Evening star., 1951-12-23
Steel Strike
Third Industry-Wide
Stoppoge Pending
By jones Y. Newton

DltCer, sometimes bloody. There have
been countless strikes since the first
recorded one in 1872 If the CIO
United SteelWorkers go through with
the threat of pulling out their nearly
million members on New Years
Day. it will be the third industry
wide strike in steel history.
Both the Nationwide work stop
pages have taken place since World
War II. The steelworkers of CIO
President Philip Murrays union
staged four-week strike in the win
ter of 1916. The issue was recon-
version period wages. Again in the
fall of 1949 the union walked out,
this time for 6 weeks and over the
issue of company-paid pensions and
health benefits. In each instance the
strike was successful. In the case Of
the 1916 walkout, the issues are SINH
lar to todays.
The record of the workers in steel
in getting what they wanted was not
always so good. They lost nearly all
OF the strikes prior to the last war.
The strike in 1842. as we'll as ones
in 1845. 1849 and 1865 were called by
unorganized workers seeking to blaze
the unionization trail. These led
to formation of Sons of Vulcan,
earliest forerunner of the United
Steel Workers of America.
Moior Success
First major success of a union in
the steel industry took place in 1869
when a short strike at a Carnegie
Steel Co. mill at Homestead, Pa, won
contract for the Amalgamated Asso-
citation of Iron, Steel and Tin Work.
ers. successor to the Sons of Vulcan.
Actually. however. the steel In
dustry was never organized until the
late 1930S. This, one of organized
labor's great victories, was won by
the youthful CIO, itself founded only
in 1885. The fight was led by John
L. Lewis, Mr.. Murray and a score OF
other labor heroes.
The end of the toe-hold the Anal
gamated Association had gained in
steel was written in blood at Car
negie's Homestead mill in 1892. The
union called a strike when the
company decided to cut wages. In
an effort to break the strike, the
company f1oated a barge load Of
private police down the Monongahela
River. adjacent to the plant. A pitched
battle ensued in which seven strikers
and three police were killed and
scores injured. The strike dragged
on few months and virtually
finished the union.
l4-Month Strike
The Amalgamated Association
years later. in 1909, struck the newly
organized United States Steel Corp,
but was eliminated from Big Steels"
subsidiaries after 14-month strug-
gle.
In 1919 the American Federation
OF Labor made a serious attempt to
organize the steel industry and in
September of that year 5000
workers were out on strike. This
effort ended in failure, too. Troops
were called out in several areas. A
score of people were killed.
The next bloody episodes Of steel
labor history took place in 1887.
attending the early efforts Of the
C1O to organize the industry. The
CLOS Steel Workers Organizing
Committee struck combination of
Little Steel" companies !
Republic. Inland and Youngstown
Sheet & Tube. The union said the
companies refused to negotiate a
contract. On Memorial Day, first
day Of the strike, seven persons were
killed and 80 wounded in a battle
between police and strikers at Re-
public's South Chicago mill. Six
others died in Massillon. Ohio; two
in Youngstown, Ohio and one in
Beaver Falls, Pa. That strike
generally ended in failure. although
the CIO shortly was to win out in
nearly all major companies.
Most of industry, in 1916. was re-
verting from 48-hour wartime work
week to a normal 40 hours This
meant a 80 per cent cut in take-home
pay for the workers, including the
loss of overtime pay.
49, -for-40
The demand of most unions was
for 48-hour pay for 40 hours of work
per week. Mr.. Murrays Steel Work.
ers asked for an increase of 81 a day.
The strike finally was settled at
the White House on President Tru-
mans proposal Of an 1812-cent-an-
hour raise for the steelWorkers, It
became the pattern of postwar wage
settlements. In return the producers
were allowed to raise steel prices about
SIS ton. It seems small now, but the
IS increase and its chain reaction on
industrial prices in general had the
effect of breaking the back of price
controls.
Memories Of what happened in 194B
are still fresh with the Governments
present economic stabilizers. The
question Of ability to pay" is the real
stlckler. The wage controversy would
be settled quickly if the companies
were allowed fat price increase.
In the last big steel strike-in
1949-the CIO won $100-a-month
pensions to be paid for by the COM
pany, plus some health benefits. The
steel companies lost their fight that
the workers should contribute to the
pension funds.
Poy and Prices Are Up
The American Iron and Steel In.
stitute says the pay of the average
steelworker has risen from $1.23 an
hour before the 1916 strike to S1.e7
at present. According to the Institute.
the average price of finished steel has
been raised from $40 to $82 ton.
Even II there is no strike. the
country will suffer a serious loss in
SfAAl tarQclilnHics,