Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers

Andrew Carnegie placed strong anti-unionist Henry Clay Frick in charge of his company's operations in 1881.[3] The striking workers ringed the plant and patrolled the Monongahela River (which ran alongside the mill) to prevent anyone from entering.[5] Frick then sent 300 Pinkerton National Detective Agency guards to seize the plant and re-open it on the night of July 5.[18] Public support for the strike evaporated, and large numbers of strikers began crossing the picket line over the following months.A deepening in 1889 of the Long Depression led most steel companies to seek wage decreases similar to those imposed at Homestead.The Granite City plant remains the oldest operating integrated mill in North America (and probably in the Western Hemisphere).So long as steel, like iron smelting, remained a craft-like endeavor, the AA – with the allegiance of each plant's skilled workers – could control the industry.Steel manufacturers also realized that having multi-plant operations meant that production could continue if the union struck a particular facility.That year, the union changed its name to the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers.The company refused to recognize the AA and idled union plants while keeping nonunion works running at full speed.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.But AA president T.J. Shaffer rejected the deal because it did not cover all American Sheet Steel plants.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.The Sons of Vulcan won recognition from the Lockhart Iron and Steel Company of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania.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.[35] In 1911, the AA was unable to win wage increases among independent steel employers to match those unilaterally bestowed by U.S.But the organizing drive was hampered by the refusal of many of the participating unions to provide resources and support, and by the committee's lack of a mechanism to enforce jurisdictional agreements and requisition funds.The steel companies took advantage of the change in the political climate, publishing articles exposing Foster's past as a Wobblie and syndicalist.Tens of thousands of African American and Mexican workers were brought in as strikebreakers, and many racist white steelworkers returned to work to stop minorities from taking their jobs.[51] Passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act on June 16, 1933, sparked widespread union organizing throughout the country.A similar drive at the U.S. Steel works in nearby Duquesne in late 1933 enrolled one-quarter of the mill's unskilled workforce, mostly immigrants and blacks.The locals coalesced into the Rank and File Movement and challenged the conservative leadership to act, demanding that the AA reorganize along industrial union lines.At the AA national convention in late April, the Rank and File Movement forced through a resolution which committed the international to a nationwide strike on June 16, 1934, if the major steel employers did not recognize the union in every plant.In an agreement applauded by the AFL, Roosevelt stripped the NLB of its jurisdiction over the auto industry and established a separate Automobile Labor Board.[58] The March 1934 auto industry agreement paved the way for new legislation which did away with the toothless NLB, but which only worsened the problems of the labor movement.[60] At its annual convention in San Francisco in October 1934, Green called for an organizing campaign in the steel industry.Lewis made it clear that the CIO would move ahead with an organizing drive in the steel industry with or without the AA.
The Bost Building in Homestead, Pennsylvania, was used as the headquarters of the association during the Homestead Strike. It is now a National Historic Landmark for its association with the strike.
This sign was at the ground floor entrance to the Labor Temple in Granite City, IL. Note the AAIST Lodge Numbers at the top. These were all located at Granite City Steel. Electrical Workers 68 was also at that plant. In 1936 all those units joined SWOC and subsequently in 1942 they became part of the Steelworkers.Lodges 16, 30 and 67 existed until 2003 when they were part of a merger that included the O&T local 9325 and the Security local 4063 to create a new local 1899 (because evidence existed of a union since at least that year.) They are arguably the oldest continuously existing steel local unions in the USA.
Steel worker (disambiguation)Pittsburgh SteelersSons of VulcanUnited SteelworkersCongress of Industrial OrganizationsSteel Workers Organizing Committeelabor unionHomestead strikeBost BuildingAndrew CarnegieHenry Clay FrickMonongahela RiverPinkerton National Detective AgencyRobert E. PattisonAlexander BerkmanJoliet Iron and Steel CompanyJones and Laughlin Steel CompanyEdgar Thomson Steel WorksMingo Junction, Ohioskilled workersU.S. SteelU.S. Steel Recognition Strike of 1901recognition strikeJ.P. MorganMcKees Rocks, PennsylvaniaYoungstown Sheet and TubeBlacklistingyellow-dog contractsP.J. McArdleWorld War IJohn FitzpatrickWilliam Z. FosterChicago Federation of LaborSteel strike of 1919Armistice Daynational strikeRed ScareWobbliesyndicalistnativistcommunistsWoodrow WilsonU.S. ArmyGary, IndianaGreat DepressionMichael F. TigheNational Industrial Recovery ActNational Labor BoardRobert F. WagnerUnited Auto WorkersSan FranciscoU.S. Supreme CourtNational Labor Relations ActCommittee for Industrial OrganizationJohn L. LewisJohn BrophyPhilip MurrayCleveland, OhioUnited Steel Workers of AmericaDavid J. McDonaldTheodore SchafferPeter J. McArdleWilliam MartinAuto-LiteDavid DubinskyInternational Ladies' Garment Workers' UnionSchechter Poultry Corp. v. United StatesAmalgamated Clothing Workers of AmericaThe Blue Eagle At Work: Reclaiming Democratic Rights in the American Workplace