1919 Steel Strike site
Braddock, PA, Sept. 1919 – Jan. 1920
At the end of WWI steelworkers called a national strike to solidify the wage gains and workplace improvements they made during the war. Steel companies across the country responded by making concerted efforts to curtail union organizing and break the strike. This included blacklistings, discharges, intimidation and spying on employees who chose to strike. State police clubbed picketers, dragged strikers from their homes and jailed thousands on flimsy charges. The companies turned public opinion against the strike by calling union leaders communists and noting that a large number of strikers were immigrants. The strike was called off on Jan. 8, 1920 due to lack of any public or governmental support.
