Bethlehem steel: Builder and Arsenal of America is historical analysis of the late Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Kenneth Warren writes this book; Kenneth Warren is scholar of the America steel industry and knows about industry very well.
In the early chapters, Warren shows why western Pennsylvania became the major region for iron making in the United States during the second half of the nineteenth century, overtaking the small Bethlehem Iron Company of eastern Pennsylvania. The company’s geographical location hindered the development of Bethlehem city during these years, while contributing to the growth of the Pittsburgh region. Western Pennsylvania’s proximity to bituminous coal in West Virginia, cheaper water transportation on the Great Lakes, access to high quality Lake Superior iron ore, and closeness to expanding railroad construction in the Midwest made possible the dominance of Pittsburgh in iron production. At the same time, Bethlehem Iron continually struggled in eastern Pennsylvania because of declining demand for rails; as railroad construction fell off in the East, a preponderance of lower quality anthracite coal and dependence on more expensive, often over land transportation to markets. Still, Warren admires the efforts of early leaders Robert Heysham Sayre, John C. Fritz, and Joseph Wharton who “survived” the extended challenge from western Pennsylvania. Bethlehem leaders worked hard to find new products and update equipment. By the 1880s–1890s, Bethlehem Iron cultivated a niche in the production of armor plate for the US Navy as well as foreign buyers, which allowed the company to participate with the powerful Carnegie Steel firm (later US Steel).
The middle chapters of Warren’s study examine Bethlehem Steel’s re...
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...agreement throughout the book is that capital intensive industries are dangerously slow to innovate, burdened by aging technology, vast infrastructure and overhead costs, and managers’ limited ability to anticipate changing markets and threats posed by up-and-coming competitors.
Steelworkers and their unions figure awkwardly in this company history despite their importance to Bethlehem Steel’s operations. Warren should have integrated labor relations more fully into his analysis in order to examine managers’ regard for another of their most important assets: their employees. In particular, the understudied subject of worker safety would have deepened his discussions of managerial priorities and policies in what was a very dangerous industry. Bethlehem Steel Baltimore facilities, for instance, were notoriously unsafe, as Mark Reutter pointed out in Sparrows Point.
In the late nineteenth century, many European immigrants traveled to the United States in search of a better life and good fortune. The unskilled industries of the Eastern United States eagerly employed these men who were willing to work long hours for low wages just to earn their food and board. Among the most heavily recruiting industries were the railroads and the steel mills of Western Pennsylvania. Particularly in the steel mills, the working conditions for these immigrants were very dangerous. Many men lost their lives to these giant steel-making machines. The immigrants suffered the most and also worked the most hours for the least amount of money. Living conditions were also poor, and often these immigrants would barely have enough money and time to do anything but work, eat, and sleep. There was also a continuous struggle between the workers and the owners of the mills, the capitalists. The capitalists were a very small, elite group of rich men who held most of the wealth in their industries. Strikes broke out often, some ending in violence and death. Many workers had no political freedom or even a voice in the company that employed them. However, through all of these hardships, the immigrants continued their struggle for a better life.
Moody, John. The Railroad Builders: A Chronicle of the Welding of the States. New Haven, CT: Yale UP;, 1921. Print.
Life in the early 1900’s wasn’t easy. Competition for jobs was at an all time high, especially in New York City. Immigrants were flooding in and needed to find work fast, even if that meant in the hot, overcrowded conditions of garment factories. Conditions were horrid and disaster was inevitable, and disaster did strike in March, 1911. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York set on fire, killing 146 workers. This is an important event in US history because it helped accomplish the tasks unions and strikes had tried to accomplish years earlier, It improved working conditions in factories nationwide and set new safety laws and regulations so that nothing as catastrophic would happen again. The workplace struggles became public after this fire, and the work industry would never remain the same again.
The Industrial Revolution that took place after the Civil War made for a more economically sound country. American workers, however, were becoming more and more dependent upon their wages; a fear of unemployment also stemmed from this. Workers didn’t share in the benefits that their employers reaped. In a chart representing the hours and wages of industrial workers, from 1875 to 1891, it shows that even though their wages were subtly increasing, their 10-hour work day remained the same (Doc. A). Factories were headed by large corporations; this, in turn, meant that new machines lessened the amount of workers in certain fields. As a result of these unsuitable conditions, labor unions were formed. The challenges that these unions faced weren’t easy. If the workers involved in organized labor got too far out of line, these corporations could get federal authorities involved. Moreover, these companies could enforce “ironclad oaths” upon their employees. In a Western Union Telegraph Company employee contract, in 1883, it states that the employee will not be affiliated with any societies or organizations (Doc. E). Despite such setbacks, by 1872 there were over 32 national unions.
White, Langdon. "The Iron and Steel Industry of the Birmingham, Alabama, District." Economic Geography (Vol. 4, No. 4 (Oct., 1928)): pp. 349-365.
This behavior led labor unions to become a staple in the world of big business, though they began forming in the early 1800s, they did not gain any significant membership or power until the 1860s and 1870s. Laborers formed labor unions as a way of protecting themselves from the unfair policies of their employers, and understanding that there is power in numbers, they rallied for the support of coworkers in order to essentially pressure employers to repair business flaws. In the 1890s, Andrew Carnegie’s Carnegie Steel Company employed a majority of the Pennsylvanian steel mill town of Homestead. All but few of the skilled workers were members of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers union, which aimed to teach skilled workers what they deserve in terms of working conditions, pay, and hours and also help them how to achieve these standards through negotiations and organized strikes (Benson). However, when the union organized and began a strike on June 29, 1892, they could not have imagined the outcome. Carnegie, deemed too sympathetic to workers and unions by his associates, left his plant manager, Henry Clay Frick, in charge of dealing with the situation. Frick was ruthless in his fight against the union and when union members walked off of their jobs in protest of major wage cuts, he refused negotiation and even locked the workers out of the plant. On July 2, the
During the 1800’s, America was going through a time of invention and discovery known as the Industrial Revolution. America was in its first century of being an independent nation and was beginning to make the transition from a “home producing” nation to a technological one. The biggest contribution to this major technological advancement was the establishment of the Transcontinental Railroad because it provided a faster way to transport goods, which ultimately boosted the economy and catapulted America to the Super Power it is today.
For decades, the steel industry has been one of the toughest markets on a global scale with most steel corporations ending up in bankruptcy. Foreign and domestic competitors, management issues, environmental issues, political agenda’s and technology have had much to do with the demise and more so of the success of the steel industry. The issues that this case focus on Nucor Corporation was of:
Ethics and the Unions - Part 1. Industrial Workers of the World. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.iww.org/en/history/library/Dolgoff/newbeginning/1
Beginning in the late 1700’s and growing rapidly even today, labor unions form the backbone for the American workforce and continue to fight for the common interests of workers around the country. As we look at the history of these unions, we see powerful individuals such as Terrence Powderly, Samuel Gompers, and Eugene Debs rise up as leaders in a newfound movement that protected the rights of the common worker and ensured better wages, more reasonable hours, and safer working conditions for those people (History). The rise of these labor unions also warranted new legislation that would protect against child labor in factories and give health benefits to workers who were either retired or injured, but everyone was not on board with the idea of foundations working to protect the interests of the common worker. Conflict with their industries lead to many strikes across the country in the coal, steel, and railroad industries, and several of these would ultimately end up leading to bloodshed. However, the existence of labor unions in the United States and their influence on their respective industries still resonates today, and many of our modern ideals that we have today carry over from what these labor unions fought for during through the Industrial Revolution.
After America acquired the West, the need for efficient transportation heightened. Ideas circulated about a railroad that would spread across the continent from East to West. Republican congresses ruled for the federal funding of railroad construction, however, all actions were halted for a few years on account of a war. Following the American Civil War of 1861-1865, the race to build transcontinental railroad began in 1866. Lincoln approved Pacific Railway Act of 1862, granting two railroad companies the right to build the first American transcontinental railroad, (Clark 432).
The extraordinary power of the steel industry to shape the life of its communities and the people in them remain...
At the end of chapter two in, Steel Town U.S.A., the authors, Sherry Lee Linkon and John Russo, define the importance of steelmaking in Youngstown, Ohio “as an important element of community life, a source of identity and solidarity, an activity that brought pride and fulfillment to individuals and the community (129).” The author’s proclaim, “… steelwork as almost synonymous with Youngstown,” defining itself by organized labor and steelmaking” (68). Linkon and Russo, convey ideas about hard physical labor, with a glimpse of insight into the steelworkers anguish using words like virtue, pride and a sense of belonging, which for a typical situation would convey positive representations. Though most would think of these words, virtue, pride, and belonging as associations of working-class solidarity, clear identity and value, the author’s instead use these words to allow for the reader to better understand the misery that steelworkers faced. Making the connection between the workers lack of control to that of social conflict in their own community, the authors want the readers to understand both sides, allowing to bridge the gap of struggle by mending Youngstow...
Reutter, Mark. Sparrows Point: Making Steel : the Rise and Ruin of American Industrial Might. New York: Summit Books, 1988. Print.
Keeping up with technology is difficult, tiresome, and firms find it very costly to keep at pace with it. Technology rapidly and constantly keeps on changing. Being at par technologically requires extensive research and strategic analysis of acquiring new innovation. Enforcing new technology requires staff retraining and in some cases making employees redundant.