Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers - 1901 Organizing Drive at U.S. Steel

1901 Organizing Drive At U.S. Steel

The Homestead strike affected the AA nationwide. The Joliet Iron and Steel Company, the Jones and Laughlin Steel Company, the St. Louis Wire Mill Company, the Edgar Thomson works and the Duquesne works all refused to sign contracts with the AA while the Homestead labor action lingered. A deepening in 1889 of the Long Depression led most steel companies to seek wage decreases similar to those imposed at Homestead.

In 1893, Carnegie defeated an AA union drive at the Duquesne steelworks. In 1885, Carnegie ousted the AA at the Edgar Thomson works.

An organizing drive at the Homestead plant in 1896 was crushed by Frick. In May 1899, 300 Homestead workers actually formed a lodge, but Frick ordered the Homestead works shut down and the unionization effort collapsed. Carnegie Steel remained nonunion.

De-unionization efforts throughout the Midwest began in 1897 when Jones and Laughlin Steel refused to sign a contract. By 1900, not a single steel plant in Pennsylvania remained union. The AA presence in Ohio and Illinois continued for a few more years, but the union continued to collapse. Many lodges disbanded, their members disillusioned. Others were easily broken in short, desultory battles. Carnegie Steel's Mingo Junction, Ohio plant was the last major unionized steel mill, in the north and east, but it, too, broke the AA and withdrew recognition in 1903. There was however a medium sized mill in Granite City, IL (Granite City Steel) that continued to have active AA lodges from the late 1890s until SWOC was founded. This plant became part of National Steel Corp. until its assets were sold to US Steel in bankruptcy. The Granite City plant remains the oldest operating integrated mill in North America (and probably in the Western Hemisphere).