Great Steel Strike of 1919

Great Steel Strike of 1919
Name	Great Steel Strike of 1919
Date	September 22 – January 8, 1920
Place	United States (Midwest and East Coast)
Causes	Wage disputes, labor organizing, postwar inflation, working conditions
Methods	Strike, picketing, mass meetings
Result	Strike defeated; setbacks for unionization in steel industry
Parties1	Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers; United Mine Workers of America; various local unions
Parties2	United States Steel Corporation; Bethlehem Steel; Federal Steel; owners and management
Leadfigures1	William Z. Foster; Frank Hill; Joseph M. Scanlon
Leadfigures2	Elbert H. Gary; Charles M. Schwab; Albert F. Morrison
Casualties	Several deaths, injuries, mass arrests

Great Steel Strike of 1919 The Great Steel Strike of 1919 was a nationwide labor stoppage by steelworkers in the United States that sought union recognition, better wages, and improved working conditions following World War I. The strike involved hundreds of thousands of workers across major industrial centers and intersected with contemporary events including wartime labor mobilization, postwar inflation, and anti-radical sentiment during the Red Scare. Leaders from craft and industrial unions attempted to coordinate actions against major steel producers, but the effort collapsed under industry opposition and government intervention.

Background and Causes

The buildup to the strike drew on a web of industrial conflicts and political currents: the legacy of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers and its defeat at Homestead Strike informed organizing strategy, while wartime production demands linked steelworkers to entities such as United States Shipping Board, War Industries Board, and unions like the AFL and United Mine Workers of America. Postwar conditions—rapid inflation, demobilization of veterans, and returning labor militancy—connected to strikes like the Seattle General Strike and the Boston Police Strike of 1919, influencing worker consciousness. Radical organizers associated with the Communist Labor Party of America and syndicalist currents in the Industrial Workers of the World contrasted with craft unionists tied to the American Federation of Labor, producing competing tactics. Steel companies such as United States Steel Corporation, Bethlehem Steel, and Carnegie Steel Company resisted recognition demands, recalling earlier confrontations including the Pittsburgh Lockout of 1892 and labor disputes involving figures like Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Carnegie.

Strike Organization and Leadership

Coordination involved an array of unions, committees, and intermediaries: local lodges of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers, the United Mine Workers of America leadership, and political activists including William Z. Foster and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (who moved among coal, steel, and textile campaigns). Ethnic fraternal networks among Polish, Italian, Slovak, and Lithuanian workers connected to organizations like the Polish National Alliance and influenced rank-and-file mobilization. Union organizers attempted to leverage precedents from the 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike and the 1913 Paterson Silk Strike for mass picketing and sympathy actions. Labor lawyers and advocates drew on decisions from institutions such as the National War Labor Board and referenced precedents involving the Eugene V. Debs era of labor socialism.

Course of the Strike

Beginning in late September 1919, strikes erupted at mills and plants in steel towns including Pittsburgh, Chicago, Cleveland, Gary, Indiana, and Lackawanna, New York. Mass meetings, parades, and pickets mirrored tactics seen in the Coal Strike of 1919 and stimulated solidarity from railroad and dock workers associated with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and the International Longshoremen's Association. Company town responses invoked private security forces and alliances with municipal police drawn from histories like the Pullman Strike suppression. Incidents of violence and clashes escalated in localities such as McKees Rocks and Homestead, Pennsylvania, involving state militias and sheriffs’ forces. Employers maintained production using strikebreakers recruited from immigrant labor pools and veterans from regiments like the American Expeditionary Forces returning from World War I service.

Government and Industry Response

Industry leaders—figures including Elbert H. Gary, Charles M. Schwab, and J.P. Morgan & Co. associates—spearheaded anti-union campaigns, employing legal injunctions and press influence through outlets like the New York Times and Pittsburgh Press. Local and state authorities deployed police, sheriff's posses, and gubernatorial militia units; federal responses referenced wartime agencies such as the Department of Justice pursuing sedition claims amid the First Red Scare. Business-backed groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers coordinated propaganda stressing patriotism and linking strikes to Bolshevism and the Russian Revolution. Courts issued restraining orders and injunctions against mass picketing, invoking precedents from cases involving the Interstate Commerce Commission and regulatory law. Negotiations faltered as companies offered wage adjustments short of recognition, aligning with tactics used in earlier disputes like the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.

Impact on Workers and Communities

The strike’s failure produced immediate economic dislocation: wage losses, evictions from company housing, and employer blacklists that paralleled consequences from the Ludlow Massacre aftermath in Colorado mining communities. Ethnic neighborhoods in industrial cities saw heightened police surveillance and social tension involving organizations like the American Legion and local chambers of commerce. Family and community relief efforts invoked mutual aid traditions within immigrant societies such as the Italian Federation of Mutual Aid Societies and religious institutions like St. Stanislaus Kostka Church. Labor morale and union density in steel regions declined, affecting subsequent organizing efforts in the 1920s and intersecting with national political developments including debates in the United States Congress over labor policy.

Aftermath and Legacy

The strike’s defeat weakened the Amalgamated Association and delayed durable industrial unionism in steel until the successes of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the Steel Strike of 1937. Legal and political outcomes contributed to restrictive labor jurisprudence that later influenced cases before the Supreme Court of the United States and legislation debated in sessions of the Sixty-sixth United States Congress. The episode informed labor strategy, fostering leaders who later participated in the National Labor Relations Act debates and the New Deal labor realignment under figures like John L. Lewis and A. Philip Randolph. Memory of the strike persisted in labor historiography alongside events like the Haymarket affair and the Homestead Strike, shaping narratives of industrial conflict, immigrant agency, and the limits of postwar radicalism in American labor history.

Category:Labor disputes in the United States Category:History of the steel industry Category:1919 labor disputes and strikes