Striking Steel

Striking Steel PDF Author: Jack Metzgar
Publisher: Temple University Press
ISBN: 1566397391
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Having come of age during a period of vibrant union-centered activism, Jack Metzgar begins this book wondering how his father, a U.S> Steel shop steward in the 1950s and '60s, and so many contemporary historians could forget what this country owes to the union movement. Combining personal memoir and historical narrative, Striking Steel argues for reassessment of unionism in American life during the second half of the twentieth century and a recasting of "official memory." As he traces the history of union steelworkers after World War II, Metzgar draws on his father's powerful stories about the publishing work in the mills, stories in which time is divided between "before the union" and since. His father, Johnny Metzgar, fought ardently for workplace rules as a means of giving "the men" some control over their working conditions and protection from venal foremen. He pursued grievances until he eroded management's authority, and he badgered foremen until he established shop-floor practices that would become part of the next negotiated contract. As a passionate advocate of solidarity, he urged coworkers to stick together so that the rules were upheld and everyone could earn a decent wage. Striking Steel's pivotal event is the four-month nationwide steel strike of 1959, a landmark union victory that has been all but erased from public memory. With remarkable tenacity, union members held out for the shop-floor rules that gave them dignity in the workplace and raised their standard of living. Their victory underscored the value of sticking together and reinforced their sense that they were contributing to a general improvement in American working and living conditions. The Metzgar family's story vividly illustrates the larger narrative of how unionism lifted the fortunes and prospects of working-class families. It also offers an account of how the broad social changes of the period helped to shift the balance of power in a conflict-ridden, patriarchal household. Even if the optimism of his generation faded in the upheavals of the 1960s, Johnny Metzgar's commitment to his union and the strike itself stands as an honorable example of what a collective action can and did achieve. Jack Metzgar's Striking Steel is a stirring call to remember and renew the struggle.

Striking Steel

Striking Steel PDF Author: Jack Metzgar
Publisher: Temple University Press
ISBN: 1566397391
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Get Book Here

Book Description
Having come of age during a period of vibrant union-centered activism, Jack Metzgar begins this book wondering how his father, a U.S> Steel shop steward in the 1950s and '60s, and so many contemporary historians could forget what this country owes to the union movement. Combining personal memoir and historical narrative, Striking Steel argues for reassessment of unionism in American life during the second half of the twentieth century and a recasting of "official memory." As he traces the history of union steelworkers after World War II, Metzgar draws on his father's powerful stories about the publishing work in the mills, stories in which time is divided between "before the union" and since. His father, Johnny Metzgar, fought ardently for workplace rules as a means of giving "the men" some control over their working conditions and protection from venal foremen. He pursued grievances until he eroded management's authority, and he badgered foremen until he established shop-floor practices that would become part of the next negotiated contract. As a passionate advocate of solidarity, he urged coworkers to stick together so that the rules were upheld and everyone could earn a decent wage. Striking Steel's pivotal event is the four-month nationwide steel strike of 1959, a landmark union victory that has been all but erased from public memory. With remarkable tenacity, union members held out for the shop-floor rules that gave them dignity in the workplace and raised their standard of living. Their victory underscored the value of sticking together and reinforced their sense that they were contributing to a general improvement in American working and living conditions. The Metzgar family's story vividly illustrates the larger narrative of how unionism lifted the fortunes and prospects of working-class families. It also offers an account of how the broad social changes of the period helped to shift the balance of power in a conflict-ridden, patriarchal household. Even if the optimism of his generation faded in the upheavals of the 1960s, Johnny Metzgar's commitment to his union and the strike itself stands as an honorable example of what a collective action can and did achieve. Jack Metzgar's Striking Steel is a stirring call to remember and renew the struggle.

Steel and Steelworkers

Steel and Steelworkers PDF Author: John Hinshaw
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 079148940X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Steel and Steelworkers is a fascinating account of the forces that shaped Pittsburgh, big business, and labor through the city's rapid industrialization in the mid-nineteenth century, its lengthy era of industrial "maturity," its precipitous deindustrialization toward the end of the twentieth century, and its reinvention from "hell with the lid off" to America's most livable (post-industrial) city. Hinshaw examined a wide variety of company, union, and government documents, oral histories, and newspapers to reconstruct the steel industry and the efforts of labor, business, and government to refashion it. A compelling report of industrialization and deindustrialization, in which questions of organization, power, and politics prove as important as economics, Steel and Steelworkers shows the ways in which big business and labor helped determine the fate of steel and Pittsburgh.

Weapon

Weapon PDF Author: DK
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0756642191
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
Weapon: A Visual History of Arms and Armor is an epic 4,000-year illustrated story of weaponry. From stone axes to heavy machine-guns, swords to sniper rifles, discover the innovative design, range, lethal function and brutal history of arms and armor, and meet the warriors who wielded them. Weapon includes all the important arms from the ages, covering edged weapons, clubs, projectiles and firearms from ancient Egyptian axes, through bows and spears of traditional societies in Africa, Oceania and the Americas, to the machine-guns and missiles of modern infantry forces. Key weapons from every era are presented in sharp detail and the mechanisms that operate them are displayed and explained. Top fighting forces, from the Greek hoplite to the Navy Seal are profiled, and the weapons they have wielded and the tactics and fighting methods they've used are revealed.

Making Steel

Making Steel PDF Author: Mark Reutter
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252072338
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Book Description
Making Steel chronicles the rise and fall of American steel by focusing on the fateful decisions made at the world's once largest steel mill at Sparrows Point, Maryland. Mark Reutter examines the business, production, and daily lives of workers as corporate leaders became more interested in their own security and enrichment than in employees, community, or innovative technology. This edition features 26 pages of photos, an author's preface, and a new chapter on the devastating effects of Bethlehem Steel's bankruptcy titled "The Discarded American Worker."

Employment and Earnings

Employment and Earnings PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Hours of labor
Languages : en
Pages : 68

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Book Description


The Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute

The Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute PDF Author: Iron and Steel Institute
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Iron
Languages : en
Pages : 646

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Book Description
Includes the institute's Proceedings.

Smoke, Steel, & Ivy

Smoke, Steel, & Ivy PDF Author: Amy Trent
Publisher: Grace Burrowes Publishing
ISBN: 1956975160
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 445

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Book Description
Running the kingdom, winning the war, and making sure that her eleven younger sisters are cared for—and not chasing after the gentlemen—is all up to Ivy, now that her father, King Rupert, has remarried. Ivy has another problem: she's in love with Major Collin. He is patient, listens to every word Ivy says, and helps her build a strategy to end the war. Collin is also a man who has no business flirting with a princess in peacetime. Once a treaty has been signed, Ivy must never see him again. Meanwhile, a still sonless King Rupert announces a contest to choose his heir. Not only will the winner be the future king, but he will marry the princess of his choosing. Ivy must invent the game that will not only keep her sisters safe from hapless suitors, but will also ensure she didn’t fight a war and lose her heart for nothing. Because Ivy can’t be king and can’t be with the man she loves, the game will start with some impossible tasks. Challenges only an invisible man with the help of fairy godmothers, scheming sisters, and a little magic can solve. Smoke, Steel, & Ivy is a reimagining of the classic fairy tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Perfect for readers who enjoy a little adventure on their way to happily-ever-after and a smoldering romance without explicit content.

The End of Meaning

The End of Meaning PDF Author: William A. Sikes
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 166678334X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 367

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Book Description
Towards the end of the twentieth century books proclaiming the “closing” of America’s mind, the “collapse” of her communities, and the “end” of her art, literature, education and more, began appearing with regularity. The underlying theme in all such works is the loss of those experiences that give our lives meaning. In The End of Meaning: Cultural Change in America Since 1945, readers learn to recognize these experiences, realize how prominent they were in the postwar period (c. 1945–65), understand the forces that have brought about their extraordinary decline (in our families and communities, universities and religious institutions, films and popular music, fine arts, labor and more) and realize the implications of this loss for our society and our humanity. In doing so the book provides a way of thinking about a vital subject—one which, despite its enormous importance, has never been examined in a broad and systematic way capable of generating real understanding, discussion and debate.

The Last Great Strike

The Last Great Strike PDF Author: Ahmed White
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520285611
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
In May 1937, seventy thousand workers walked off their jobs at four large steel companies known collectively as “Little Steel.” The strikers sought to make the companies retreat from decades of antiunion repression, abide by the newly enacted federal labor law, and recognize their union. For two months a grinding struggle unfolded, punctuated by bloody clashes in which police, company agents, and National Guardsmen ruthlessly beat and shot unionists. At least sixteen died and hundreds more were injured before the strike ended in failure. The violence and brutality of the Little Steel Strike became legendary. In many ways it was the last great strike in modern America. Traditionally the Little Steel Strike has been understood as a modest setback for steel workers, one that actually confirmed the potency of New Deal reforms and did little to impede the progress of the labor movement. However, The Last Great Strike tells a different story about the conflict and its significance for unions and labor rights. More than any other strike, it laid bare the contradictions of the industrial labor movement, the resilience of corporate power, and the limits of New Deal liberalism at a crucial time in American history.

Black Freedom Fighters in Steel

Black Freedom Fighters in Steel PDF Author: Ruth Needleman
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801488580
Category : African American iron and steel workers
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
Thousands of African Americans poured into northwest Indiana in the 1920s dreaming of decent-paying jobs and a life without Klansmen, chain gangs, and cotton. Black Freedom Fighters in Steel: The Struggle for Democratic Unionism by Ruth Needleman adds a new dimension to the literature on race and labor. It tells the story of five men born in the South who migrated north for a chance to work the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in the steel mills. Individually they fought for equality and justice; collectively they helped construct economic and union democracy in postwar America. George Kimbley, the oldest, grew up in Kentucky across the street from the family who had owned his parents. He fought with a French regiment in World War I and then settled in Gary, Indiana, in 1920 to work in steel. He joined the Steelworkers Organizing Committee and became the first African American member of its full-time staff in 1938. The youngest, Jonathan Comer, picked cotton on his father's land in Alabama, stood up to racism in the military during World War II, and became the first African American to be president of a basic steel local union. This is a book about the integration of unions, as well as about five remarkable individuals. It focuses on the decisive role of African American leaders in building interracial unionism. One chapter deals with the African American struggle for representation, highlighting the importance of independent black organization within the union. Needleman also presents a conversation among two pioneering steelworkers and current African American union leaders about the racial politics of union activism.