Sons of Vulcan
| Founded | 1858 |
|---|---|
| Date dissolved | 1876 |
| Merged into | Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers |
| Members | 3,331 in 1874 (height) |
| Key people | Miles Humphreys, first Grand Master (later President) |
| Country | United States |
The Sons of Vulcan was an American labor union which existed from 1858 until 1876. The union recruited puddlers, skilled craftsmen who manipulated pig iron to create steel. In the 1870s, it was the strongest union in the United States. It merged with two other iron and steel unions in 1876 to form the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers—the forerunner of the United Steelworkers.
Puddling is the process of stirring pig iron with iron bars, exposing it to the air so that the carbon in the pig iron is oxidized and burns off. This process creates steel. As practiced in the early and mid-19th century, puddling required great strength as well as skill. Because chemical testing of the molten iron had not yet been developed, puddlers relied on their long experience with steelmaking to determine whether too much or too little carbon had been oxidized. Puddling was also an extremely dangerous trade, as some steel processes required the molten metal to boil and bubble as the puddler stirred in scrap iron and puddlers were required to physically remove slag and drain pure steel out of furnaces for additional processing.
The first strike in the iron and steel industry in the United States took place among puddlers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from December 20, 1849, to May 12, 1850. The employers broke the strike by cutting wages and hiring new puddlers. Labor relations in the iron and steel industry remained tense for much of the next decade. Wages plunged during the Panic of 1857, and the steel industry was slow to recover.
On April 12, 1858, a group of puddlers met at a hotel bar on Diamond Street to form a labor union, which they called the "Iron City Forge of the Sons of Vulcan". The new union resolved to commit itself to craft unionism, accepting only puddlers as members. Miles Humphreys was the new union's "Grand Master" (leader), and offices were established for a vice president ("Grand Vulcan") and secretary. The new union did little for two years, fearing the blacklist. The union's national leadership received no pay, but this changed in 1866 when the three national officers were paid the average industry wage in exchange for devoting full-time to union business. Membership in the union was kept secret, for fear of labor spies and physical retaliation.
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