Capital vs. Labor Theme Analysis

The struggle between capital (the class who owns the means of production) and labor (the workers who sell their work to the capitalist class) is at the heart of Out of This Furnace. Capital—the owners and bosses of the steel companies—wields immense power over labor. It prevents workers from forming a union to bargain for higher wages, shorter hours, and better pensions. Since individual workers in Braddock are powerless to improve their conditions, they must band together collectively in order to protect their shared interest from capital’s greed. This is not easy. Capital, embodied by Andrew Carnegie, the owner of Carnegie Steel Company, holds political influence over the ruling Republican Party, as well as with regional and national newspapers. Capital also intimates workers suspected of union activity by threatening their jobs and spying on their political activities. These intimidation tactics instill fear in workers, especially first-generation immigrants like Kracha, whose disengagement from politics empowers the steel companies. Not until Dobie’s generation does labor once again find the will to organize against capital and win the right to unionize. Through these experiences, Bell suggests that individuals alone cannot beat the steel goliaths: only through organizing, can workers set themselves free.

Bell uses historical labor struggles in order to show the sheer power the steel companies wield over their workers. Early in the novel, Carnegie shuts down the Braddock steel mill until its workers, organized under the Knights of Labor, “accepted a wage cut and a return to the twelve-hour day.” After an eight-month standoff, the union capitulates, signaling the end of organized labor in Braddock for almost fifty years. This triumph of capital over labor cements the company’s intimidating status in the minds of future steel workers. In his zeal to “smash the union in every mill he owns,” Carnegie collaborates with union-buster Henry Clay Frick to thwart the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892. The strike ends in bloodshed when Frick sends armed Pinkertons (a private security agency) to reopen the plant and even summons the state militia to put down the striking workers. The resulting gunfight leaves nine strikers and seven Pinkertons dead and the union crushed. The ability to muster private agencies as well as military forces to “teach our employees a lesson” demonstrates the power of capital and its willingness to use that power against labor.

Through the character of Mike, Bell shows how labor is as powerless as capital is powerful. Mike holds strong political beliefs but finds that, as an individual, he cannot better the conditions of workers like himself. Mike is endlessly frustrated that the pro-business Republican Party is the only political option in Braddock. During the 1912 presidential election, Mike registers as a Republican, but favors the socialist Eugene Debs. A company boss warns Mike, “anything that hurts the company hurts you […] just keep that in mind when you vote.” With no union to stand up en masse against the company, the company uses its political connections to stifle workers individual political rights. At the voting booths, Mike finds a line of mill bosses glaring at workers. Despite such brazen voter intimidation, and knowing that “the company had ways of learning how a man had voted,” Mike musters the will to vote for Debs, but this individual act amounts to a mere protest that does nothing to challenge the company’s power. Without union representation, Mike’s vote for Debs is merely symbolic. So imbalanced is capital’s power compared to the powerlessness of labor that Bell describes Mike as a “flinger of pebbles against a fortress” whose “impunity was a measure of his impotence.” No individual act like voting can compare to the collective power a union has to fight the company.

The steelworkers’ powerlessness remains a fixture of life in Braddock until the onset of the Great Depression and the rise of the Democratic Party to power. Dobie’s successful efforts as a labor organizer reveal that only through collective action can labor challenge the company’s power. The new Employee Representation Plan (ERP), a “company union” formed “to hamstring genuine organization by splitting the men, supplying an approved refuge for the timid and the servile, isolating the recalcitrant,” motivates Dobie to double his efforts as a union organizer. Previously, the company did not acknowledge organized labor at all. Dobie therefore sees the ERP’s very existence as evidence that collective action on the part of workers can be effective. All of Dobie’s union activity involves collaborating with other workers. Dobie and his friends lobby others to join the union, attend meetings, and go door to door distributing leaflets and application cards. Their work pays off as union membership steadily grows. Whereas Dobie’s father faced the company as an individual, Dobie finds power in collective action by convincing other workers that they have a chance to better their conditions together rather than apart. Dobie’s proudest moment comes when he stands up to an ERP stooge and learns that the company will not fire him for his union activity. Just as capital had mustered all of its component parts to present a united front against unionization, labor organizes collectively to challenge the company and win the right to a union.

The struggle between capital and labor is a defining theme of Out of This Furnace. For decades, the outsized power that the capitalist class holds over labor defines life in Braddock. Against capital’s wealth, political connections, and intimidating tactics, workers face the steel goliath as powerless individuals. The organization of the steelworkers at the end of the novel therefore represents the triumph of the collective good over individual impotence and apathy. It is the end of the steel companies’ domination of labor, as well as the beginning of the golden era of American unions. Bell makes clear that in order to understand the collective success of Dobie’s generation, readers must also understand that previous generations failed because they could not—or would not—organize for the betterment of all.