Going bust in Youngstown:
Howard, Robert
D E F E N D I N G A C U L T U R E W H E N T H E S Y S T E M W O N ' T D E L I V E R Going bust in ...
...But Russ doesn't seem to have much to offer in return...
...They confusethe clear-cut realms of district by a vote of five to one...
...Source of financial secuimports during the past few years makes Youngstown workers rity and interesting work, it was the foundation on which he eligible for these benefits...
...Pittsburgh headquarters last month on the relative costs and EDA's rejection came just a few days after this new inforbenefits of constructing new mills versus modernizing old mation was submitted...
...We've been taught over the last thirty years that America...
...Ed was also a strong supporterof trol them...
...But to the men in the gray area--in the middle for a year and then you're disorganized...
...years of their work experience with mortgages and car payHow do Mahoning Valley steelworkers cope...
...When mills and factories close, workers the most militant in the USW...
...Anger at the Lykes Corporacrisis...
...lems which historically have been beyond the pale of union Ed Mann is president ofthe''Brier Hill" local, 1462, one of activity in America...
...Occasionally he has typical of Coalition supporters among area steelworkers...
...These are deep What explains the union turnaround and why was it so long subjects," he says with an uneasy mix of humor and self- in coming...
...A '70' plan also exists but it is limited to those men gree to which traditional political and economic institutions at least fifty-five years of age...
...Senior president of the area locals, member of something when something happens to us...
...Forman is one ofthose Europeans know that their needs are not being met...
...It goes beyondthe narrow parametretirement' undervarious pension plans that the United Steel- ers ofjob and workplace to challenge a certain understanding workers union has arranged with the steelindustry in the event of the world, certain expectations that have been built overthe of mill closings...
...The officers of 1462 members were put out of work...
...I was always doing of international trade policy...
...they family going have become a source offrustration...
...That's what all the principals in Hair finally get long time...
...Many ofthese benefits, however, have begun to written letters to congressmen, senators, even the President...
...generally, he says, one has to have pull, some kind ofconnecGeorge and his wife had just returned from a trip to Florida tion...
...Coalition leaders consider their success at More accurately, Russ is unequipped to deal with the clos- putting togethera qualified management teamto be the turning ing of the Campbell Works...
...He describes the steel mills that has been fifty years in the making...
...He used to run the Campbell Works as a community- and worker-owned be a foreman at the Campbell Works...
...S important new territory...
...In Hair, the commune would return...
...Youngstown's Ecumenical Coali- general who have done next tonothingto stop it...
...Finally, technical consultants had drawn up a 20-year lems of economic dislocation...
...A detailed survey of liaison to the Coalition, says that only recently was the com- over 600potentialpurchasers within 200 miles ofYoungstown munity ownership proposaldetailed enough tobe "realistic...
...Unlike Russ Baxter, he belongs to a small group of local union officials who have pushed the idea of community ownership from the beginning...
...THE DRAMATIC closing in September, 1977 of the I Youngstown Sheet & Tube Campbell Works steel mill w~HAT ONE first hears in the voices of Mahoning Valley has made Youngstown,Ohio, a synonym for economic steelworkers is their anger...
...I nevergot bored...
...In the process, these men--the 'establishment' of those whose sum ofyears ofservice plus age equals or surpas- Youngstown's working class--are coming to realize the deses eighty...
...I worked there for years...
...He is an immigrant Magoo, avc~iding most harm This context sets the boundaries for both the accomplish- andconfusion in American culture by being oblivious to them...
...Living here all my life,I see these 25 May 1979:301 things, just like sand castles washed away...
...one in a furniture factory which used steel tubing, one in George has applied for CETA funds to learn a new skill...
...might work...
...Instead he returns again costs by 21 percent in the reopened mill...
...Since I been two or nomic but cultural...
...many officials have been suspicious ofthe and Pennsylvania when the coal mines went bust.And now it's community ownership plan...
...It's MORE THINNED THAN THINNED AGAINST as if Forman were trying to make more explicit the connection ofthesehippies with America at large--as ifhe were afraid the rest of us Americans might miss the point...
...Like the unemployed steelworkers of the Mahoning invented, what kept America going was the feeling that we were all in the same boat...
...happening here...
...Today, Youngstown's workers find it hard to trustanybody.One by one, the traditional markers of their social world-- Hair was therefore not as hard to adapt to the screen ten mill, job, union--have proven unsure...
...For if they have been restrained in their active Commonweal: 304 support, they have also been anxious to see the Coalition ingly popular as Hair was...
...You try to forget about it but it comes back in gray area"--too young to take early retirement, too old to your dreams...
...management and labor...
...Youngstown's last chapter may also be its first...
...United Steelworkers presirelocated, they take overthejobs ofyoungerworkers with less dent Lloyd McBride is reported to have claimed at one meeting seniority...
...bitches were just happy their local didn't get hit"), about In a letterto President Carter, Lloyd McBride urgedthe federal young workers (who don't know what hard times are), about government to approve Youngstown's Urban Development the Ecumenical Coalition (which is "offerin' false hopes...
...Weonly react...
...have been closed...
...How to confront the seemingly intractable difficul- of their arguments...
...He flies across the Atlantic in jumbo'conservative.' The Coalition is the defenderofYoungstown's jet style, without paying any attention to the storm-tossed seas traditional working class culture...
...They figured that it's that or be a II laborer...
...in to drive and sing their way cross-country...
...It has created what ideas...
...A local union tion of the Mahoning Valley has mobilized church groups official sums it up: "We've heard all the words from politithroughout Ohio and the nation behind the goals of corporate cians and businessmen and lawyers, and no one has any accountability and economic self-reliance...
...Youngstown has contributed to a new awareness on Community Steel inaugurated the assembly ofa management the part of the union of the multiple and deeply rooted prob- team...
...In late March, the United Steelworkers finally came out in He is cynical about his fellow presidents ("those sons o' full support of the Coalition's community ownership project...
...The union sent a lawyer to advise them and "that killed it...
...this is home...
...They never But the Youngstown situation does present a range of prob- even come around the union hall anymore...
...Of the origi- ments, perhaps even children in college--the threat to their nal 4200 men laid off, about 1500 decided to take an 'early livelihood cuts far deeper...
...Russ's opposition is really an obsessive cautionand cynicism...
...but psychological strain...
...still American steel industry, the labor struggles of the '30s, and go by just about every day...
...heard the last of Youngstown...
...That shows that you haven't really got it out of easily find another job...
...The agreement with the union had signifi-cantly reduced labor costs and the commitment ofa majorU...
...He talks of collective bargaining and This judgment is unfair...
...The union has not exactly taken a leadership role in Youngstown, but the problems it has been forced to face there have inaugurated a necessary learning steel company president to serve as chairman of the board of process...
...Things got startedtoo before without telling us...
...It mill, of young workers moved on to mills in Indiana who made hippies appealing and familiar...
...We want ideas," says Ed Mann...
...While it has been no secret few days after the announcement of the eventual closing of that Commerce Department analysts havebeen skeptical ofthe BrierHill, Gerald told me: "If you wantedto havea revolution plan from the beginning, the fact that they simply ignored the in there, the day to do it was Monday...
...the SUB fund is near take the last TRA check and just go...
...He cannot say in Russell Baxter is at the apex of the USW hierarchy in any detail...
...he has another null--were moved out from under him...
...Everybody was free-floating-- acondition epitomized by the song "Frank Mills" in which a girl had tragically lost her boyfriend's address...
...and their lack of appreciation and commitment...
...Youngstown's crisis can only get worse...
...Such judgments hide as to present its most complete proposal to the federal gov- much as they reveal about the response of Youngstown's ernment...
...Jim Smith, McBride's ity study last year had been answered...
...For Joe Lukas, an entire region has ing Valley steelworkers themselves--both to the mill closing been laid off...
...slow...
...enforced' retirement...
...Courseyou're not allowed in there the three-way partnership among big government, big busi- now, you're out...
...This is a complicated task, for in order to sustain the dowedthe stageversion ofHair, Forman hasn't respondedto it values that area workers hold dear--a sense of community, in the movie...
...Increasingly they see whose perception of America is too weak and superficial to be that the old systems no longer deliver...
...It's not like they wanted to retire," says George Limberty...
...They'll come back in a minute," says one andthe crash pad and the demonstration in the streets became a worker, "you see, their family is here...
...Because Youngstown's crisis is in so many Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, he could ways a crisis of traditional values, the community's churches certainly be trusted withHair, which had far less potential for have been drawn into the central role...
...It is the last chapter in a saga which are down south or abroad...
...Becausehe has only eleven years seniority, thing...
...His local, 2163, was the har- closing now, not to get caught by surprise and put on the dest hit by the Campbell lay-offs...
...And a lot ofthem are in the higherechelons ofour union...
...It searches for a means to and swirling clouds beneath him...
...Its "dawn- The Lincoln contains every race, creed and social ing," celebrated ten years ago in the musical Hair, persuasion-- a very straight black lady and her little boy (arturned out to be its twilight as well...
...dangerous...
...He into a political issue, using the weight of labor support to relates Hall's anecdotes about his organizing days with the pressure the administration to reconsider...
...ments and the dilemmas of the Ecumenical Coalition of the Since Forman didn't feel any ofthe rougherbarbs and burrs in Mahoning Valley...
...still have high seniority have been relocated at other Throughout most of the struggle to reopen the Campbell Youngstown Sheet & Tube facilities...
...Not wanting to cross the international, local workers informed Pittsburgh of their discussions...
...words of another, what is necessary is "a company we can The show recognized in the dawn of its own new age the trust...
...now the factories the government's decision...
...How might the community con- within the union in the 1960s...
...that mill closings fell outside the boundaries of collective Neither ofthese options is open to George Limberty...
...they do not fit easily into the highly Ed lost 200 ofhis 1500 members when the Campbell Works structured practices of collective bargaining...
...It's embarrassing," admits Bill Sferra, "not too B YTHEEND of March, the Ecumenical Coalition was ready many think it will work in reality...
...Both the old and the very young are your mind...
...Joe is a political conservaCoalition's request for federal loan guarantees to purchase and tive and strictly speakingnot even a ~worker" at all...
...Many, including those only marginally ticut to see the show because they also yearned to be FREE, aware ofthe Coalition's work, tell stories of old-timers who somehow, and Hair assuaged those yearnings...
...Whatdoes Ed want to do...
...It's very frustratingto be kicked out According to Ed Mann, president of United Steelworkers like that when you feel you've done a good job, to lose a job Local 1462, men like Joe Lukas and George Limberty are like that and have no way to fight back...
...if you talked to other people, they would say the same Youngstown area...
...Everything is just startin' to fall out now...
...NIO ONE lives in the Age of Aquarius today...
...We saw no indication that they even ties that face the outmoded mills ofthe Mahoning Valley...
...But just as in the '30s, new end of the year...
...He the AFL-CIO council, Russ claims close relations with inter- is determined to start considering alternatives to the Brier Hill national officials in Pittsburgh...
...Community ownership is one proposed solution...
...No onehad abackground or Screen a home...
...In such confrontations eliminated the negative, andnot messed with Mr...
...Steel's Youngstown works will put 4100 yet they won, they organized...
...He went, not because he was in- government money and employing less workers...
...They pacify say...
...On the other would come out of retirement to help start a community-owned hand,Hair made freedom safe...
...depletion...
...They are a drop-out from a lower-middle-class home in Queens...
...pastoral letter drawing the moral implications of the governGerald tells a st6ry about going to hear Gus Hail, chairman ment's decision, technical consultants are trying to formulate of the American Communist Party and former Youngstown an alternative plan--a project on a smaller scale involving less steelworker, give a talk...
...His responsehas been to become a Campbell Works collect between six and eight hundred dollars firmsupporter ofthe Ecumenical Coalition's community owna month...
...George Limberty reflects a common sentiment in Commonweal:302 the Mahoning Valley: "The guys that are runnin' the union meant to handle the shut-down ofa mill, the agony ofan entire now are from the old school...
...Now hefeels like an outsider, dispossessed...
...amounts to a political machine todemand state andfederal aid "Maybe I seem like aCommunist or something," says Joe in the massive task of resurrecting the closedCampbell Works...
...For all the publicity which has This does not soothe his anger, however, norerase his sense of surrounded the Ecumenical Coalition and its project, what loss...
...conversation, he virtually admits it himself...
...Or in the new kind of togetherness, a renewed and ideal Melting Pot...
...anger at the government and politicians in throughout the northeast...
...it is built into the of America, except that what we're all in now is a Lincoln...
...His justification for his support is simple: the Coalition is the Even with these social welfare services, unemployment has only group trying to do something to safeguard thejobs ofthe been difficult for George...
...It's a real ethnic Ark...
...it is the cultural crisis of Youngstown's three years old, I seen that mill...
...dissident candidate Ed Sadlowski in his challenge to McBride Both the problems and the solutions cut againstthe grain of for the presidency in 1977...
...And when hespeaks of the Campbell Works For the crisis these men are living is not exclusively eco- itself, the depth of his loss is apparent...
...In a sense,this role is a hard truths...
...These men are witnessing the break-up of a were pouringsteel even though you couldn't see it...
...come...
...Youngstown locals...
...You lay around much to them...
...We figured 'what the beck,' let's worried...
...I don't think nomic Development Administration has recently rejected the the people have enough control...
...Neither is especially persuasive...
...We don't have a plan...
...For considered ourmost recent proposal," says Chuck Rawlings, all the hopes raised by the Coalition's plan, Gerald is worried an Episcopal priest who has been a key leader in the Coalithat they have waited too long...
...Those guys were mad Coalition's latest studies (funded by $100,000 of government enough to try anything...
...On the one Thus, what might be termed the''passive support" ofthese hand, people came into New York from Connecticut, Connecmen has been high...
...D E F E N D I N G A C U L T U R E W H E N T H E S Y S T E M W O N ' T D E L I V E R Going bust in Youngstown desire to save that culture and their growing realization of the ROBERT HOWARD necessity of change...
...But a lot ofpeople he supports its attempt to "get what it can for Youngstown...
...This sum has kept the majority from feeling the ership project...
...He cannot think merely in terms of his own personal may prove to be the most lasting feature of Youngstown's economicfuture but is constantly drawn back to the misfortune drama has been missed...
...The complicated response of Mahon- of the Valley as a whole...
...It continues to tell us something about ourcollective along with a newly liberated debutante from Westchester and a life as Americans...
...Xtustry "supplementary unemployment benefits" (SUB), and The closing ofthe Campbell Works has undermined his sense federal TRA benefits, unemployed workers from the of purpose and identity...
...are...
...Therein During the Depression, when the movie musical was being lies the immense potential of Youngstown's Ecumenical Co-alition...
...They were an expression of it...
...The precedent-setting agree- income forecast which projected a profit-making firm within ment on labor costs is one example of this...
...He was a founderofRAFT--the and communities begin to ask questions about investment "Rank-and File Team"--a movement for internal democracy decisions...
...The government's de- years later as it might seem...
...Between state unemployment, in- constructed his life...
...Forman's Hair has a similar vision Valley, this potential will notjust fade away...
...They dreams aboutthe Campbell Works--the mill still running, him are in what another local president, Bill Sferra, terms "the still working...
...It's like burial money...
...The only revelation to us ofourselves, ~specially showsthat are surpris- important character not in the car is Claude Bukowsky (John 25 May 1979:305...
...He is considered of the shut-down...
...He has seen and elaborated only thoseaspects of financial security, a job with which they can identify--that the Broadway original which made it widely popular...
...He had been been told there is a long waiting list, nothinghas come through working at Youngstown Sheet & Tube for eleven years when yet...
...I can't understand among the 1500 ex-Campbell workers still without a job in the why...
...Sadlowski carried the Youngstown American laborrelations...
...he expects to lose the rest when Jones & Laughlin Steel Company, the new owner ofYoungstown Sheet & Tube, shuts down the Brier Hill facility later this year...
...He can only continue in his ways, using the timewith management against us...
...reported more than adequate markets for the new firm...
...Innocentadaptations ofmodern classics is becom'conserving' one but its political implications are far from ing Forman's specialty...
...The more accurate term is must change in order to meet the challenge at hand...
...While its leaders prepare a haven't seen it work...
...According to union leaders themselves, considerations 25 May 1979:303 of feasibility were ultimately decisive...
...Who makes them...
...At the very least, new kinds of questions are being reasons for the refusal--the amount of the loan guarantee asked, the consequences ofwhich will be seen in the years to requestand the overall weak economic basis of the proposal...
...Action Grant, providing the seed money to purchasethe mill...
...But these men, often Works, the union bureaucracy has been skeptical about efforts highly skilled, must enter a new mill at the lowest wage and to save its members' jobs...
...Behind his anger, there is incomprehension, a lingering ROBERT HOWARD is StaffAssociate of the New Republic...
...But the problem of how to act money) raises serious doubts about the economic foundations remains...
...For ourpeace ofmind...
...And when such men are seriousness of the closing threat...
...The Coalition is all leaders and no followIlI ers," according to a local sociologist at Youngstown State University...
...Popular shows usually do this...
...They are caught between their focus of a way of life...
...there certainly has not been any benefits, all the while complaining about the new generation labor-management conspiracy againstthe Coalition's project...
...Like mostunion was closed...
...He liked the variety of his job...
...And Ed Mann admits, On May 31st, the Ecumenical Coalition's option to buy the "Community ownership is still a strange idea becausepeople Campbell Works will expire...
...ness and big labor which was forged during the Second World For Joe, the mill is more than just a work-place, it is the War and has_lasted eversince...
...twilight's last gleaming for certain American dreams still widely cherished...
...In the originalHair the thing that all the street people had in common was their rootlessness...
...But "Frank Mills" is one ofthe songs dropped from the movie version, where family backgrounds HAIR TODAY and off-stage homes are created for the major characters...
...TRA benefits have run out...
...According to local 1462's recording secretary, Gerald Dickey, "in the early stages, people were open to the idea, but then the political dimension comes in and people got scared...
...The stories one hears in skill levels...
...It has not meant economic hardship Mahoning Valley steel industry...
...He has also tried to look for work at other mills but the closing announcement came...
...The '80' plan provides forearly retirement for years...
...seniority rights and receive other benefits in the form ofstock In fact, Russ has done, can do, very little...
...It'll take a miracle now to do it...
...hierarchies, the USW leadership is unaccustomed to dealing "We'vegot guys in the mill who were run out ofWest Virginia with these matters...
...It must open itself to new true tradition of musicals, he has accentuated the positive, ideas, new practices, new institutions...
...We had the sense that they had decided long got a short time-period to do somethin...
...A the feasibility ofthe project itself...
...I've something ofan opponent to the Coalition, althoughhe claims neverbeen frightened ofan idea in my life...
...he is in the position ofa young worker looking for a new job George Limberty is 48 years old...
...In the local culture itself must change...
...Such jobs are in no way equivalent to their previ- Youngstown describe a leadership unwilling to recognize the ous positionsat the Campbell Works...
...But it would be a mistake to assume we have Joe is unemployed now but thinks he has found anotherjob...
...The problem is we only do Youngstown...
...The equally dramatic efforts of area clergy to save the tion, the New Orleans conglomerate which owned Sheet & 4200 jobs lost there has been proclaimed as a model for citizen Tube and, without warning, ordered the closing of the action to confront those economic problems shared by cities Campbell mill...
...senseof promises not kept...
...You always knew when they working class...
...You can't expect dramatic changes in for hippies themselves or not, it was true enough for other that attitude over the course of one year...
...The thing to do was get Milos cision only fuels their anxiety and their discontent.These men Forman to direct the film...
...He is bargaining...
...co-operative...
...Two-thirds of Russ's 3000 defensive as the Campbell workers were...
...Ed Mann credits rank and file pressure from deprecation, "and I'm just a dummy...
...He has done volunteer work, set aside his economic pressures of unemployment in the 18 months since $2,000 savings in a special "Save Our Valley" bank account, the lay-offs...
...Americans to make Hair enormously successful...
...Administration officials indicate two to tell...
...Then all of particular form of social life shaped by the growth of the a sudden you see the place dead...
...This response can only be reinforced by uct after product which used to be madehere...
...have asked the Coalition for help...
...they have also written Jones Since the Campbell closing, Russ has moved at crosscur- & Laughlin demanding a meeting to discuss the mechanisms rents to the rest ofthe local union leadership...
...Joe lists prodYoungstown today...
...It made it into entertainment...
...Since 1950, over 100,000 jobs have been lost in and to the Coalition's attempt to reopen it--is the real story in the MahoningValley due to industrial closings...
...In a meeting with Coalition leaders, ones is another...
...a conference at three years...
...ideas and new practices are necessary...
...The problem is you've only tion's efforts...
...Even the generous benefits that keep him and his skeptical of efforts to resurrect the mill...
...They're working' hand in hand industry...
...Still,Hair remains chetypes of the new black bourgeoisie in the post- Hair era} pertinent...
...When I talked to Ed, he felt caught between the anger and disillusion of his men and the inertia of the international...
...Workers for the new and again to the hard times ofthe Depression,to how much he company, christened "Community Steel," would forego is doing forhis men throughhis contacts with the international...
...tested old methods...
...Ed Mann explains: "Workers aren't aggressively premise that the hippies weren't really alienated from activists...
...In-Between...
...By the end of our ownership rather than wages...
...His kind of unionism was never point...
...run out...
...Out of work for more than a year now, George is getting when I spoke with him...
...Lukas, still not quite comfortable with his role as critic, "but In spite of these efforts, the Commerce Department's Eco- our government is just sellingus down the drain...
...For Gerald, it is a story of more Mahoning Valley steelworkers out of work before the hope, "Maybe we'll win too...
...Gerald knows it will not It has been conventional wisdom among opponents of the be the old-timers--neither Russell Baxternor Gus Hall--who Ecumenical Coalition and in certain publications of the nawill invent them...
...Meanwhile, the expected Brier Hill closing and "When you think of what those guys had to go through, and cut-backs at U.S...
...TRA (for Trade Readjustment Allowance) benefits are special George Limberty was a pit-coordinator at the Campbell federal stipendsto workers who have lost their jobs as a result Works...
...Why bother...
...The $245 million figure does There are some young steelworkers in the Mahoning Valley greatly exceed the EDA's official $100 million limit on loan who have chosen neither migration in search of new jobs nor guarantees, but the government has known that this would be cynicism about maintaining the old ones.They are often lower the case since last fall...
...Hair was made on the novel succeed...
...he has worked in and with another company--with the addeddisadvantagethat few around the steel industry all his life...
...Safeguarding the Campbell Worksjobs doesn't mean that and defusehis anger...
...tional press that Mahoning Valley steelworkers do not really support its efforts...
...His two previousjobs-- companies will hire a 48-year-old veteran ofone heart attack...
...Other workers who did not qualify for early retirement but T HIS IS most true for the steelworkers' union itself...
...There is also terested in "that Party bullshit," but to find out what things some talk oftrying to make the community ownership project were like in Youngstown's mills during the Depression...
...Whetherthis was true movements aren't clean...
...Whether or not highly visible union supportfrom the very beginning would have made the difference in presidential aide Jack Watson made it clear that the Commerce Department decision was made with the knowledge and supefforts to reopen the Campbell Works is ofcourse impossible port ofPresident Carter...
...Time, however, is United Steelworkers' "Flying Squadron," the day at the Stop very short and as yet there are no signs ofhow such a strategy Five mill when armed company police fired on the strikers...
...The increase in foreign steel different things...
...If there was any wildness or maintain that culture in the face of far-reaching economic vexation with which the immediacy of the Vietnam war enchange...
...Without it, he feels disoriented and lost...
...At the time, Watson gave the strong level union officials--grievance committee members, safety impression that Youngstown was a specialcase to bejudged on representatives, orrecording secretaries like Gerald Dickey...
...The All these reasons, and others, have nudged the USW into original request of $300 million in loan guarantees was pared to $245 million...
...Technical questions raised afterthe original feasibil- steelworkers...
...He Even more important, the union, in consultation with workers avoids the issues of lay-offs, plant closings, the problems of laid off by the Campbell closing, devised a plan to cut labor the Mahoning Valley steel industry...
...pain and promise ofsocial changes which will be with us for a Continental...
...between culture and change,social innovationis born...
Vol. 106 • May 1979 • No. 10
