Steel Worker 1
“After I got layed off’ my car got stolen and my house got robbed I cannot support my 3 kids. And this is the first time I not been able to make a dollar in my life I owe every body money. I would not be abel to live with out my familys help but that won’t last much longer because every body I no can’t find a desent job. My poor dad has all his kids back.”
“After I got layed off’ my car got stolen and my house got robbed I cannot support my 3 kids. And this is the first time I not been able to make a dollar in my life I owe every body money. I would not be abel to live with out my familys help but that won’t last much longer because every body I no can’t find a desent job. My poor dad has all his kids back.”
All quotes come from a survey conducted by the Hull House Association and Steelworkers Local 65 of former workers of USX Chicago South Works completed after plant shutdown.
Steel Worker 1, 1988, Printed 2008
Steel Worker 2
“First of all, Not being able to buy + get what my family need’s ( I have two teenage daughter’s) I can’t afford higher school’s or college. I cant buy a new car, or repair or even paint my house. Always’s behind on our house payment and always’s in need of new clothe’s + furniture. I general no decent income, no vacation. We keep a low profile…We stay home! We can’t do anything we like to do. Because we can’t afford it.”
All quotes come from a survey conducted by the Hull House Association and Steelworkers Local 65 of former workers of USX Chicago South Works completed after plant shutdown.
Steel Worker 2, 1988, Printed 2008
Steel Worker 3
“Being out of work has hurt me and my family great dearly I cannot find work and it very it very hard and sad It like a bad dream Everything has gone wrong in my life. I am just barely holding on to life I stay very sad nowday because I cannot find a job It like a curse “
All quotes come from a survey conducted by the Hull House Association and Steelworkers Local 65 of former workers of USX Chicago South Works completed after plant shutdown.
Steel Worker 3, 1988, Printed 2008
Steel Worker 4
“The layoff or being unemployed has robbed me of my self respect, my wife, my health, my apartment & More. Many doors have been closed in my face. Plans for my three young girls gone too pieces. Now my entire family lives with my parents 14 in one house hold No car (Reposed) No Privacy No Job No Health Insurance Many times I have thought of taking from another to aid mine (Breaking the law) But some one in my soul say wait it out To make thing worse I am a Veit Nam era Vet.”
All quotes come from a survey conducted by the Hull House Association and Steelworkers Local 65 of former workers of USX Chicago South Works completed after plant shutdown.
Steel Worker 4, 1988, Printed 2008
Steel Worker 5
“There were a lot of things I wanted to do for me and my family. Like worse effect on me and my family were we just wanted to live like average people. Just because of unemployment we are force to live like below average people. That is what worries me most of all and that is the worse effect on all of us.”
All quotes come from a survey conducted by the Hull House Association and Steelworkers Local 65 of former workers of USX Chicago South Works completed after plant shutdown.
Steel Worker 5, 1988, Printed 2008
Steel Worker 6
“There is no money, my spouse has supported the house hold since my lay off & ran out of unemployment funds, there is no extra money, no extra food & 1 car sold, no vacation or any other luxury. I have been seeking a job since my lay off with no luck every place you go it’s no work, no jobs, or we are not hiring maybe later.”
All quotes come from a survey conducted by the Hull House Association and Steelworkers Local 65 of former workers of USX Chicago South Works completed after plant shutdown.
Steel Worker 6, 1988, Printed 2008
Steel Worker 7
“The bill collector are running me crazy. I am behind in all of them. The children are nagging each other and me because there is never enough money for anything. They said (and must) that they will be glad when I go back to work I have never been late with my house payment until now”
All quotes come from a survey conducted by the Hull House Association and Steelworkers Local 65 of former workers of USX Chicago South Works completed after plant shutdown.
Steel Worker 7, 1988, Printed 2008
Steel Worker 8
“Loss of Home. Loss of Wife & Family, Loss of Friends, Loss of Self-Respect & Esteem, Depression & Anger, Feelings of Hopelessness”
All quotes come from a survey conducted by the Hull House Association and Steelworkers Local 65 of former workers of USX Chicago South Works completed after plant shutdown.
Steel Worker 8, 1988, Printed 2008
Corporate Rhetoric 3
“The balance of economic power in the world is being realigned. Economic competion and integration are the order of the day. America’s industry is experiencing only the first wave of foreign competion. We cannot maintain the ‘status quo.’ It is wholly inadequate in today’s economic environment. Continuation of the ‘status quo’ can only result in the loss of our position of economic preeminence.”
William J. Stephen
C.E.O., Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.
1971
Corporate Rhetoric 3, 1988, Printed 2008
All quotes come from the respective year of the Annual Yearbook of the American Iron & Steel Institute, NYC, NY.
Corporate Rhetoric 8
“Historically the strength of America has resided primarily in two areas. First of course are the personal and economic freedoms which the founders of this country wisely delegated to all who are citizens of the land. And second the strength of America has come from the application of those freedoms to the development and production of a constantly expanding array of goods and services for the benefit of our own people and for sale throughout the world. This has been and continues to be the American way.”
Edwin Gott
Chairman, U.S. Steel Corp.
1971
Corporate Rhetoric 8, 1988, Printed 2008
All quotes come from the respective year of the Annual Yearbook of the American Iron & Steel Institute, NYC, NY.
Corporate Rhetoric 9
“It is our free enterprise that provides the jobs that make the goods and the wages and income by which we have gained the most satisfactory standard of living in man’s history. It is from these jobs and goods and income that we draw our taxes to support our government, to defend our nation, to educate ourselves and to maintain the entire material fabric of our cultural and spiritual life.”
George Humphrey
President, National Steel Corp.
1959
Corporate Rhetoric 9, 1988, Printed 2008
All quotes come from the respective year of the Annual Yearbook of the American Iron & Steel Institute, NYC, NY.
Corporate Rhetoric 10
“Competition is always welcome and desirable. It is a necessary force for the health of our economy. Competition has been responsible for our present industrial growth. And that growth is the cause of our present standard of living; that growth has thrust us into the role of world leadership. In the process we have learned the hard way that our very survival depends on our ability to compete. We know that our industry must be competitive or die.”
Benjamin F. Fairless
President, U.S. Steel Corp.
1959
Corporate Rhetoric 10, 1988, Printed 2008
All quotes come from the respective year of the Annual Yearbook of the American Iron & Steel Institute, NYC, NY.
Steelworker Labor Stats 1
United Steelworkers of America: U.S. Steel Corporation. (Employment Trend)
| Youngstown Works, OH | 1979 | 1984 |
| Local 1307 | 2,316 | 0 |
| Local 1330 | 2,808 | 0 |
| Chicago Works, IL | ||
| Local 65 | 8,537 | 0 |
| Lorain Works, OH | ||
| Local 1104 | 6,605 | 0 |
| Fairfield Works, AL | ||
| Local 1013 | 4,187 | 1028 |
| Gary Works, IN | ||
| Local 1014 | 14,580 | 6.904 |
| Local 1066 | 5,004 | 3,405 |
All statistics courtesy of United States Steelworkers Union, 1987, Pittsburgh, PA.
Steelworker Labor Stats 1, 1988, Printed 2008
Steelworker Labor Stats 2
United Steelworkers of America: U.S. Steel Corporation. (Employment Trend)
| Braddock Works, PA | 1974 | 1984 |
| Local 1219 | 2,196 | 738 |
| Homestead Works, PA | ||
| Local 13397 | 6,833 | 2503 |
| Duquesne Works, PA | ||
| Local 1256 | 3,087 | 1,628 |
| Dravosburg Works, PA | ||
| Local 2227 | 3,582 | 1,841 |
| Clairtown Works, PA | ||
| Local 1557 | 3,772 | 1,700 |
| McKeesport Works, PA | ||
| Local 1408 | 3,175 | 622 |
All statistics courtesy of United States Steelworkers Union, 1987, Pittsburgh, PA.
Steelworker Labor Stats 2, 1988, Printed 2008
Steelworker Labor Stats 3
United Steelworkers of America: Bethlehem Steel Corporation. (Employment Trend)
| Lackawana Plant, NY | 1974 | 1984 |
| Local 2601 | 2,973 | 336 |
| Local 2602 | 2,450 | 135 |
| Local 2603 | 3,016 | 434 |
| Local 2604 | 2,293 | 400 |
| Sparrow Point Plant, MD | ||
| Local 2609 | 7,529 | 3,752 |
| Local 2610 | 9,582 | 4,573 |
| Johnstown Plant, PA | ||
| Local 2635 | 4,742 | 698 |
| Local 2632 | 1.865 | 492 |
| Local 2644 | 2,217 | 486 |
| Local 2633 | 463 | 3 |
| Local 2634 | 794 | 422 |
| Bethlehem Plant, PA | ||
| Local 2599 | 5,767 | 2,319 |
| Local 2600 | 2,798 | 1,728 |
All statistics courtesy of United States Steelworkers Union, 1987, Pittsburgh, PA.
Steelworker Labor Stats 3, 1988, Printed 2008
Steelworker Labor Stats 4
United Steelworkers of America: Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation. (Employment Trend)
| Pittsburgh Works, PA | 1974 | 1984 |
| Local 1272 | 2,443 | 900 |
| Local 1843 | 3,617 | 1,088 |
| Aliquippa Works, PA | ||
| Local 1211 | 8.896 | 3,418 |
| Cleveland Works, OH | ||
| Local 185 | 2,370 | 1,680 |
| Local 188 | 1,746 | 1,053 |
All statistics courtesy of United States Steelworkers Union, 1987, Pittsburgh, PA.
Steelworker Labor Stats 4, 1988, Printed 2008
Archival Digital Print, 17” x 22