IV. Rundowns and Runarounds: What Strategy for Labor?
And they 'reforcin ' more work on ya. It's knocking off men, makin' cutbacks here and there to save money. They've knocked off an awful lot of jobs. With the foreign imports of steel they're...
...New York Times, November 25, 1978...
...6 The 1978 merger of 7thranked Jones & Laughlin Steel (a subsidiary of the LTV Corporation) and 8th-ranked Youngstown Sheet & Tube (a subsidiary of the Lykes Corporation), centralized the sale of steel products in fewer hands...
...Steelworker officials are not the only union leaders who argue that they must protect the 34JanlFeb 1979 35 industry in order to protect the jobs of their members...
...Foreign steel producers who sell below this price-which is determined on the basis of Japanese costs-are subject to the application of tariffs and lawsuits...
...In other words, rather than using profits to strengthen the firm, Lykes channeled these profits into its own diversification schemes...
...Enthusiastic expansion plans had to be mothballed as the steel crisis swept across the United States, Europe and even Japan...
...2 4 The essence of the Youngstown plan is to refurbish the old Campbell works and equip them with new basic oxygen furnace technology...
...Information on the Youngstown plan from National Center for Economic Alternatives, Youngstown Demonstration Planning Project-Final Report, September 1978 (Washington, D.C.: NCEA, 1978...
...1 The government is also supporting the "surviving" producers with something more tangible than encouragement...
...10 And the Economist coldly remarked, "any (trade) protection should only be to buy time to organize a smooth decline, not to keep alive worn out steelmills, however horrific the rundown may look...
...Our study has shown that steelmakers have used every increase in the trigger price to raise their own prices (which are turned into higher short-run profits, used to help the firms diversify), rather than trying to undersell the imports and recapture the domestic market...
...There is little doubt that the concentration and centralization of production may serve as a spur to greater efficiency, by allowing for greater economies of scale and the introduction of new, cost-saving technology...
...Unable to make the cuts "socially acceptable," the steelmakers tried to make them politically acceptable by blaming foreign producers for their problems...
...And the reason it doesn't is because it is based on rolling back the hands of time to a moment when capital wasn't internationalized, when manufacturing skills had not been built up in the less developed countries, when "U.S...
...Youngstown's plans require a tremendous amount of outside financing...
...So a steelworker reasons, "I'm 50 years old, been in steel all my life...
...Official candidates are given the union's resources and support, both of which are denied to the opposition...
...The Carter Administration has been consistent in avoiding strong, protectionist trade measures (such as strict quotas or higher tariffs) in favor of what it calls "organized free trade...
...2 Cockerill, Belgium's largest steelmaker, reported record losses in 1977...
...Jobs and Income: Without controlling the movement of capital, workers have little ability to determine the process of industrial restructuring in the United States or any capitalist country...
...REGULATING THE RUNDOWN One of the most important functions of the government in this period is overseeing and regulating the partial rundown of the domestic steel industry...
...When Lykes (the parent corporation) shut the mill in September 1977, 5,000 workers suddenly found themselves without jobs and Youngstown, Ohio had lost its major industry...
...1 8 A further example of the problem can be seen in the construction of all new integrated mills...
...Workers can and must organize and fight to defend their interests under capitalism...
...Most agreements in basic steel are indirectly ratified by industry conferences composed only of local presidents...
...Thus, in one great rush, they tossed out more than 20,000 steelworkers to trim their employment rolls before that deadline...
...Employers always resist such a solution, preferring to hire a smaller workforce for longer hours...
...6 The very concept of a management-labor productivity committee accepts the premise that workers should cooperate with employers to speed up their work...
...Yet, what the steelmakers have in mind is lowering U.S...
...This meant in practice that the weakest producers (those with the highest costs) would gradually be forced out of the market by foreign competition while the stronger producers would be encouraged to turn out steel more efficiently by cutting back on their oldest mills...
...For steelworkers, or apparel workers or shoemakers, however, options are different...
...Metall, the German steelworkers' union, settled the strike without having won the issue, but the strength of their argument was clear...
...FTC, op...
...It is ironic that while all trade unionists would support the legalization of the right to strike in Brazil or Chile, many, including the USWA's leadership, have virtually abandoned that right in the United States...
...Britain's largest) reported heavy losses for the year and two new steel plants were shut down entirely before they came on stream...
...With the foreign imports of steel they're losin' money...
...Without the right to strike the union is, in the words of the same Youngstown worker, like a dog without teeth...
...9 Perhaps the most important aspect of this merger, though, is what it indicates about the government's role in the process of industrial restructuring...
...This powerlessness becomes painfully obvious in times of crisis, in times when, due to a shift of capital, old industries are left to decline and decay and workers are left to sink with them...
...Thus nationalization within a capitalist framework does not represent any advance for the workers...
...markets...
...One of the men killed was a boy that worked there seven days and another man was one that worked there 30-some years on the same job...
...cit., p. 190...
...While the potential exists for workers to derive many benefits through better wages, working conditions and, most importantly, control over the work process, the tendency in these firms is for strong pressures to develop which counteract these benefits...
...That's what they say...
...I suppose in order to make a profit they have to cut somewhere...
...But, when we look at capital's current attack on steelworkers, we realize that there is more to be done...
...Workers' Control in the Mills: One of the most widely-discussed plans to save jobs in JanlFeb 1979 3536 NACLA Report steel has emerged from the fight to reopen the Campbell works of Youngstown Sheet & Tube...
...I don't think that's entirely bad...
...In the best of all possible scenarios, the USWA program implies taxing the working class as a whole (through higher steel prices and increased taxes) to finance a modernization of the steel industry that will dramatically reduce the number of jobs in steel...
...We have seen that the large producers oppose this plan, arguing (both from self-interest and in terms of economic rationality) that some mills are too old to produce low-cost steel and should be scrapped rather than repaired...
...AISI, Annual Statistical Report, various years...
...Importers argued for the lowest price which would give them more competitive flexibility...
...Moving On, November 1978...
...5 In an effort to save the jobs of his union's members, McBride has fully supported the industry's positions on the need for greater protection from foreign competition...
...In September 1978, the French government announced a major rescue plan for the near-bankrupt steel sector which amounts to the virtual nationalization of the three largest steel companies...
...MERGERS AND MONOPOLY Closing old capacity will mean, for some plants, closing down altogether...
...Third, rank-and-file steelworkers have been calling for the right to strike in basic steel for years...
...9. Ecumenical Coalition of the Mahoning Valley, "Memorandum to the U.S...
...Our study has shown that, for many years, the steel companies have been diversifying out of steel...
...workers lose their jobs, they should blame foreign workers...
...Steel alone-at once...
...Even though Lykes would still close its Campbell plant under the merger, it now doesn't feel quite so generous about turning over its customer list to the new corporation...
...Steelworkers in West Germany recently ended a 44-day walkout-their first major strike in decades-which demanded the introduction of a 35-hour week and no further layoffs in steel...
...The Experimental Negotiating Agreement, signed in 1973 without the approval of the union membership, furthered this process by prohibiting strikes in the event that no agreement is reached in national contract talks...
...Second, while the Steelworkers are one of the few unions which still retain a referendum method of electing International officers, the last two elections have pointed to the International staff's tremendous power to influence the outcome...
...If the plants were to close, the companies would be forced to come up with the funds-estimated at over $1 billion for U.S...
...The plant, which will cost nearly $8 billion, would employ fewer than 8,500 workers while the facilities it is to replace (in Pittsburgh and Youngstown) currently employ 30,000 workers!19 Support for Marginal Producers: The USWA favors government support for "marginal or weak" producers...
...It may prove impossible to prevent a factory from "running away" to an area of cheaper38 NACLA Report labor costs, but they can be prevented from going until they have made provisions for the future security of the workforce...
...3. New York Times, November 21, 1978...
...For others it will mean merging with stronger firms to get through the period...
...What we suggest here are thoughts based on our investigation into the steel industry and earlier analyses of the apparel and electronics industries...
...In Japan, at the end of 1978, nearly one-third of the nation's 65 blast furnaces were idled...
...According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the injury rate in basic steel has been rising since the 1960s, reaching a high point in 197374...
...In May 1978 the government instituted a "trigger pricing" system in order to regulate imports of steel...
...Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Structure of the U.S...
...And what of the workers...
...And now the Ecumenical Coalition of the Mahoning Valley, a group of clergy, unionists and community leaders from Youngstown, Ohio, is charging that the new merger will repeat this process: LTV will suck the assets out of the Lykes steel operations and channel them to other parts of the conglomerate...
...Let's examine these paths in summary: Raising Profits: The Steelworkers argue that the industry should be allowed higher profit margins to raise needed capital for investment in steel...
...August Thyssen-Hutte, West Germany's biggest, finished the year with a significant loss and two other German steelmills reported the worst years in their companies' history...
...Furthermore, the composition of employment in the United States is rapidly changing...
...Is our conclusion, then, that workers are defenseless in the face of these critical changes...
...Abandoning the strike weapon and helping management raise productivity only help erode these rights...
...Interview with Ed Mann, secretary-treasurer of the Rank and File Team (RAFT), a group of insurgent steelworkers, in Michigan Free Press, January 27, 1974...
...In 1969 Youngstown Sheet & Tube was a cash-rich steel company, a tempting morsel for other firms...
...For the USWA, the crisis was created by one overwhelming factor: the dumping of foreign steel...
...levels...
...they want to work...
...Since that time, Lykes has literally bled the steelmaking firm dry...
...The most that could be asked for, according to the Economist, was "the time...needed to allow the obsolete plants of established steel industries, notably in the United States and Western Europe, to be run down at a socially acceptable pace...
...There is a difference, however, between building larger and larger plants and putting existing plants into fewer and fewer hands...
...The best thing would be to fight to keep that damn Japanese steel out of here...
...Furthermore, higher profits in steel will come indirectly or directly out of the pockets and skins of the steelworkers themselves...
...Finally, workers in the United States should actively join in the struggles to remove the primary cause of capital flight-low wages and the repression of labor abroad...
...Without discussing how protectionist trade policies have historically hurt workers more than owners, our study of the steel industry has shown that protectionism may save a worker's job temporarily-for a week, a month, or a year, which, we agree, is not something to cast off lightly-but it represents no solution for workers...
...The problems in steel are just one part of an overall shift of manufacturing jobs out of the advanced capitalist countries...
...In fact, the Carter Administration has proposed a virtual 3132 NCARpr welfare program for the larger steel producers...
...Steel's operations in the 1950s concluded, for example, that the firm "was neither big because it was efficient nor efficient because it was big...
...It is quite common for U.S...
...These programs may seem unrealistic-and they surely won't be handed to the workers on a golden platter...
...guaranteed loans, $50 million in grants and state loans and $75 million in private loans...
...It is not unheard of for workers to forego benefits for years while the plant remains a marginal operation, only to have it bought out from under them when it is profitable again...
...2 0 In short, the majority of the USWA's JanlFeb 1979 33NACLA Report P o o, resolutions, while intended to save the jobs of steelworkers, would in practice only help the steel industry raise profits while guaranteeing no advantages to steelworkers themselves...
...The trigger price is the lowest price at which imported steel can be sold in U.S...
...Business Week,January 16, 1978...
...THE UNITED STEELWORKERS AND THE DECLINE OF STEEL In December 1977, the United Steelworkers of America met in emergency session to consider the wave of mill shutdowns which had put more than 20,000 steelworkers out on the street...
...in the long run it is likely that more and more steel production will shift out of the United States altogether...
...Such measures have led employers to push the workers to the wall, confident that few would be willing to take the 2-3 years necessary to arbitrate a dispute and that the USWA won't authorize a job action...
...Our study of the internationalization of capital in the steel industry has stressed that the fundamental problem of the steelworkers and of workers in general arises from their lack of control over the economy, their industries, their jobs and, in many respects, their lives...
...2 2 The shift from manufacturing to clerical and service jobs has had two immediate consequences: average real wages for the working class as a whole are declining, since industrial wages are on average higher than servicesector wages...
...factory workers as a whole have lost an estimated two million jobs as manufacturing has either moved abroad or closed down...
...cit., p. 715...
...FTC, op...
...In the worst case, it means sharply higher steel prices, a harmful relaxation of OSHA regulations affecting both workers and steel communities, tax-supported programs to aid producers who inevitably will shut down, lower steel wages, a serious challenge to union work rules, intensified work processes on the shop floor as well as fewer jobs...
...Sign at U.S...
...Pensions built up at one workplace should be guaranteed in the case of job transfers...
...In November, the Belgian government unveiled a plan to take control of 60% of the two largest Belgian steel groups (Cockerill-Ougree and Mainault-Sambre) and a 25% share in the third largest plant...
...Furthermore, under most of the European nationalization plans, the firms are slated to be sold back into 36 NACLA ReportLabor rally, Washington, D.C...
...Funds should be provided for job retraining programs...
...Even though this could entail higher overtime wages, it frees them from shouldering the costs of other employment-related expenses (benefits, social security, etc...
...Guardian, November 30, 1977...
...After two years of high production and profits in 1973 and 1974, the hopes of the steelmakers were dashed on the hard rocks of worldwide recession and stagnation...
...Politically, "worker-controlled'' firms operating within the private market economy are often a mixed blessing...
...Steel's HormesJead Works, Pittsburgh...
...The worst thing that could happen," notes a former chairman of Kaiser Steel, "is temporary import relief that allowed marginal producers to prolong their misery...
...Capital today can and will move to wherever the grass is greener regardless of the colors of its own flag...
...workers above foreign workers...
...In the last decade, U.S...
...When asked if he felt some discomfort about "singing the same hymn as the industry," USWA President Lloyd McBride replied: "Without a steel industry, there can't be steel jobs...
...Erecting Stronger Trade Barriers: The USWA supports stringent trade restrictions on imported steel, including higher trigger prices, quotas or tariffs...
...And only then can we begin to build a society which will foster the hopes of steelworkers and shoemakers alike...
...The workers will pay for higher profits in an indirect fashion when they pay more for steel products (cars, appliances, etc...
...According to Frank Weil, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Trade, these rules are designed to "make sure trade is orderly and to give import-sensitive domestic industries time to restructure, increase efficiency or shift into new lines of business...
...MetalBulletin, April 7, 1978...
...1 2 The same philosophy has been directly applied to the steel industry in a massive report, The United States Steel Industry and Its International Rivals, prepared by the Federal Trade Commission...
...In practice, the USWA is marching down the protectionist road by itself, while the industry, banks and the government are following a very different path...
...Restoring rank-and-file control over contracts would strengthen and revitalize a union which, in the words of a 50-year veteran at Youngstown, "don't bark no more for you...
...SteelLabor, November 1977, p. 12...
...By 1985, white collar employment will account for more than half of all jobs in this country for the first time...
...There is a certain history which lends strength to this prediction...
...LABOR UNITY AND THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF CAPITAL The decline of the steel industry in the United States and its development in the Third World is not an isolated case...
...2 ' Between 1950 and 1976, more than 34 million jobs were added to the nation's payroll, but only 1.1 million of these were for production workers in the manufacturing industries...
...Steel industry officials currently talk of the need to shut down more mills, and some have supported the "de facto liquidation" of 1520% of U.S...
...to specialize in the production of those products which it can produce relatively efficiently, and enjoy the benefits of foreign steel at less cost...
...Putting Teeth into the Union: The union is a worker's source of strength at the workplace, but the farther it drifts from the rank and file, the more it loses its ability or desire to protect them...
...7 Attorney General Griffin Bell personally approved the Lykes-LTV merger-overruling the recommendations of his anti-trust staff -by arguing that it was "the only viable means for maintaining the Lykes' steel producing facilities and for saving the jobs of those concerned.'" Yet it seems highly unlikely that the old Youngstown plants of Campbell and Briar Hill will ever reopen under conditions of the merger...
...We want our Steelworkers to work...
...Union leaders, local clergy and city officials began to draw up a plan to reopen the mill...
...Our study demonstrates that even if more capital were invested in steel, employment levels would drop nonetheless, since newer, more capital-intensive technology requires fewer workers...
...A major study of U.S...
...Legal incentives encouraging the flight of capital-whether they are "right-to-work" laws which challenge the rights of unions to organize or tariff laws which foster the export of labor-intensive jobs- should be blocked...
...Economist, February 12, 1977...
...2 6 Sweden has also nationalized the bulk of its basic steel industry...
...The steel companies pushed for the highest possible trigger price, which would allow them to raise their own prices and, essentially, sidestep foreign competition...
...corporations had their productive bases in the United States...
...In these agreements the union accepted the formation of joint advisory committees in every steelmill to improve productivity, allowing producers to "meet the challenge posed by principal foreign competitors in recent years...
...Similarly, foreign profits of multinational corporations should be taxed to provide a fund for importimpacted industries in the United States...
...Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment and Earnings, various years...
...Also, many "workermanaged" plants are worker-managed in name alone, a sharp distinction soon appearing between workers and supervisory personnel, given the need to turn a profit in the "outside" world...
...They argued that the government should support a federallyfunded "Buy America" campaign...
...Capital flows from the United States, Europe and Japan to Latin America, Africa and Asia are creating the conditions for a new international division of labor...
...but much more difficult to point to a solution, for there are no easy answers...
...domestic list prices...
...Furthermore, the Federal Trade Commission's study of the problem estimated that quotas or higher tariffs would raise the cost of steel to consumers-by about $1 billion a year with a 12% quota on steel-as well as giving producers a nearly $1 billion windfall bonus in what the FTC calls "monopoly profits...
...cit., pp...
...Economy in 1980 and 1985, Bulletin 1831 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1974...
...In fact, one of the only deterrents to closing more old mills immediately is the fact that, over the years, steel companies have not kept up payments into the workers' pension fund trust accounts...
...George Meany recently berated the entire notion of free trade as a "joke and a myth," stressing that if other countries impose trade restrictions, the AFL-CIO should back protectionism as well: "Do unto others as they do to us," Meany commented, "barrier for barrier-closed door for closed door...
...Reduced output, they say, would keep supply more in line with demand, and keep steel prices at profitable levels...
...Britain's largest steel firm (British Steel) and one of Italy's largest (Italsider) have been in the public sector for some years...
...5. Moving On, November 1978...
...A decision in April 1978 by an arbitration panel, however, accepted the union's contention that the provisions of the contract applied to workers employed in 1977 as well...
...They issued strong resolutions calling for trade quotas if the trigger price system did not keep foreign steel out...
...It's easy to say "No...
...Steel.' The process of diversification and continued international competition is forcing an important shift throughout the U.S...
...Furthermore, the last USWA convention (November 1978) passed a highly undemocratic resolution making it virtually impossible for insurgent candidates to raise the funds necessary to challenge incumbents...
...2. World Business Weekly, October 30, 1978, p. 12...
...7 CreatingJobs: The USWA claims that the industry will use higher profits to modernize old mills and build new plants, thereby creating more jobs for steelworkers...
...4. Economist, December 31, 1977...
...8. Department ofJustice, Press Release, June 21, 1978...
...So, for example, employment in basic steel declined by 150,000 from 1953-1973 even though production rose by about 50 million tons...
...Thus it is critical, particularly in a period of crisis, to return control over the direction and orientation of the unions to their members...
...The delegates approved a program to protect the domestic steel industry from imports...
...Cidne Hart: LNS Women's Graphics) the private sector once a respectable level of profitability has been restored...
...What the steelworkers should have in mind as a starting point is an understanding of the common interests of all workers which will help them struggle to raise foreign wages to U.S...
...producers to argue that steelworkers are losing their jobs because foreign workers "will work" for lower wages -and, therefore, if U.S...
...The capitalists, who do control this process, have the ability to protect their interests by moving into more profitable business sectors...
...During the period of the productivity emphasis we had four deaths in our company," a worker at Youngstown Sheet & Tube related...
...Unemployment insurance benefits should be increased and stretched out...
...In the first place, only a minority of workers in the USWA have the right to approve or reject contracts...
...So if this means we find ourselves marching in step with the industry, so be it...
...cit., p. 547...
...They will pay for higher profits directly when the steel companies raise productivity while lowering real wages...
...This would allow the remaining units to be run at higher rates of utilization, thereby reducing unit costs and raising profits...
...To a large extent, USWA contracts in the basic steel industry in 1971 and 1974 have already laid the groundwork for this process...
...For many years it paid out almost 80% of Youngstown's profits in dividends...
...6. Steel Labor, December 1977...
...If I lose my job in the mill, where am I going to get another job that pays a good union wage...
...The government finally selected a set of prices which were, for the most part, below U.S...
...From the workers' point of view, to support these producers now with government funds would amount to using tax dollars raised from the working class as a whole to finance a welfare program for mill owners who have let their plants decay...
...The USWA has been able to win for its members higher than average wages...
...With the threat of bankruptcy hanging over their heads-most "workermanaged" firms were on the verge of failure before the workers were brought in to manage them-thus workers are often expected to make extreme sacrifices to get the plant into the black again...
...They endorsed the concept of saving steel jobs through a program of federally-supported loans to weak and marginal steel producers...
...Their attempts to protect jobs in their own industries or sectors are easily turned by the capitalists into an attack on another sector of workers either in the United States or abroad...
...The merger further debilitates a plan already weakened by a number of technical problems and political shortcomings...
...To pay for this, proponents call for $300 million in U.S...
...Rather, the dispute must be submitted to binding arbitration...
...In short, the steelmakers, banks, engineering firms and the government have all been operating on a similar set of assumptions: In the short run the steel industry will have to be cut back and severely restructured...
...Steel is considering building a greenfield plant at Conneaut, Ohio...
...Washington Post, September 2, 1978...
...7. Adams, op...
...USWA officials have voluntarily limited the workers' recourse to the strike since the earliest days of the union...
...Nor are they overly anxious to sell the plant to the Ecumenical Coalition, the organization which proposed the new corporation...
...They proposed that steelmakers should be allowed to increase their profits in order to modernize their plants and build new mills, thereby saving old and creating new jobs in steel...
...But their strength lies in the fact that they are demands which stress the unity of all workers rather than calling for special provisions to be made for one sector of workers above another, or for U.S...
...It is also questionable if the addition of basic oxygen furnace technology will be able to turn around a mill which has been run into the ground over a period of years...
...steel capacity...
...The steelmakers are attempting to deprive workers of the job rights they have won on the shop floor over decades, rights which are necessary to protect the health, safety and wages of workers...
...and LTV Corporation," xerox manuscript, 1978...
...Agreement between United States Steel Corporation and the United Steelworkers ofAmerica, August 1, 1974, p. 203...
...Shorter Work Week: A number of rankand-file steelworker organizations have raised the demand for a 30-35 hour work week at 40 hours pay during times of weak demand for steel...
...Yet not even the timing was right for the U.S...
...3 MAKING UNEMPLOYMENT SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE As demand sagged, all firms were confronted with the need to phase out their least productive, most obsolete plants, even as they publicly deplored the shutdowns...
...New York Times, January 1, 1978...
...Steve Dubi, steelworker, South Works, U.S...
...New York Times, December9, 1977...
...Times may be tough in steel, but they are booming in petroleum...
...If the United States is not, then free trade will permit the U.S...
...With a shorter work week, employment can be maintained at higher levels and the employers forced to carry their due portion of the cost of the decline...
...Their plan advocates the establishment of a for-profit corporation whose voting stock would be divided equally between a non-profit community corporation, the employees (through a stock ownership plan), and local investors...
...The push for higher productivity levels has increased the hazards faced by steelworkers by encouraging crew reduction and work outside a laborer's training and job description...
...In the last two years, membership in labor unions has declined by three-quarters of a million workers, largely as a result of the recession, the shift of manufacturing jobs out of the country and to the non-union South, and industry's assault on pro-labor legislation...
...It acts in coordination with the largest producers to drive the weakest firms from the market, shaping trade and fiscal policies to suit this goal...
...The Justice Department recently threw a wrench into the Youngstown works by approving the merger of LTV and Lykes...
...wages to foreign levels...
...Well paid by the government (taxpayers) for their past efforts in the industry, the owners are free to move on to invest in more profitable sectors, while the state (through the taxpayers) absorbs the losses and assumes the social responsibility of cutting back the work force...
...556-7...
...Carter's plans include legislation to accelerate depreciation allowances for aging equipment, tax breaks for firms investing in anti-pollution equipment mandated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), $550 million in low-cost loans to domestic mills, freight rate changes designed to lower the cost of steel shipped by rail, and federal guarantees for private bank loans...
...Attorney General Bell's approval of the LTV-Lykes merger is also an indication that the government and the large steelmakers--often thought to be fierce antagonists-are actually good ol' buddies...
...steel industry, as well as the steel industries of other advanced capitalist countries...
...work force was organized, as against nearly 35% of workers who belonged to unions 20 years ago...
...23 Protectionism has a common-sense ring to it...
...The mill's potential for success would rest on guaranteed government purchases of steel, on its ability to take over the old corporation's list of clients, and a higher-than-average plant productivity brought about by involving workers in the mill's ownership and management...
...mills...
...And the major industrial unions built during the 1930s are in deep trouble...
...The latter may not always produce any economies of scale...
...RUNDOWNS AND RUNAROUNDS 1. Terkel, op...
...How does this apply to the Steelworkers...
...The question underlying the Youngstown plan is a fundamental one: can an island of workers' control characterized by non-exploitative relations exist within a sea of capitalism where success is measured by profits, and profits originate in exploitation...
...This has been proven in the case of Japan where an extremely rapid period of concentration put 69% of total Japanese steel production into 30 NACLA ReportJanlFeb 1979 only 10 plants (not firms) by 1976...
...UPI) NACLA Report 32JanlFeb 1979 33 As we have shown, imports are not the essence of the problem, nor is there reason to expect protectionism to be the solution...
...It is unlikely that the government will devote more than onehalf of the funds it has earmarked for the entire steel industry to one plant...
...World Business Weekly, December 4-10, 1978, p. 63...
...By late 1977, only 20.1% of the U.S...
...A shorter work week cannot solve the decline of the steel industry per se, but it does address the issue of how workers are to protect themselves during a period of industrial decline...
...But only when workers do control their jobs, their lives and their societies will their interests become primary...
...Thus it would seem that, to avoid having their demands played off against each other, workers in declining industries should organize around general demands of jobs or income at levels commensurate to what the are currently receiving...
...In England, the British Steel Corp...
...The essence of nationalization within a capitalist framework, however, is to pass the burden of worn-out industries from the owners to the taxpayers...
...They proposed a worker/community ownership structure for the plant...
...Nationalization of the Steel Industry: Many European countries have turned to nationalization as the salvation for steel...
...higher profits in the steel industry will probably be plowed into non-steel activities rather than being used to modernize old plant and equipment...
...I think it was because of 'Hurry up, get the job done' in unsafe conditions for the sake of production...
...Management's understanding of the 1977 contract with the USWA required the payment of higher supplemental unemployment insurance benefits for workers only if they had been employed sometime after January 1, 1978...
...The state and the employers (through specialized business taxes) should be forced to provide a more extensive program of "Trade Adjustment Assistance" payments for workers in those industries which have become uncompetitive internationally...
...Department of Justice Regarding the Proposed Merger of Lykes Corp...
...The FTC concludes: If the United States is a cost-competitive country in which to construct steel plants, such construction will occur...
...It was snapped up by cashpoor Lykes, a firm which made the purchase by deepening its already huge debt...
Vol. 13 • January 1979 • No. 1
