Research on Homestead Works, PA

Research on Homestead Works

            
The Homestead Steel works was located on the Monongahela River. According to Wikipedia, it was developed in the “nineteenth century as an extensive plant served by tributary coal and iron fields, a railway 425 miles (684 km) long, and a line of lake steamships.” Eventually it was bought by Andrew Carnegie in 1883 who was a great philanthropist and had a library built in Homestead in 1896. In 1901 he sold his company to U.S. Steel. The remnants left exist near Sandcastle and The Waterfront.                                                                                                          
William Serrin, who wrote an article for the New York Times about the ending of the Homestead Steel in 1986, mentioned the history, such as the strike that occurred, and the motives of the owner and president: “Mr. Carnegie and Mr. Frick wanted to reap a greater share of the gains brought by new steel-making technologies, and they wanted to break the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers.” 



A battle ensued, where workers and townspeople fought against the 300 Pinkerton men Mr. Frick brought in, and then 8,000 state militiamen broke the strike; as a result, the union was destroyed. Thirty-five were killed in the battle. Like the saying goes, lions write history, not the sheep, and it’s usually the companies and their leaders, not their workers, who write history and control the natural order of things.                         

In an article by Mark Roth in 2006, he writes that the U.S. Steel company was sold to “Park Corp., which tore down most of the buildings, sold tons of metal as scrap and transformed what had been America's busiest steel complex into a desolate moonscape.” The area turned into the Waterfront, “a shopping center with restaurants, a movie theater, apartments, offices and an array of big-box, department and small stores.” 







The writer reports Mr. Stout, who says people should remember how the company treated their workers. The company would lay off workers who were within months of receiving their early-retirement pensions. Just another instance of a company taking advantage of their employees for their own gain.                                                       

My grandfather used to work at a Steel Mill (not sure if these are related in any way?) until he retired over two years ago. I guess at least he got to retire at his Steel Mill.