The Great Steel Strike and its Lessons

The book recounts a major labor strike in the steel industry, describing how large numbers of mill workers sought collective bargaining but encountered company opposition through surveillance, dismissals, and control of local civic life. It reviews earlier struggles, outlines the organizing campaign that culminated in the strike, and chronicles employers', legal and police responses. The author evaluates reasons for defeat while highlighting practical successes such as an effective commissary system to sustain strikers. Woven throughout are examinations of company power in mill towns and prescriptive lessons for future organizing and industrial democracy.