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United Steelworkers

US Steel Threatens To Go Rogue

September 7, 2024 Harold Meyerson, Portside. , , , ,
On July 6, 1892, America’s most profitable corporation sent 300 Pinkerton agents to overpower the workers at its Homestead, Pennsylvania, steel mill, all 3,800 of whom the company had fired four days before as a way to break their union. In the ensuing battle, seven workers and three Pinkertons were killed. That corporation—Carnegie Steel—was a marvel of its time, dominating America’s huge and growing steel industry. In 1901, J.P. Morgan worked out a merger between Carnegie and other leading steelmakers, which entailed paying a then-unheard-of $480 million for Carnegie’s stock (half of which went to Andrew Carnegie himself). The newly created behemoth was named United States Steel.

Faux-Populist Trump Wages All-Out War On American Workers

December 11, 2016 Lauren McCauley, www.commondreams.org , , , ,
By Lauren McCauley for Common Dreams. President-elect Donald Trump, a supposedly populist candidate who rose to power on promises made to frustrated American workers, has now seemingly launched what Politicois describing as an outright "war on unions." Labor leaders and advocates across the nation are rallying in support of United Steelworkers Local 1999 president Chuck Jones, after Trump publicly attacked the Indiana union leader for calling him out for lying about the number of Carrier jobs the incoming president claimed to have saved from being outsourced to Mexico. "An attack on [Jones] is an attack on all working people," Richard Trumka, president of the nation's largest union federation AFL-CIO, declared Thursday. The hashtag #ImWithChuck has drawn a groundswell of support for Jones, including from national labor groups and prominent progressive politicians.