MUNHALL, Pa. — An event on Sunday remembered one of the most violent conflicts in American labor history that happened in the Pittsburgh region.
An educational nonprofit, the Battle of Homestead Foundation marked the 133rd anniversary of the Homestead Steel Strike with a public gathering featuring a guest speaker and live music at the Pump House in Munhall.
In the spring of 1892, Homestead Steel Works owner Andrew Carnegie hired a private paramilitary force to break up a union strike and reopen the mill with non-union workers.
A fight broke out at the mill’s Monongahela River pumping facility, leaving 12 people dead and hundreds injured. The conflict was later dubbed the Battle of Homestead.
Neal Bisno, Service Employees International Union executive vice president, served as guest speaker at the event.
“We are no doubt living through a period of authoritarianism and oligarchy accelerated that mirrors that which confronted the Homestead strikers in 1892," Bisno said.
Organizers say what workers did more than 130 years ago can still give insight into how to move forward today.
The event also featured music from the Pittsburgh Labor Choir and The Raging Grannies.
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