In St. Paul the bricklayers alone worked nine
hours, the remaining trades eight.
In 1892 the labor movement faced for the first time a really modern
manufacturing corporation with its practically boundless resources of
war, namely the Carnegie Steel Company, in the strike which has become
famous under the name of the Homestead Strike. The Amalgamated
Association of Iron and Steel Workers, with a membership of 24,068 in
1891, was probably the strongest trade union in the entire history of
the American labor movement. Prior to 1889 the relations between the
union and the Carnegie firm had been invariably friendly. In January
1889, H.C. Frick, who, as owner of the largest coke manufacturing plant,
had acquired a reputation of a bitter opponent of organized labor,
became chairman of Carnegie Brothers and Company. In the same year,
owing to his assumption of management, as the union men believed, the
first dispute occurred between them and the company. Although the
agreement was finally renewed for three years on terms dictated by the
Association, the controversy left a disturbing impression upon the minds
of the men, since during the course of the negotiations Frick had
demanded the dissolution of the union.
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