Open-Hearth №4
How U.S. Steel and the City of Gary Caused Mass Layoffs
The Hearth
U.S. Steel Gary Works’ seventeen-hundred-foot-long open-hearth №4 began development in 1907. Though it was fourth in number, it was the first of four hearth facilities to be erected. The company rushed №4’s building, despite work needed with other equally immense sectors of the plant site. Hundreds of people worked that May to clear dunes and swales that once made up the majestic primal south coastline of Lake Michigan. Steam cranes roared and hissed, burly-chested foremen growled orders, and hammers wielded by work-weary men clanked.
The initial construction of the superstructure was complete by the end of September. The cavernous building was an impossibly complex network of steel trusses arranged in angled lattices towering over the land. The company built gigantic machines inside it within the following year, including five Westinghouse turbines, which produced 22,000 horsepower that brought №4 to life.
Fourteen open-hearth stands stood proud inside the facility, which would have the capacity to convert iron into steel at a rate of four thousand tons per day. When steel left №4, workers sent it to soaking pits for tempering. Next, the steel would get forwarded to the equally impressive billet mills, 60-inch plate mills, rolling mills, rail mills, or merchant plants.
By the end of 1908, Gary Works employed four thousand workers. This amount of men deemed the presence of independent contractors less relevant by the month. As a result, contractors would essentially leave the rest of Gary Works’ construction to its employees and focus on building up the town of Gary itself. №4 began producing steel on February 3, 1909.
By 1913, Gary Works had eight blast furnaces, thirty-eight open-hearth furnaces, and five-hundred-sixty coke ovens. The mill would soon have fifty-five open hearths. In addition, the site contained a rail mill, axle mill, plate mill, five custom mills, numerous foundries, machine shops, and several electricity generating stations. The history of №4 is ho-hum for the next several decades. However, words can not adequately explain how significant Gary Works became to the Region’s economy during that time.
Something In The Air
In the 1960s, the federal government gained ground concerning the massive amount of environmental pollution perpetrated by big industries. Then, with more evidence emerging of the correlation between human health, poor people of color, and unregulated pollution, ecological justice became more prioritized.
In Northwest Indiana, a century of heavy steel and industrial oil pollution had taken its toll. As a result, the northern sector of Lake County was significantly environmentally degraded. The filling in of swamps, swales, and streams — combined with removing natural environmental features such as dunes, forests, and beachfront — cause ozone and particulates to fall upon the land. The pollution began entering the soil and natural water tables, accumulating to astronomical levels.
Pollution contaminated the Indiana Harbor Ship Canal, Grand Calumet River, and other remaining wetland environments with millions of cubic yards of pollution. Millions of gallons of petrochemicals floated freely in the water system. Dozens of inland sites were contaminated with open and buried hazardous waste dumps.
White flight was already underway during the late 50s and early 60s, albeit slowly at first. A lot of these early fleers left because of pollution, overcrowding, and noise. The Civil Rights movement had yet to affect local politics in any significant way. The mass election of people of color in positions of political power was a minor factor before 1967.
Writing On The Wall
The beginning of 1965 was a boom for Northwest Indiana’s mills. Most were operating at total capacity, with merchant mills bringing in millions in revenue. In addition, a proposed Tri-City port was in the negotiating process. Industry placated locals by spending a few million dollars to improve low-income areas where pollution was a problem. However, the sector only implemented immediate moves to reduce environmental contamination because of the federal government.
Also changing was the steel industry itself. Its research and developers found ways to manufacture steel using new technology. The U.S. Steel Corporation started building new mills elsewhere in the nation. These “push-button” continuous casting mills were more automated and produced steel faster and in more significant amounts with less staffing and for less money. One new mill could do the job of eight old ones.
Of course, the unions hated these developments. They had trouble keeping up with the company. Technology was changing — seemingly by the month — and thus went labor contracts. Moreover, their demands for better pay, safer working conditions, and the importation of cheaper foreign steel caused the government to be more reluctant to allow steel companies to raise their prices.
Again, local politicians were instrumental in early efforts to force the industry to reduce pollution. In ’63, Gary was successful in getting the mill to reduce its smoke production by 22%. In ’65, Mayor Katz approved an agreement between the city and the company that called for a graduated 100% reduction in smoke pollution by 1973. Unfortunately, the deal was vague concerning how Gary Works would achieve this. It seems Katz left the how-tos up to the mill. The company would take full advantage of this, to the detriment of the city.
Consequence
Thus far, the industry was able to avoid strikes. However, by August ’65, strikes flared up in the Region. Inland and U.S. Steel took preemptive actions. Gary Works shut down ten blast furnaces and several coke ovens and open-hearths, one by one. The shutdowns cost the company millions before the strike ever got started. At this point, the company planned to keep some of the shutdown apparatuses offline permanently.
The open-hearth №4 facility got scheduled to be phased out altogether by 1973. It is unclear if this resulted from the agreement with the City of Gary or some political threat. Nevertheless, 1973 became a watershed moment for the city. Strikes, technical problems with old equipment, snags with new technology, and litigation with the EPA put №4 on the chopping block for real.
Judge Allen Sharp ordered U.S. Steel to pay a daily fine of $5,000 for every day open-hearths inside of №4 were not shut down or made to create significantly less pollution. Gary Works revealed that the closure of №4 would affect twenty-five hundred jobs in Gary and additional fifteen-hundred jobs scattered throughout the Region. Instead of paying what Gary Works called a “tribute” to the EPA, the mill decided to shut down №4 on New Year’s Eve permanently. The building, the oldest facility at the plant, was immediately dismantled.
People wrongly blame then Gary Mayor Richard G. Hatcher for the loss of jobs at Gary Works. There was absolutely nothing he could do. This fight was the result of tension between Gary Works and the federal government. If anyone is to get singled out, it should be Mayor A. Martin Katz for signing the 1965 clean air agreement. This deal led to the mill shutting down blast furnaces and open-hearths nearly ten years before mass layoffs got rolling good.
By 1980 over ten thousand workers were permanently laid off, with an additional five thousand scheduled to get laid off by May. U.S. Steel used what was called “job blackmail.” Blackmail threatened to eliminate jobs if the company got forced to spend money to make working conditions safer or install new, cleaner steel-making equipment. Usually, the blackmail worked, with unions backing down out of fear of losing jobs — which happened regardless.
