ strike is one of the most recent and famous similar events. Strikes, sometimes referred to as industrial actions, have a long history. They have been present throughout the human history, with some going on record and having resulted in major bloodshed. The 1880’s are famous for recording the most severe strikes in history. The Homestead strike of 1892 is arguably the most significant one of the late 1800’s.
The Amalgamated Association (AA) of Iron and Steel Workers, who were fighting the proactive attempts by the Carnegie Steel Company to break the workers union, led the strike. Henry Frick, who had been put in charge of Carnegie Steel Mills, was determined to eliminate the workers union. This is because through the union, the workers were gaining a command voice, which has successfully bargained an increase in worker’s pay in 1889 (Goldberg, 2003). In January 1992, Carnegie, through the then in charge, Henry Frick, proposed an eighteen percent wage reduction. Negotiations with the AA union, which was the biggest union in the U.S. by then, broke down in June, and Frick announced that he would cease to acknowledge the union as from June 24 (Aronoff, 2011). The strike broke out on July 2, when the entire staff was laid off, starting with those who belonged to the union. Consequently, the plant was closed down (Goldberg, 2003). The AA called for an emergency meeting, during which they encouraged all the workers to join the union.
The strike, which continued until November that year, achieved several accomplishments. The main accomplishment was that the mineworkers became more united, and the AA union membership increased greatly (Aronoff, 2011). In addition, it influenced the congress to pass a bill on collective bargaining as a labor right. Throughout the four months of the strike, the workers managed to maintain control of their town and the plant, such that their positions were not given up because the production remained with scab workers (Aronoff, 2011). Nevertheless, the company tried to prosecute 160 strikers and the AA advisory committee; however, none of them was acquitted (Aronoff, 2011). Despite these accomplishments, it failed in some aspects. One major failure was that the steel workers failed to unionize. This led to the break of the union as some laborers and mechanics asked to be set free from AA demands, and instead, they resumed to work as from November 17, 1892. The strike led to the deaths of nine workers and three guards (Aronoff, 2011). In the end, the homestead strike workers union was defeated.
Although strikes have enabled people to air their grievances and reach to mutual agreements in some instances, they are not the best means to an end. They lead to serious damages. For instance, the homestead strike led to loss of lives. Instead, negotiation and mediation, among other safer approaches, should be used to solve the conflicts that lead to strikes.

References
Aronoff, K. (2011). U.S. Homestead Steel workers strike to protect unions and wages, 1892. Global Nonviolent Action Database. Retrieved February 8, 2014, from http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/us-homestead steel-workers-strike-protect unions-and-wages-1892
Goldberg, J. C. (2003). A Blow to Labor: The Homestead Strike of 1892. The Concord Review, 137-158. Retrieved February 8, 2014, from http://www.tcr.org/tcr/essays/EPrize_Homestead.pdf