Home Stead Strike

The homestead strike was a lock out where unions played a role in the protection and gains made for working men and women. In the Homestead article, Alexander Berkman had said, "To the people belong to earth- by right, if not in fact. To make it so in fact, all means are justifiable, nay advisable, even to the point of taking life. To remove a tyrant is an act of liberation, the giving of life and opportunity to an oppressed people." The unions were justified as they fought for better conditions and desire to maintain peace and order along with their rights. Before the strike, laborers were generally working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, not making enough to support their family. A worker of the Chicago Herald had said, ""About the only difference between slavery at Homestead and what it was down South before the war, is that there the owners took care of the slaves when they were sick and here they don't." Management was afraid of unions. Frick was determined to cut wages and break the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Works, one of the strongest craft unions in the country. The homestead strike was a justified strike for it was brought upon by Frick's incapability to negotiate. The union asked for $24, but Frick would offer $23 and would negotiate no further.

In many strikes, businesses tend to use violence to stop the riots. For example in the homestead strike, Frick called the Pinkertons to destroy the strike. The results ended in a bloody battle between the union and the Pinkertons. Frick's action was not justified and caused problems. In the end the government militia had come in to end the strike. The state governor responded to the violence at Homestead by sending in state militia to restore order. As always the government was not on the strikers' side. The company quickly brought in strikebreakers and restarted production under the protection of the militia and in the end union leaders