Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-07
PREPARED TO STRIKE.
Homestead Men Only Waiting for
Official Orders to Go Out.
POTTER REFUSES ALL DEMANDS.
The Entire Matter Now in the Hands Of
the Executive Board.
MOVEMENTS IN THE LABOR CIRCLES

A big strike at the Homestead Steel
Works seems inevitable. The circum'
stances leading up to it are of much greater
Importance than any publication of the
trouble up there has yet indicated, and the
people of Homestead, realizing the danger
| of 4, 1000 men going out on strike, are sorely
worried. The indications are that the strike
of 1882 will be re-enacted.
The trouble in the 119-inch plate mill,
which was correctly reported in The DIS
PATCH yesterday, is only an incident in the
real situation. Notwithstanding the at
tempts of the officers of Carnegie, Phipps
& Co. to underestimate the strike of the
plate mill men. the latter are going ahead.
and will to-day present their grievance to
the National Executive. Committee of the
Amalgamated Association.
The joint Mill Committee, representing
the eight sub-lodges of the Amalgamatcd
Association in Homestead, waited on Cen
eral Manager Potter at 10 O'Clock Yesterday
morning snd made formal demand to have
the No. shear crew reinstated. The con-
ference lasted nearly three hours, but the
committee retired without success. The
general manager simply reiterated the state
ment he had made on the day previous and
positively refused to restore the shear
crew.
The Men Arc Ready to Go Out.
A union meeting of all the sub-lodges
was held last night, and after full dis
cussion it was decided to stand by the de-
cision of the Mill Committee. The matter
now goes to the officers of the national or
ganization. President Weihe and Vice
President Carney will be called upon to-
day to investigate the matter and decide
whether strike shall be ordered. AS these
two officials spent three hours in earnest
conference last Monday night to devise a
plan for forcing an issue at the Homestead
Steel Works, it is more than probable that
they will seize this opportunity.
The subject Of the conference referred to
was the dissatisfaction among the men work
ing on the 119-inch mill. This is the de-
partment where all the Government orders
for steel plate and nickel-steel armor plate
are rolled. Since the firm has been making
armor plate the men have been working at
the scale price for the softer grades As q
result they worked harder and made less
money than the mill scale called for. Three
months ago the firm offered to increase the
pay of the men rolling and shearing armor
plate 25 per cent, on account of the extra
work. The matter was considered care
fully. The officials of the Amalgamated
Association realized that % per cent was an
insufficient increase, but they were not in
position to state at that time what would be
a fair price.
An Enormous Increase Demanded.
They have now decided that an increase
of 200 per cent would be required to place
the men working nickel-steel plate on the
same basis of wages with those working
softer grades of steel. They had intended
to wait until the present three-year scale
should expire next July, but now that
another opportunity has presented itself
the matter will probably be pressed at once.
It is expected that when this demand is
made the firm will ask to have the whole
scale reopened and revised, and the officials
of the association will be prepared to meet
the offer with q reasonable proposition of
their own
The II men selected by the Amalgamated
Association men in the mill to take the
places of the IA shearsmen who have quit,
will be started to work this morning and
the mill will be started up and kept going
until President Welhe either arranges a
settlement with the firm or orders a strike
General Manager Potter was interviewed
last night but he declined to admit that
there was any trouble at the mill He said
everything was working smoothly and no
trouble was anticipated. In face of the
fact of the union meeting of sub-lodges last
night this statement is considersd d rather
peculiar.