THE STEEL STRIKE OF 1919BY STEPHEN KOPPEKIN

BACKGROUNDIn 1901, J.P. Morgan formed U.S. Steel

Corporation, a massive enterprise that

dominated the steel industry.

Fearing such a large company would

abuse its workers, the Amalgamated

Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin

Workers (AA) launched a strike to win

recognition for their union, but it failed.

In 1919—more than a decade after its failed strike—the AA and its ally, the American

Federation of Labor (AFL), launched an industrywide strike targeted at U.S. Steel and

other steel companies.

Thousands of workers walked off the job in towns like Pueblo, Colorado; Chicago, Illinois;

Wheeling, West Virginia; Johnstown, Pennsylvania; Cleveland, Ohio; Lackawanna, New

York; and Youngstown, Ohio.

U.S. Steel and other companies responded by hiring strikebreakers,

deploying company spies, and playing on anti-immigrant and anti-communist

fears to turn public opinion against the striking workers.

State and local governments, meanwhile, responded with force to intimidate strikers back to work.

Hundreds of strikers across the country were beaten and arrested by police.

In the face of such retribution, strikers began returning to work in

October and November, and by January 1920, the steelworkers’ strike

had completely collapsed.

U.S. Steel had successfully beaten back the efforts of the unions. The

strike proved to be a major victory for business interests, which did

not face serious labor unrest throughout the Roaring Twenties.

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