
   
      
         
            The Decline of the Northeastern Ohio Steel Market: Why Did Attempts by Union Leaders and Concerned Citizens to Revive the Steel Industry Ultimately Fail?
            
            An Extended Essay in History
            By Philosophy E. Walker
            Candidate Number: xxxxxxxxx
            Supervisor: Alexis Mamaux
            Date: January 12, 2004
            Word Count: 3215
            United World College of the American West
            Montezuma, NM
            87731
            USA
            September 19, 1977 is a date that few people in Youngstown, Ohio will ever forget. On that date Jennings
            Lambeth, president of Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, announced that most of the steel company’s Campbell
            Works would close. Although for other cities this would simply be a minor economic setback, for the people
            of Youngstown and the surrounding area, it meant disaster. Mahoning County was a one-industry area, and the
            people of Youngstown, Struthers, Campbell, Boardman Township, and the numerous other small towns and
            villages in the area only had one main employer: the steel mills. 
            The events that would follow this
            date (known as Black Monday) are seen by the people who witnessed them either as stories of great courage
            and determination or as monuments to human failure and false hope. Rather than sit back and wait for their
            jobs to be snatched away, the workers and local union members in the mills fought long and hard to be able
            to keep the factories open. Petitions, protests, rallies, collectivization, and even the takeover of a steel
            company’s headquarters were all attempted in a desperate movement by those in the industry to preserve the
            only source of employment that this town had. These well-intentioned efforts ultimately failed, leaving
            thousands with shattered dreams and a distinct lack of trust in fellow humankind. 
            But why did the
            brave attempts by union leaders and concerned citizens to revive the steel industry ultimately fail? When
            examining the area’s history, culture, and economic situation we can identify four main reasons: the refusal
            of the international leadership of United Steelworkers of America to support their union’s Youngstown
            branch, the lagging international steel market, the lack of a clear, organized vision for individual
            initiatives such as the Save Our Valley Campaign, and crippling regionalism which caused animosity between
            different small towns in the region, all contributed in some way to the failure of the workers and union
            leaders to save the industry. Most importantly, the problem in Youngstown was a nationwide problem. Although
            it affected Youngstown and the surrounding area more than it affected other regions, the local people simply
            could not solve a national crisis on a local level. 
            
            A Brief History of Steel in Northeastern Ohio

In 1802 James and Daniel Heaton discovered ore and coal lining Yellow Creek in an area outside of Youngstown known as
Poland Township. Their blast furnace, “Hopewell,” was the very first blast furnace in the area. During the Civil War,
Youngstown played a vital role in supplying the Union army with iron products. Youngstown also was a major railway
crossroads, due to its strategic position between Cleveland, Pittsburgh, New York, and Chicago. In fact, “More rail
cars passed under the Center Street Bridge [a major bridge in Youngstown] per day than any other location in the
country.”

During the 19th century, the center of iron manufacturing had gradually shifted from the far East Coast
(Massachusetts and Eastern Pennsylvania) to the Ohio Valley Pittsburgh regions of the Northeast, including the Mahoning
Valley and the Hanging Rock region of Ohio and Kentucky. By 1880, Youngstown’s population had grown to nearly 16,000,
which meant it had doubled in size over a twenty-year period. The town continued to prosper, driven by the flux of
immigrants pouring in with the hopes of employment at the mills. This prosperity continued until the late 1920s, when
the Great Depression hit the area hard. Despite the Congress of Industrial Organization’s successful efforts to
establish a national steel workers’ union, the industry barely survived the Depression years. Finally, the outbreak of
the Second World War made iron and steel important again, and Youngstown was bolstered out of its economic standstill
into a fast-paced period of booming growth.

Youngstown may have been an important and prosperous region in the post-war period, but the seeds for its downfall
were slowly being sown. Strikes racked the town during the forties, fifties, and sixties, and they were often long and
bloody. In 1973, the Experimental Negotiating Agreement was signed. This prohibited strikes and lockout, angering
workers and driving productivity and laborer morale down. At the same time, stricter governmental standards for
environmental protection and the growth of imported steel were making it harder to produce and market American steel
parts, and the overeager shareholders in the companies’ stock were pushing for more and more of their share of the pie.
Most importantly, Youngstown’s steel mills were slowly becoming less efficient and more expensive. Old technology was
not replaced, obsolete methods were not updated, and almost none of the industry’s profits were being utilized to help
modernize. It was a recipe for disaster that would soon explode in the faces of hundreds of thousands of workers and
their families.

Black Monday and the Crash of the Steel Industry
The announcement of the closing of the mills in 1977 was the beginning of a downward spiral, which would send the
entire valley into chaos and ruin. Between 1977 and 1981, a total of five mills were closed and approximately 25,000
jobs were lost countywide. Meetings of union officials and mill bosses were hurriedly set up in an attempt to persuade
the powers that be to reconsider their statement. However, it was clear that, in the words of USWA president Lloyd
McBride, “If you can’t make a buck, you get out of the business.”


The closings meant the end of Youngstown’s only real industry, the end of its population growth, and then end of
economic progress. Without the mills, people sought other places of employment in adjoining states or even other areas
of the country. Those that could afford to move did so; those that couldn’t afford to move mostly ended up on the
streets. Without an industrial or a residential base, commerce shrank considerably. It was becoming increasingly clear
that without the industrial base provided by the mills, the city of Youngstown would soon become a ghost town, inhabited
by those too poor or hopeful to escape. The workers decided they needed to do something to save their city, and so they
mobilized in a variety of ways.

Attempts to Save the Mills

The very first thing that the workers could do was “to get up a petition to stop the shutdown,” says Ed Mann, a local
union leader and organizer.  The petition was circulated, eventually including thousands of signatures; it was then
given to USWA representatives to present to President Carter in Washington. However, the representatives were shunted to
the side and ignored in Washington, since Youngstown’s political influence had died with its industry.

The International chapter of the USWA had much more lobbying power, but they refused to support the local union
members. The petition was lost among paperwork and bureaucratic procedure.

Next, workers decided to form the Ecumenical Coalition, an organization of local religious groups which spearheaded
the attempt to reopen the Youngstown works. The Coalition drafter letters to the Lykes Company asking if a group of
workers might purchase the mill and run it collectively. Lykes ignored the letters, so the Coalition turned once again
to the federal government. Here, too, they were ignored. The Coalition had no proper funds to buy the mills, so they
could do nothing but sit back and watch as the mills closed. 
Finally, following the shutdown of US Steel’s plant in 1980, local union leaders congregated outside the US Steel
Headquarters in Youngstown. They invited local people and politicians to witness the scene, then charged the
Headquarters and took it over. The workers stayed there until the next day, when US Steel declared that they were ready
to talk about selling the mill. Immediately after the workers left the building, US steel representatives told the local
union leaders that they had changed their minds and were no longer interested in allowing the workers to purchase the
mill.

All these efforts eventually came to nothing, and Youngstown’s steel mills remained closed. These attempts to save
the mills were hindered by several major factors, including the decline of the world steel market, which made American
steel impossible to sell or export.

The Decline of the World Market
The efforts to save the mills failed partly because the international market for steel had largely dried up. During
World War II the rest of the world was hungry for America’s iron and steel products; however, by the seventies no
foreign nations needed to import steel in such large quantities. In fact, American steel imports were beginning to
outweigh exports.

Foreign steel was easier and more efficient to make, and was often of higher quality than domestic steel. Foreign
steel companies invested in their factories, updating their technology and replacing their equipment often. This meant
that foreign facilities were more modern and efficient than any plants in America, and therefore were able to export a
more competitive product.

Foreign steel was also much cheaper. Wage hikes, although they helped to improve living conditions of steel workers
in the US, made American steel far more expensive. Also, international competitors drew on a large supply of very cheap
labor. Jobs were scarce in other steel-exporting countries, and labor laws were either non-existent or allowed employers
to pay much less for work. Labor costs in America continued to go up, draining US companies of their resources, while
companies overseas were able to cut labor costs and put that money back into updating and renovating their facilities.

On a worldwide scale, newer materials such as aluminum, plastic, and composites were beginning to substitute steel
both at home and abroad. Steel demand worldwide was beginning to decline, and it affected both domestic and foreign
companies. However, to American companies already suffering financial setbacks, outdated machinery, and fierce
competition, this lack of demand was an inconvenience they could not afford. America’s steel remained unsold, flooding
the world market with inferior products that no one wanted to buy.

Since this problem was a national one rather than a local one, the problems that were occurring in Youngstown were
not unique. Youngstown was perhaps hit harder than any other town by the collapse of the steel industry, but it was not
alone. The problem was a national one, involving many more mills and issues than Youngstown’s alone. J. Philip Richley,
a union member and organizer of many attempts to save 5the mills, has summed it up thus: “You just can’t solve a
nation-wide problem in a single city.” The decline of the world steel market affected not just Youngstown but the
entire steel community in America. Trying to prop up one city’s mills was impossible when faced with the depression that
spread throughout the entire industry.

The Save Our Valley Campaign: Lack of Funds and Plans
Eventually, some religious leaders involved in the Ecumenical Coalition joined forces within community members and
former steel mill employees to create the Save Our Valley Campaign. As the name suggests, local leaders wanted to
instill the people of Youngstown with a fierce sense of urgency, driving them forward to confront steel companies and
owners and help secure the future of the region. Marches, speeches, and letter writing were all employed to help
stimulate the Campaign and rally the people.
But the Campaign was bogged down heavily by the lack of proper funding. The people of Youngstown, being now
unemployed had very little money to spend on anything but staying alive. College tuition, clothes, food, and heating all
had to come before donations to non-profit organizations. People outside of the area had no personal investment in the
mills, and so it was difficult to convince anyone from out of the county to contribute funds. The lack of money proved
to be crippling, because it prevented the organizations involved from purchasing the mills to run collectively. Without
funds, the Save Our Valley Campaign could do nothing major to help salvage the city’s dying economy.

The Save Our Valley Campaign also lacked one essential component: an actual concrete plan. No one seemed to know
just how to go about fixing the problems. Letters and petitions were all very well, but they did little to improve the
situation. People clung to vague ideas of worker collectivization, but no one could really fathom exactly how that would
work; the people of Youngstown were, after all, not particularly familiar with socialism or collectivization in general.
Beyond that, no one knew how they should proceed: everyone knew that saving the mills was important, but nobody stepped
forward with a full-fledged plan to do it without losing huge amounts of money and dragging even more people down.
Without a real plan, nothing could truly be achieved.

Without funds to drive the efforts, or even a real plan of action, the Save Our Valley Campaign did more harm than
good. In effect, it raised the hopes of workers without having any real chance at saving anything. People became excited
and waited for the mills to reappear, but they never did. The Campaign failed to save any jobs and Youngstown was
plunged into economic chaos.

The Apathy of USWA

United Steel Workers of America was the union representing the Youngstown steel workers when the closings hit.
Initially many assumed that their union would take a lead role in fighting for the recovery of their jobs. However, it
soon became clear that although the local union leaders were prepared to fight, the international branch was not. The
higher levels of the union became increasingly disassociated with Youngstown and its plight, attempting to shut out the
appeals from workers and local union representatives and to ignore what was really happening.

Actually, one main reason for the behavior of the USWA was that union leaders really had no idea what to do. No one
had ever seen a shutdown of this magnitude and rapidity before, and none of the leaders of USWA, not even president Lynn
Williams, knew what could be done. It was clear to everyone that the economic fallout from this series of closings
would be one of the worst in US history, and so without any real precedents the union leaders were flustered. Rather
than try and come up with some sort of scenario, the USWA simply ignored what was going on in Youngstown, hoping that
perhaps the problem would resolve itself, or at least not spread any further than it already had.

Besides incompetence, the USWA had one other major reason for rejecting their local counterpart: fear of socialism.
Obviously the union itself was not afraid of socialist action, but they worried that the federal government might see
the efforts of Youngstown workers to collectivize as a movement towards socialism and perhaps even communism. If the
USWA supported the efforts to revive the mills and encouraged worker control and ownership of the factories, then the
government (and potentially other important people and institutions as well) might begin to think that the UWSA leaders
were encouraging socialism. This would mean that UWSA would lose credibility with the American government and its
people, something they could not afford to do. Therefore, they decided to withdraw support and let the local branch
fight it out alone.

Regionalism

From its very first days the Mahoning Valley has been an area packed with small villages and hamlets. Youngstown is the
name of the major city area, but surrounding it on all sides are small communities which to the casual viewer are
indistinguishable from the main city itself. Boardman, Poland Township, Struthers, Lowellville, Warren, Lordstown,
Canfield, Niles, and many other towns and districts are crowded around Youngstown (see Figure 3). People from each town
work, shop, eat, and socialize in towns separate from their own, making each town strongly dependent on every other
town. However, although traffic is heavy between each separate district, each area has its own distinct cultural
ethnicity, educational system, heritage, history, and even food. For example, Struthers is a poor town with a large
Slovak population, where education is generally better than in surrounding towns, but unemployment is much higher and
pollution is widespread. Most people in Struthers are either Orthodox or Baptist. Two blocks over one finds Boardman, a
well-off township with a reputation for rich but unsuccessful schools. Its residents are mainly Italian and Roman
Catholic, with a small concentration of Methodists on the east side. Unemployment is low in comparison with surrounding
towns, and the streets are clean and well kept. With many more cultures, religions, and economic levels living in close
proximity to one another, a curious phenomenon has overtaken the area: regionalism. Each town, with their own identity,
instills a strong regionalistic feeling within their respective populations, which dictates many habits, exchanges, and
interactions between populations. Oftentimes this regionalism takes the form of bizarre forms of hatred, with certain
towns becoming sworn enemies of others.

With so much regional tension, it became very hard for workers to unite under a common cause, even one that would
save their jobs and their futures. Workers from Poland Township would refuse to attend rallies with workers from
Campbell, and citizens of Struthers would become suspicious of people from Boardman, even if they were supposed to be
working towards the same thing. A lack of cooperation became a crippling problem for the movement, because no one was
willing to put aside regional differences to work together. In some instances, small companies would express interest in
helping the movement or in relocating their business in the area, but because of regional pride no one could ever agree
where the new businesses should relocate. In this way the people of the Mahoning Valley missed many opportunities for
new industrial or commercial lifeblood because of arbitrary arguments where the goal was simply to protect regional
pride.

Conclusion: The Aftershock and the Significance of Black Monday
 
Black Monday was a devastating blow to an entire generation of people. The efforts to avoid catastrophe after the fact
were unsuccessful for four main reasons: the failure of the international steel market, the lack of funds and plans in
initiatives such as the Save Our Valley Campaign, the refusal of the USWA to support their local chapter out of
ineptitude and fear, and the absurd but very real regionalism which corrupted solidarity efforts and drove away any hope
for brining in new companies.

What happened in Youngstown may not seem significant on an international or even on a national level, and perhaps it
is not. But to the thousands of people living there, the loss of the mills was a devastating event that sent shock waves
through their economic, political, and social futures. Because of the mills and their conspicuous absence, hundreds of
people were uprooted, forced to leave their homes and tightly knit communities. Hundreds more joined the unemployment
lines, or even began living on the streets. For the people of Youngstown, Black Monday was not just a historical event-
it was the most important event in their lives.


The steel workers who tried to save their jobs and their lives were part of something greater than themselves, something
which would endure long after they had moved away and moved on. Even though they eventually failed, the fact that they
tried to preserve what they felt belonged to them is an amazing example of how far people will go to save their lives
and the futures of their children.

              
      
   
