![]() ![]() In order to protect these workers and to capture the mill back from union workers, who took over the mill several days after the lockout began, the company also recruited members of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Louis, and even some in Europe to recruit workers willing to cross the picket lines. Over the next week, the company made preparations to bring in "scab" workers placing ads in newspapers in Boston, Philadelphia, St. By June 30, the mill came to a screeching halt, and all union workers were locked out. Over the next few days, Frick laid off 100 to 200 men at a time, eventually leaving the mill completely empty. This was not to last, however suddenly on June 28, the armor plate mill and open hearth department shut down without warning, leaving 800 men out of work. In fact, the mill was as busy as ever, if not more so over June 25 to 27. However, Frick's deadline of June 24 came and passed with no incident. The committee consisted of five men, headed by chairman Hugh O'Donnell. ![]() The union began to form a strike advisory committee. Frick refused and both groups prepared for a strike. They agreed to pay cuts, but refused to accept any more than a 15% cut. On June 23, union leaders attempted to negotiate with management. The fence was also topped with barbed wire, and equipped with search light platforms and high powered water hoses. By June 20, Frick had ordered the building of a 12 foot high, three mile long, and two inch thick fence around the mill. However, the union was not the only side preparing for a showdown. The union held a large recruitment drive and nearly doubled their numbers from less than 400 men to more than 750. The union leaders refused to back down and prepared for the worst. The dispute dragged on and, by May, Frick issued an ultimatum, either agree to the company's pay scale by June 24 or they would be "dealt with individually." The union rejected this proposal outright and refused to take pay cuts for any workers. They cited the falling price of steel for the reduced wages, claiming that workers' pay would increase if prices were up, so they should decrease when prices were down. Plant owner Andrew Carnegie and the plant manager Henry Clay Frick gave the union a contract to review, it included a substantial pay cut for some of the positions as well as a proposal to push the expiration of this new contract back to the beginning of January 1894. The trouble began early in 1892 the two sides needed to negotiate the contracts of the workers which were set to expire at the end of June. The outcome of this confrontation would not only affect the fate of the individual workers and the mill, but labor and unions throughout the country. The Carnegie steel empire was at the height of its power, when a disagreement over wages with the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers erupted into a fierce battle at the Homestead works along the Monongahela River, near Pittsburgh. In the summer of 1892, America would witness one of the bloodiest confrontations ever to occur between labor and management. ![]()
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