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Old 11-03-2012, 12:53 AM
 
Location: About 10 miles north of Pittsburgh International
2,458 posts, read 4,202,758 times
Reputation: 2374

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Quote:
...and new state of the art mills ran roughshod over the rusted outdated equipment back here.
In a class I took one time, the instructor was a former maintenance foreman in the mill, and he told us. "When the mill was busy, they always told there was no time to do maintenance, and when the mill wasn't busy, they told us we didn't have the money to do maintenance..."
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Old 11-03-2012, 07:21 PM
 
164 posts, read 188,342 times
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The unions were not the only factors in the demise of American steel by a long shot. Foreign competition was fierce (from Japan). The asian plants were brand new and produced very high quality product to feed their consumer goods companies and a natural outgrowth was exports to the U.S. The Japanese did to American steel what American steel did to the British 100 years earlier.

Management was also to blame. USS management was very insular and a "tough guy" attitude was pervasive in management ranks just like the unions. None of these people worked in other industries and none of them saw the demise coming because they were accustomed to decades of being on top of the world. The EPA and government regulation did not help either.

In many ways, steel was a pioneering victim of globalization. Steel was followed by autos, electronics, consumer durables, and even services (engineering, call centers). Looking back, it is easy to point to the many causes of the decline but global competitiveness was not on anyone's radar at that time as the collective experience of management, labor, and government was American postwar economic dominance.

Anyway, thanks for the pictures. Great memories.
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Old 11-04-2012, 08:14 AM
 
Location: About 10 miles north of Pittsburgh International
2,458 posts, read 4,202,758 times
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In many ways, steel was a pioneering victim of globalization.
Never heard it expressed quite that way before, but it really hits the nail on the head.
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Old 11-04-2012, 07:14 PM
 
Location: Cortland, Ohio
3,343 posts, read 10,932,937 times
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I'll have to recommend two more books since you guys brought it up.

Steeltown U.S.A.: Work and Memory in Youngstown (Culture America): Sherry Lee Linkon, John Russo: 9780700612925: Amazon.com: Books

Steelworker Alley: How Class Works in Youngstown (ILR Press books): Robert Bruno: 9780801486005: Amazon.com: Books
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