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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.〔〔Brody, David. ''Steelworkers in America: The Nonunion Era.'' Illini Book edition. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0-252-06713-6〕〔Gulick, Charles A. ''Labor Policy of the United States Steel Corporation.'' New York: Columbia University Press, 1924.〕〔Boswell, Terry. ''Racial Competition and Class Solidarity.'' Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press, 2006. ISBN 0-7914-6671-X〕 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.〔〔 ==Formation== 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.〔Gale, W.K.V. ''The Iron and Steel Industry: A Dictionary of Terms.'' Cheltenham, Gloucester, U.K.: David and Charles, Newton Abbot 1971. ISBN 0-7153-5302-0〕 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.〔Robinson, Jesse S. ''The Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers.'' Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1920.〕 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.〔 The Civil War led to a sharp increase in the demand for steel, and wages rose substantially.〔 Employers were loath to fire puddlers during the war because so few replacement workers could be found.〔 This led to renewed interest in the Sons of Vulcan, which expanded rapidly.〔〔 The locals formed a national union in Pittsburgh on September 8, 1862, calling itself the "Grand Forge of the United States, United Sons of Vulcan".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sons of Vulcan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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