In 1900 there began to be whisperings of a
gigantic consolidation in the steel industry. The Amalgamated officials
were alarmed. In any such combination the Carnegie Steel Company, an old
enemy of unionism, would easily be first and would, they feared, insist
on driving the union out of every mill in the combination. Then it
occurred to President Shaffer and his associates that it might be a
propitious time to press for recognition while the new corporation was
forming. Anxious for public confidence and to float their securities,
the companies could not afford a labor controversy.
Accordingly, when the new scales were to be signed in July 1901, the
Amalgamated Association demanded of the American Tin Plate Company that
it sign a scale not only for those mills that had been regarded as union
but for all of its mills. This was agreed, provided the American Sheet
Steel Company would agree to the same. The latter company refused, and a
strike was started against the American Tin Plate Company, the American
Sheet Steel Company, and the American Steel Hoop Company. In conferences
held on July 11, 12, and 13 these companies offered to sign for all tin
mills but one, for all the sheet mills that had been signed for in the
preceding year and for four other mills that had been non-union, and for
all the hoop mills that had been signed for in the preceding year.
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