Homestead Strike Heats up when Pinkerton Detectives enter the scene.
By: JT Eissenberg
Going on right now in Homestead, Pennsylvania there is a strike happening. This strike is called the Homestead Strike of 1892. This strike began because of Andrew Carnegie’s steel company trying to cut wages. He realized that with the new machines work become much easier to learn and to do. Andrew Carnegie cut the workers’ wages and which caused the workers to uprise. The workers then fled the building to force the company and Henry C. Frick (The Company’s manager) to higher the wages. All Andrew Carnegie’s company did was hire different workers. The strikers were not happy with this. Henry C. Frick then built a fence around the company to keep the workers out. This did not stop the workers. The workers started to riot. Henry C. Frick then called in Pinkerton Detectives to break up the strike. This just angered the strikers more. The strikers fought hard and almost gained their rights. Some people died and many more were injured. Henry C. Frick was shot at but he was not killed during this conflict. The Homestead Strike is actually is a step backward for the strikers because now other companies realize that they did not need to pay the workers as little as they do. Other companies have also decided to lower the wages of the workers. The AFL (American Federation of Labor) will have to find another way to gain fair wages, hours, safer work conditions, and child labor.