The Homestead strike was the 1892 labor conflict at a Pennsylvania steel mill owned by Carnegie Steel.
The dispute began at the Homestead Steel Works near Pittsburgh after manager Henry Clay Frick attempted to reduce wages and break the influence of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers. Carnegie was the company’s owner, although he was in Scotland during the confrontation and Frick directed the plant’s operations.
On July 6, 1892, armed Pinkerton agents arrived by river to protect replacement workers and reopen the mill. Strikers and townspeople resisted them in a battle that caused deaths on both sides. The Pinkertons surrendered and were removed from the area. Pennsylvania militia later occupied Homestead, allowing the company to resume operations.
The strike ended in defeat for the union. The Homestead conflict became a defining episode in U.S. industrial history and showed how private security, state power, and large corporations could overcome organized labor during the Gilded Age.