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They came to the last building left standing from the Homestead Steel Works on that fateful day, July 6, 1892.
Close to 100 people packed into the Pump House on Waterfront Drive in Homestead Wednesday morning to remember the day that striking steel workers at the factory, locked in a heated labor dispute with owner Andrew Carnegie, stood up to his Pinkerton security agents, armed with Winchester Rifles.
The skilled iron and steel makers were members of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers.
The “battle” between the workers and the guards on the banks of the Monongahela turned deadly that day. It left 12 dead, mostly workers and townspeople, along with at least two Pinkerton agents attempting to put down the uprising.
The folks that gathered Wednesday to commemorate the 130th anniversary of the Battle of Homestead could look out of the windows of the building and see the exact spot where it happened.
“This historic battle changed everything,” said Allegheny County Councilman Paul Klein, as he read a proclamation recognizing the anniversary of an event that’s part of “arguably the most famous and consequential struggle in American labor history.”
It was the first in-person event for the Foundation since the start of the pandemic and included historians and educators such as retired University of Pittsburgh history professor Joe White.
“At Homestead in 1892 a union, that was quite strong for its day, was smashed by Andrew Carnegie and (business partner) Henry Clay Frick,” said White. “What we’re here for is to remind ourselves and everybody within earshot that without strong labor unions, Democracy is not going to happen.”
Battle of Homestead president John Haer, who served as host for the event, said a direct line can be drawn from what happened in Homestead 130 years ago to what he sees as the “problems” American society is experiencing today.
“Corporation owners have amassed huge wealth through the work of people they have employed,” Haer said. “We now have chief operating officers whose annual income is a thousand times what the average pay is for the employees of those organizations. That’s unbelievable. We’re about looking at history and thinking ‘it could be different.”
Haer said the workers who fought the Battle of Homestead were on the right side of history and if the strikers had prevailed there would have been shared power with management.
“They said ‘we have contributed to this enterprise, we have helped to make it productive, we have a role in determining what we do at work and we want to preserve that right.’ That’s what this battle was about.”
Klein paraphrased philosopher George Santayana’s famous phrase about history.
“Those who’ve never really understood the past, are condemned to deny it,” said Klein.
A question and answer session with the public followed remarks by the guest speakers.
Former Homestead steel worker and labor singer/songwriter Mike Stout earned one of the loudest ovations of the morning when sang and played guitar on a stirring rendition of the song “Give Back This Stolen Land.”
Paul Guggenheimer is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Paul at 724-226-7706 or pguggenheimer@triblive.com.
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