Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA) was an American labor union formed in 1876 to represent iron and steel workers. It partnered with the Steel Workers Organizing Committee of the CIO, in November 1935. Both organizations disbanded May 22, 1942, to form a new organization, the United Steelworkers.
The Homestead strike
The Homestead strike was a major turning point for the union.
Andrew Carnegie placed strong anti-unionist Henry Clay Frick in charge of his company's operations in 1881.Frick had ruthlessly broken unions in the coke-producing regions of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and crushed the seamen's unions on the Great Lakes. Foner, p. 207. With the union's contract due to expire on June 30, 1892, Frick demanded a 22 percent wage decrease, then unilaterally announced that if an agreement was not reached, he would no longer recognize the union.Foner, pp. 206–207; Rayback, pp. 195–96; Brody, 1969, p. 53; Krause, pp. 302–03.
Frick locked the workers out on June 29.Foner, footnote p. 207; Foner, p. 208; Krause, p. 302, 310. Krause, pp. 284–310, contains the best discussion of the bargaining timeline and exchange of proposals. The striking workers ringed the plant and patrolled the Monongahela River (which ran alongside the mill) to prevent anyone from entering.Foner, pp. 208–09; Krause, p. 311; Brody, 1969, p. 59; Dubofsky and Dulles, p. 154. Local sheriff's deputies failed to retake the plant on July 5.Krause, p. 26.
Frick then sent 300 Pinkerton National Detective Agency guards to seize the plant and re-open it on the night of July 5. The Pinkerton men were ordered to approach the plant from the river,Foner, p. 209; Krause, pp. 15, 271. but the strikers learned of the Pinkertons' arrival.Foner, p. 209; Krause, p. 16. Krause indicates that at least a thousand people watched the Pinkertons attempt to land. The Pinkertons attempted to land at about 4 a.m., and the crowd surged onto the Homestead plant grounds.Krause, pp. 16–18. Brody cites Andrew Carnegie, who claimed that Frick had not extended the barbed-wire fence to the riverbank, allowing the strikers access to the plant grounds. Brody, 1969, p. 59. But Foner says that the strikers tore down the fence near the water's edge. Foner, p. 209. Supporting Foner, see Krause, p. 17. A shot was fired, resulting in both sides opening fire. Two workers and two Pinkertons died and dozens were wounded.Krause is the most accurate source on the number of dead, including the names of the killed and wounded. Krause, pp. 19–20. The Pinkerton tugboat departed with the wounded agents, leaving the remaining agents stranded.Krause, pp. 20–21.
The strikers continued to sporadically fire on the stranded barges, and an attempt was made to sink the barges with a cannon.Krause, pp. 21–22; Brody, 1969, p. 59. When the Pinkertons tried to disembark again at 8:00 a.m., a firefight broke out and four more strikers were killed.Krause, pp. 22–25, 30; Brody, 1969, p. 59. The strikers attempted to burn the barges several times during the day, but failed.Krause, p. 24; Foner, p. 210. At 5:00 p.m., the Pinkertons surrendered and were handed over to the sheriff.Krause, pp. 38–39.
On July 9, despite union claims that law and order had been restored, Governor Robert E. Pattison ordered the state militia to seize the town.Krause, pp. 32, 333–34; Foner, p. 212; Dubofsky and Dulles, pp. 154–55. More than 8,000 militia arrived on July 12, and within 90 minutes company officials were back in their offices.Krause, pp. 337–38. Strike leaders were charged with conspiracy, riot, murder and treason.Foner, pp. 213–15; Krause, pp. 345, 348–49.
On July 23, anarchist Alexander Berkman attempted to assassinate Frick, wounding him but not fatally.Dubofsky and Dulles, p. 155; Krause, pp. 354–55; Rayback, p. 196. Public support for the strike evaporated, and large numbers of strikers began crossing the picket line over the following months.Krause, pp. 355–57.
The AA was nearly bankrupted by the job action, and voted to return to work on November 20, 1892.Krause, pp. 356–57; Foner, pp. 215–17. In February 1893, the company and the union agreed to drop the charges filed against one another.Krause, p. 348.
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 Steel 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.Brody, 1969, p. 57.
In 1893, Carnegie defeated an AA union drive at the Duquesne steelworks. In 1885, Carnegie ousted the AA at the Edgar Thomson works.Brody, 1969, pp. 58–59.
An organizing drive at the Homestead plant in 1896 was crushed by Frick. In May 1899, 300 Homestead workers successfully formed a lodge, but Frick ordered the Homestead works shut down and the unionization effort collapsed. Carnegie Steel remained nonunionized.Brody, 1969, pp. 56–57.
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 unionized. 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.Brody, 1969, pp. 57–58. 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).
Search for growth AA membership sagged to 10,000 in 1894 from its high of over 24,000 in 1891. A year later, it was down to 8,000. By 1909, it had sunk to 6,300.Foner, p. 218
The collapse of the AA in the steel industry was due not only to the shock of the loss at Homestead, but by changing conditions in the steel industry. So long as steel, like iron smelting, remained a craft-like endeavor, the AAwith the allegiance of each plant's skilled workerscould control the industry. But as the steel industry mechanized, the skills needed to manufacture steel shrank. Inexperienced workers could learn the unskilled work quickly. Steel manufacturers also realized that having multi-plant operations meant that production could continue if the union struck a particular facility.
Although the AA lost nearly all its members in the steel industry, the union continued to maintain its presence in the iron industry.
The AA looked for growth, however, in the tin industry, which still required skilled workers. By 1900, the union had organized 75 percent of the sheet metal mills and all but one of the tin mills in the country. That year, the union changed its name to the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers.Brody, 1969, p. 60.
Crisis of the trusts But the AA seriously misjudged the economics of the tin industry. A sheet metal trust formed in 1900 which brought nonunion plants into competition with the AA's unionized facilities at the American Sheet Steel Company. The company refused to recognize the AA and idled union plants while keeping nonunion works running at full speed.Brody, 1969, pp. 60–61.
The formation of the U.S. Steel trust in 1901 threatened the AA with ruin. The trust incorporated plants of the American Tin Plate Co. into U.S Steel. If the AA was to save its existing locals at American Tin Plate and American Sheet Steel, it had to organize all the plants of U.S. Steel. But before an organizing drive could get under way, U.S. Steel's tin plate subsidiary withdrew recognition from the AA and refused to bargain at unionized plants. The independent American Sheet Steel did the same.Brody, 1969, pp. 62–63; Dubofsky and Dulles, p. 174.
Recognition strike at U.S. Steel
The AA tried to organize U.S. Steel by staging a recognition strike. U.S. Steel executives pressured American Sheet Steel executives into recognizing the AA at most Sheet Steel plants on July 13, 1901. But AA president T.J. Shaffer rejected the deal because it did not cover all American Sheet Steel plants.Brody, 1969, pp. 63–66; Rayback, p. 218.
U.S. Steel president J.P. Morgan then backed out of the deal.
The strike failed. U.S. Steel and American Sheet Steel workers refused to leave work, both companies hired thousands of strikebreakers, and the AFL refused to support the AA financially or organizationally.Dubofsky and Dulles, p. 174; Brody, 1969, p. 66. The strike against U.S. Steel ended on September 14.Foner, pp. 374–75; Brody, 1969, pp. 66–67.
Aftermath of the U.S. Steel strike The AA never recovered from the U.S. Steel strike. It turned strongly conservative, hoping through submissiveness and cooperation to maintain its few remaining contracts. U.S. Steel slowly dismantled AA unions in its plants.Rayback, p. 218; Brody, 1969, pp. 68–69.
The puddlers in the union's ironworker locals attempted to secede in 1907. Angered at the union's decline and the way national leaders ignored their interests, the puddlers had retained membership throughout the battles with Carnegie and U.S. Steel. Adopting their old Sons of Vulcan name, about 1,250 of the AA's 2,250 puddlers left the union. But the secession did not last. The Sons of Vulcan won recognition from the Lockhart Iron and Steel Company of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. But when the new union demanded a massive wage hike in 1910, the union was forced to strike. After the successful strike, fights broke out between returning union members and strikebreakers who had stayed in the plant. The company slowly replaced all the strikers. Weakened, the Sons of Vulcan soon lost recognition at Youngstown Sheet and Tube, and at the A.M. Byers ironworks. The secessionists slowly drifted back into the AA.Brody, 1969, p. 69.
On June 1, 1909, U.S. Steel finally withdrew recognition of the AA at the 12 remaining unionized mills. While the union's larger locals, such as those at Youngstown Sheet and Tube and the LaBelle Iron Works, disbanded without a fight, most of the union's smaller affiliates fought back. A strike was called. The AFL began a national campaign to publicize dangerous working conditions in the company's plants and the monopolistic nature of the trust. U.S. Steel aggressively countered, breaking up union meetings with hired thugs, driving organizers out of town, bringing in strikebreakers and shifting production to other plants. Although the AA flirted with bankruptcy, donations from other unions kept it afloat. The strike dragged on for 14 months, and was broken in December 1910.Brody, 1969, pp. 71–73, 159; Rayback, pp. 218–19.
In 1911, the AA was unable to win wage increases among independent steel employers to match those unilaterally bestowed by U.S. Steel.Brody, 1969, p. 73.
The depression of 1915 forced sizeable wage decreases on the union. The union, which had once organized nearly every tin and sheet metal plant in the country, now could count less than one-fifth under contract. Once the largest affiliate of the AFL, now the AA numbered a mere 6,500 members.Brody, 1969, pp. 73, 75.
Blacklisting of union members and supporters and the common use of yellow-dog contracts became widespread, hindering the union.Brody, 1969, pp. 80–85.
Post-war activism Faced with declining membership, the AA amended its constitution in 1910 and offered membership to all iron and steel workers. Few took the union up on its offer.Brody, 1969, pp. 126–27.