Working Conditions U.S Steel Corp

U.S steel Corp workers suffered long hour days low wages and horrible working conditions this motivated the workers at U.S. Steel Corp to go on strike and try to improve their low wages and unfair working conditions.

Steelworkers were successful to some extent because this strike influenced future labor strikes and future labor laws. Ultimately this event caused tragedy, people were killed and did not gain anything to better their working conditions by striking. During the early 1900s factory workers especially workers in the steel companies were not given health care, fair wages, or fair working conditions. Workers were not getting enough money to support their families. As this interview states, “Senator MCKELLAR. What pay do you think you are entitled to?  This shows how low the wages were and how forty-two cents an hour was not enough money to take care of a family of four. This made people sacrifice basic necessities like shelter and healthcare. Steelworkers were also being mistreated and had horrible working conditions in the early 1900s.

As stated in an interview with a steelworker “Mr. MILLER Well, there is another thing. If I get in the mill but three-quarters of a minute late in the morning, they take off an hour, off of me. Then if I stay five minutes over the hour I should quit in the mill, they won’t give me an hour for the five minutes at all. Senator MCKELLAR. Do they allow you anything for the five minutes? Mr.

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MILLER. No sir; they won’t allow me anything for the five minutes. They won’t allow anything. They will take it off of me if I am a minute late, but they won’t give me anything if I work five minutes overtime.” This supports the idea that the bosses were unfair and unjust to the workers. This also shows that if a worker was a minute late the boss would be angry at them but if the worker stayed 5 minutes late the boss would not acknowledge it. All this proves how many steelworkers were tired of the terrible conditions and wanted a change.

U.S. Corp Steelworkers went on strike due to low wages, long hours, unjust bosses and unfair working conditions. In the early 1900s steelworkers suffered from all these and they could not do anything about it. As stated in an interview with a steelworker “Senator MCKELLAR. Why did you strike? Mr. MILLER. Why did we strike? We did not have enough money so that we could have a standard American living. The CHAIRMAN. Have you figured out how much an hour you want. Mr. MILLER. It should be more than that. Senator MCKELLAR. More than 42 cents an hour? Mr. MILLER. Yes; I have a wife and two children? Senator MCKELLAR. Yes.” This proves one of the reasons why Steelworkers went on strike was that the wage that they were receiving was not enough for them to have a standard American living. 42 cents an hour was not enough to feed and support their own families. This also shows that sometimes steelworkers even had to make serious decisions and sometimes even sacrifice their health and basic necessities because they did not have enough money to be financially stable.

Another reason why the workers went on strike was because of long and unfair working schedules. As stated in the article “The Carnegie Steelworker works 87 hours out of the 168 hours in the week. Of the remaining 81, he sleeps seven hours per day; a total of 49 hours. He eats in another fourteen; walks or travels in the streetcar four hours; dresses, shaves, tends a furnace, undresses, etc., seven hours. His one reaction is ‘What the Hell!’—the universal text accompanying the twelve-hour day.” This shows how harsh and inhumane the working hours of a Steelworker were. He or she could not have an average life they had to work 81 hours a week, sleep 49, eats for 14, dresses shaves and undresses for 4 hours and then his week is over. Then he or she has to repeat that process over and over just to make it out week by week. The Carnegie steelworker basically had no life outside of work. The steelworker had to work very long hours for a low wage to have enough money for their rent and to support their family. All this shows and proves the many reasons why steelworkers wanted to go on strike and why they did it. These include low wages, long hours, unjust bosses, and unfair working conditions.

Steelworkers after the steel strike of 1919 were successful to some extent because this strike influenced future labor laws. As stated in “The Great Steel Strike of 1919 Historical Marker” “As late as mid-December the national committee estimated that 109,000 strikers were still out, but by January 8, 1920, it called off the strike at last: All steelworkers are now at liberty to return to work pending preparations for the next big organization movement. That movement would not occur until the mid-1930s, when the Congress of Industrial Organizations led another great wave of strikes in the bleak days of the Great Depression.”(The Great Steel Strike of 1919 Historical Marker) This shows that even though the first strike of 1919 failed and the steelworkers did not gain anything from it and instead lost weeks of work, it influenced a later strike that will eventually take place in 1930. This shows how one strike leads to the other and the 1919 steel strike was successful to some extent.

Ultimately this was a big tragedy because the strikers did not get what they wanted, companies provided fake news and many of them ended up dead. As stated in the book “The steel strike and its lessons” “Steel companies used the Red Scare to turn public opinion against the strike and had friendly papers convince the workers the strike was lost.” (The Steel Strike and its Lessons, William Z. Foster) This shows how steel companies used the red scare to turn the public against the steel strike for the companies own good. The steel companies would pay to promote fake news in order to get the public against the strikers and eventually have all the workers return to their jobs with the same low incomes and long work hours. This proves how this strike was mainly a tragedy because of how companies used fake news to try to get the strikers to stop striking/believe that the strike was over and eventually going back to work for the companies own benefit. Steel companies