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The Struggle over Management Rights at US Steel, 1946-1960: A Reassessment of Section 2-B of the Collective Bargaining Contract

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2011

James D. Rose
James D. Rose
Affiliation:
JAMES D. ROSE is an instructor of history at the University of California, Davis.
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Abstract

The steel industry has been criticized for unnecessarily provoking the lengthy 1959 strike that allowed steel imports to penetrate the United States market. The industry demanded from the union the revision of a collective bargaining clause that protected local working practices. Historians have viewed the clause as inconsequential and the industry's demand for revision unnecessary. This article explores the US Steel Corporation's history of cost reductions and modernization during the 1950s in relation to this contract clause. It argues that the corporation's 1959 bargaining stance, although tactically flawed, made strategic sense given US Steel's decision to cut costs through crew reductions and incremental technological changes at its older mills.

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Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 72 , Issue 3: The Nixon Administration and Minority Business Enterprise , Autumn 1998 , pp. 446 - 477
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1998

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References

1 Tiffany, Paul A., The Decline of American Steel: How Management, Labor, and Government Went Wrong (New York, 1988)Google Scholar.

2 McDonald, David J., Union Man: The Life of a Labor Statesman (New York, 1969), 267Google Scholar.

3 Tiffany, The Decline of American Steel, 165.

4 Libertella, Frank, “The Steel Strike of 1959: Labor, Management, and Government Relations” (Ph.D. diss., The Ohio State University, 1972), 138–139Google Scholar; Hogan, William T., Economic History of the Iron and Steel Industry in the United States, vol. 4, (Lexington, Mass., 1971), 1639Google Scholar; Ulman, Lloyd, The Government of the Steel Workers' Union (New York, 1962), 80Google Scholar.

5 Tiffany, The Decline of American Steel, 129–131. See also Crandall, Robert W., The United States Steel Industry in Recurrent Crisis: Policy Options in a Competitive World (Washington, D.C., 1981), 72Google Scholar.

6 For other works that have explored section 2-B and the Duquesne Works, see Hinshaw, John, “Dialectic of Division: Race and Power Among Western Pennsylvania Steelworkers, 1937–1975,” (Ph.D. diss., Carnegie Melon University, 1995), 186–193Google Scholar; Victor Forberger, “Craftsmen and Contractual Relations at the Duquesne Steel Works, 1950s and 1960s,” 30 Nov. 1992, copy of unpublished manuscript in author's possession, 20 and following; ‘“My mind is made up, don't confuse me with the facts.’ Labor Relations in US Steel, The Duquesne Works from 1955–1965,” copy of unpublished senior honors thesis in author's possession, 13–19, 25, 28, 30–34.

7 General accounts of steelworkers in the 1920s and 1930s include Daugherty, Carroll R., de Chazeau, Melvin G., and Stratton, Samuel S., The Economics of the Iron and Steel Industry, vols. 1 and 2 (New York, 1937)Google Scholar; Davis, Horace B., Labor and Steel (New York, 1933)Google Scholar; O'Connor, Harvey, Steel-Dictator (New York, 1935)Google Scholar; Brooks, Robert R. R., As Steel Goes, … Unionism in a Basic Industry (New Haven, Conn., 1940)Google Scholar; Bodnar, John, Workers' World: Kinship, Community, and Protest in an Industrial Society, 1900–1940 (Baltimore, 1982)Google Scholar; Dickerson, Dennis, Out of the Crucible: Black Steelworkers in Western Pennsylvania, 1875–1980 (Albany, N.Y., 1986)Google Scholar. For the Duquesne Works in the 1920s and 1930s, see Joel Sabadasz, “Duquesne Works: Overview History,” unpublished manuscript, summer 1991; Rose, James D., “The United States Steel Duquesne Works, 1886–1941: The Rise of Steel Unionism” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Davis, 1997)Google Scholar.

8 Rose, “The United States Steel Duquesne Works,” 113–116, 149–203, 222–252. At a National Labor Relations Board hearing deciding the legality of US Steel's ERPs in 1937, Board members expressed bewilderment at the sweeping nature of the management rights clause. A US Steel attorney, after repeated questioning, had to admit that because of the clause, nothing else in the ERP constitution limited management's authority in any way. See Testimony, 11 Jan. 1937, 629–636, National Labor Relations Board (hereafter cited as NLRB) Case C-142, United States Steel Corporation and Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation v. Steel Workers Organizing Committee and Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers, NLRB Records (RG 25), Administrative Division, Files and Dockets Section, Transcripts and Exhibits, Box 115, Washington National Records Center, Suitland, Maryland.

9 Rose, “The United States Steel Duquesne Works,” 257–262.

10 See Duquesne Works grievances 17-38-U, 30-39-U, A-46-40, and A-56-40, United States Steel Corporation (Duquesne Works) Payroll Ledgers and Records of the Personnel Division, 1904–1980 (hereafter cited as US Steel Records), Box 26, UE/Labor Archives, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Grievances at the Duquesne Works between 1937–1940 centered primarily on wage and tonnage rates, and seniority. The contract, however, did not allow for changes in working conditions that impaired the health and safety of workers.

11 Rose, “The US Steel Duquesne Works,” 270–273; Rose, , “‘What Every Supervisor Dreads’: Women Workers at the US Steel Duquesne Works during World War II,” Labor History 36 (Winter 1995): 24–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar. World War II wildcat strike reports for Duquesne are found in US Steel Records, Box 28, File S-5(b).

12 Hoerr, John P., And the Wolf Finally Came: The Decline of the American Steel Industry (Pittsburgh, 1988), 267–285Google Scholar; Stieber, Jack, “Work Rule and Practices in Mass Production Industries,” in Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Meeting Industrial Relations Research Association, New York City, 28 and 29 Dec. 1961, 401Google Scholar.

13 United Steelworkers of America (hereafter cited as USA), “The Union's Analysis of Contract Proposals,” submitted 9 Oct. 1959 for The Board of Inquiry, Howard R. Hague Papers, Box 19, File 1, Historical Collections and Labor Archives (hereafter cited as HCLA), The Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania; USA, International Executive Board (hereafter cited as USA-IEB), minutes of meeting, 20 Apr. 1947, 27–28, USA-IEB Records, Box 43, File 2, HCLA.

14 Rulings of the Board of Arbitration, United States Steel and United Steelworkers of America, USC-846, 848, 850, and 869, 1 Oct. 1959, 4–6, in USA, Union Exhibit No. 10, The Board of Inquiry, 9 Oct. 1959, Hague Papers, Box 4, File 24.

15 This contract provision—though heavily qualified—inspired a 1946 convention resolution calling on the union to protect “existing collective bargaining agreements“ from an “unconscionable speedup.” The resolution passed unanimously and forced union president Philip Murray to assure the delegates that the contract provision was not intended to lead to a speed-up. See Ulman, The Government of the Steelworkers, 79; USA, Proceedings of the Third Constitutional Convention, May 14–18, 1946, 107–108.

16 For copies of US Steel contracts with the Steelworkers, see Labor Vertical File, USA Agreements, HCLA.

17 USA-IEB, minutes of meeting, 20 Apr. 1947, 28–29, USA-IEB Records, Box 43, File 2. The union did not intend to block technological progress. For that reason it agreed to give management the right to change a local working condition if the “basis” for it changed. According to Pressman, it was something “we thought fair to give them.”

18 Ibid., 30.

19 New York Times, 28 Jan. 1947: Steel, 3 Feb. 1947, 69.

20 The Iron Age, 30 Jan. 1947, 104.

21 John A. Stephens, “Suggestions Which Seem Appropriate in the Interest of U.S. Steel's Objectives and in the Light of the Recent 19 Awards in Which Section 2-B (Local Working Conditions) was Involved,’ 23 Feb. 1953, US Steel Records, Box 9, File Section 2-B.

22 R. Conrad Cooper, “Comments and Suggested Points for Consideration in the Development of Management Guides,” 23 Feb. 1953. See also W. L. Lohrentz, “Comments and Suggested Points for Consideration in Development of Management Guides in View of 2-B Arbitration Awards,” 23 Feb. 1953. Both in US Steel Records, Box 9, File Section 2-B.

23 Stephens, John A., “Significance of the Contract Between the Steel-Producing Subsidiaries of U.S. Steel and the United Steelworkers,” in American Management Association, Developing Public and Industrial Relations Policy (New York, 1947; reprint, New York, 1967), 3–14Google Scholar.

24 The following summaries of the new contract, for example, all failed to mention work rules or section 2-B: Tilove, Robert, Collective Bargaining in the Steel Industry (Philadelphia, 1948)Google Scholar; New York Times, 21 Apr. 1947; The Iron Age, 24 Apr. 1947, 98–99; Steel, 28 Apr. 1947, 67–71.

25 For 1947–1948 Duquesne Works grievances, see US Steel Records, Box 21. The 2-B grievances are A-47-6, A-47-7, A-48-12, and A-48-21. Management quoted in minutes of third step grievance meeting, 20 May 1947, US Steel Records, Box 33, Third Step Minutes Book. In the case of A-48-12, the union did not raise their section 2-B argument until 1953, when the case reached the fourth step.

26 For an overview of the physical growth of the Duquesne Works, see Joel Sabadasz, “Duquesne Works.” For closure threats, see Duquesne Works Employee Representation Plan, minutes of meeting, 11 Sept. and 5 Oct. 1933, Records of the National Recovery Administration (RG 9), Records of the National Steel Labor Relations Board, Box 4, National Archives, Washington, D. C.; Elmer Maloy testimony, NLRB, 17 Dec. 1936, 83–5, 90; John J. Kane testimony, NLRB, 19 Dec. 1936, 400–401, and 26 Jan. 1937, 1327–1328, in NLRB Records; The (McKeesport) Daily News, 25 July 1957; Sabadasz, “Duquesne Works,” 22–23; Warren, Kenneth, The American Steel Industry, 1850–1970 (Oxford, 1973), 286–287Google Scholar; US Steel, press release, 4 Dec. 1953, USA Research Department Records, Box 27, File 6, HCLA.

27 US Steel summary of arbitration ruling USC-278, Box 9, File Section 2-B; A. L. Norman to K. H. McLaurin, 9 Aug. 1949, Box 3, File S-3(f); A. L. Norman to K. H. McLaurin, 7 Dec. 1949, Box 2, File S-3(a); J. J. Booth to R. D. Lake, 3 May 1950, Box 3, File S-3(g); R. W. Graham to W. C. Oberg, 4 May 1950, ibid.; “Force Reduction,” 14 June 1951, ibid.; “Force Reduction History and Status from 1951,” 20 May 1952, ibid.; “Current Proposed Future Reduction,” 20 May 1952, ibid.; “Schedule of Force Reductions at Duquesn e Works,” handwritten comments by industrial relations managers, 1951–1954, ibid., all in US Steel Records.

28 Livernash, E. Robert, Collective Bargaining in the Basic Steel Industry: A Study of the Public Interest and the Role of Government (Washington, D.C., 1961), 127Google Scholar. For incentive programs, see Duquesne Works Industrial Relations Department (hereafter cited as DWIRD), “New or Changed Incentive Plans and Force Reduction Proposals which Involve Labor Relations Problems,” 16 Apr. and 16 May 1952, US Steel Records, Box 3, File S-3(g). For the saw case, see J. J. Booth to R. D. Lake, 3 May 1950, and supporting documents, US Steel Records, Box 3, File S-3(g).

29 A. L. Norman to K. H. McLaurin, 12 Oct. 1949, Box 2, File S-3(a); DWIRD, “Total Number of Men Laid Off Reducing Force,” 4 Oct. 1949, Box 3, File S-3(f); DWIRD, “Tabulation of Force Reduction, Furloughing, and Vacation,” 21 June 1949, ibid., all in US Steel Records.

30 USA Research Department, “Serious Unemployment Situations,” 4 Nov. 1949, USA Research Dept. Records, Box 62, File 16; Duquesne Local 1256 leaflet, 2 Oct. 1949, US Steel Records, Box 3, File S-3(f).

31 For 1950 and 1951 employment levels, see various documents pertaining to the purchase of United States Savings Bonds, US Steel Records, Box 36, File S-4(c).

32 Handwritten entry, 19 Jan. 1951, in DWIRD, “Proposed Force Reduction in Blooming Mill,” handwritten comments by industrial-relations managers, 1950–1953; “Blooming Mill Labor Survey,” 23 Mar. 1950, both in US Steel Records, Box 19, File D-l(b-3); Norman to McLaurin, 7 Dec. 1949.

33 DWIRD, “Memorandum of Meeting on Elimination of the Position of Weigher …” 16 May 1950; DWIRD, “Memorandum of Meeting with Local #1256 Grievance Committee …,” 24 May 1950; A. L. Norman to G. J. Connors, “Weekly Labor Report,” 25 May 1950, all in US Steel Records, Box 3, File S-3(g).

34 DWIRD, “Work Stoppages at Duquesne, from Apr. 1947 to Feb. 21,1956,” Feb. 1956, Box 18, File S-5(a); “Strike or Work Stoppage Report No. 52,” Box 9, Unmarked File; “Force Reduction History and Status from 1951,” 20 May 1952, Box 18, File S-5(a); DWIRD, “New or Changed Incentive Plans and Force Reduction Proposals which Involve Labor Relations Problems,” 16 Apr. 1952 and 16 May 1952, all in US Steel Records.

35 DWIRD, “Memorandum of Meeting with Local #1256 Grievance Committee,” 24 May 1950. For example, a grievance filed by chemists over a violation of section 2-B filed on Aug. 3, 1949 would not be decided in arbitration until Jan. 31, 1953.

36 Duquesne Works grievances, US Steel Records, Box 21; Willis, John A., ed., Steel Arbitration Digest, Covering Cases from 1946 to 1962 (Washington, D. C., 1963), 537, 549, 563, 621Google Scholar; DWIRD, “Grievances Alleging Company Violation of Section 2-B of the 1947 Agreement,” 1 July 1952, US Steel Records, Box 9, File Section 2-B.

37 Norman to McLaurin, 7 Dec. 1949; Summary of grievances A-49-18 and A-50-13, in A. L. Norman to G. J. Connors, “Local Working Conditions,” 8 July 1953, Box 9, File Section 2-B; Materials concerning grievances A-49-11 and A-49-24, Box 21; DWIRD, “Memorandum of Meeting with Local #1256 Grievance Committee…,” 24 May 1950, all in US Steel Records.

38 Willis, , ed., “Steel Arbitration Digest: Basic Steel Arbitration Information Bulletins,” vol. 1Google Scholar, David J. McDonald Papers, Box 16, File 8, HCLA; Rulings of the Board of Arbitration, United States Steel and United Steelworkers of America, USC-846, 848, 850, 869, 10–12; Hoerr, And the Wolf Finally Came, 327.

39 USA-IEB, minutes of meeting, 30 Mar. 1952, 17–18, USA-IEB Records, Box 44, File 15.

40 Livernash, Collective Bargaining, 275; Jack Stieber, “Work Rule and Practices in Mass Production Industries,” 402–403.

41 The Iron Age, 15 May 1952, 73.

42 New York Times, 28 Feb. 1952.

43 Quoted in USA-IEB, minutes of meeting, 17 Dec. 1951, 6–8, USA-IEB Records, Box 44, File 10.

44 Ibid., 28–29.

45 Steel Labor, July 1952.

46 A copy of “Recommendations of Wage Stabilization Board,” Case No. D-18-C, 22 Mar. 1952, is found in USA, Union Exhibit No. 14, The Board of Inquiry, 9 Oct. 1959, Hague Papers, Box 4, File 24; Livernash, Collective Bargaining, 276-284.

47 For the 31 Jan. 1953 awards, see Willis, ed., Steel Arbitration Digest, passim; Basic Steel Arbitration Information Bulletins, vol. 1, passim.

48 A review of the arbitration rulings and the position papers of Cooper, Stephens, and others are found in US Steel Records, Box 9, File Section 2-B.

49 J. H. Elliott to R. W. Graham, 22 May 1953; G. J. Connors to Superintendents of Industrial Relations, 9 Sept. 1953; A. L. Norman to G. J. Connors, 22 Sept. 1953 and 23 Mar. 1954; J. M. Latta to J. L. Turner, 11 Dec. 1953 and 17 Mar. 1954, all in Box 9, File Section 2-B; J. Warren Shaver to J. H. Elliott, 27 Aug. 1953, in “Management Guides, Local Working Conditions,” Box 16, all in US Steel Records.

50 For employment figures at Duquesne, see USA, District 15, “Employment and Regularly Scheduled Work of Steelworkers,” Feb. 1958, Aug. 1958, and Apr. 1959, USA Research Department Records, Box 63, Files 2, 4, and 5; US Steel, Central Operations, “Report of employees …,” 30 Mar. 1957, US Steel Records, Box 5, File S-2(a); Telegram, R. W. Graham to Oscar Pearson, 7 Oct. 1957, US Steel Records, Box 3, File S-3(f); DWIRD, “Questionnaire No. 1,” attached to R. W. Mehaffey to E. J. Woll, 10 Feb. 1961, US Steel Records, Box 16, File S-3(d). For industry-wide employment figures, see USA Research Department, “Long-Term Employment Trends in the Basic Steel Industry,” Mar. 1959, McDonald Papers, Box 26, File 13. It is little wonder that two Steelworker contract demands in the mid-1950s were a guaranteed annual wage and supplementary unemployment benefits. See Steel Labor, June 1954 and June 1956.

51 US Steel, press release, 4 Dec. 1953; R. W. Mehaffey to G. J. Connors, 21 Dec. 1959, both in Box 20, File D-l(o-l); Grievances A-53-27 through A-53-31, Box 17; Norman to Connors, 23 Mar. 1954, all in US Steel Records. Local unions had to pay their own arbitration costs, which severely limited the number of cases that they agreed to bring to that step. In addition, the national union had to approve grievances for arbitration, a step aimed at minimizing unwanted precedents. See Ulman, The Government of the Steel Workers, 13.

52 Mehaffey to Connors, 21 Dec. 1959. Permanent and long-term closures of other units or departments included the 21-inch mill, and the 40-inch mill hot beds. See third Step general discussion minutes, 20 July 1954, Box 23, Third Step Minute Book; DWIRD, “Memorandum of Meeting on Elimination of 40” Mill Hot Beds,” 28 Apr. 1952, Box 19, File D-l(b-3), both in US Steel Records. For the building of new primary mill, see The Daily News, 25 July 1957; DWIRD, “Industrial Relations Consideration—New Blooming Mill Facilities,” 19 Dec. 1958; DWIRD, “Significant Labor Relations Activity,” 16 Jan. 1959, both in US Steel Records, Box 20, File D-l(p-2). For successful, but smaller, crew reductions within departments, see attachments to J. E. Johnson, P. G. Kirkpatrick, and F. A. Blanning to Superintendents-Industrial Relations, 5 Mar. 1957, US Steel Records, Box 9, File L-2(a); and Latta to Turner, 11 Dec. 1953.

53 R. W. Graham to E. H. Gott, 8 Nov. 1954, Box 3, File S-3(g); DWIRD, “Cancellation of National Supply Order,” 13 Dec. 1957, Box 3, File S-3(f), both in US Steel Records; Steel Labor, May 1954; U.S. Census, Census of Manufacture: 1954, vol. III, Area Statistics (Washington, D.C.: 1957), 137–6Google Scholar; USA, District 15, “Employment and Regularly Scheduled Work Week of Steelworkers,” Feb. 1958, Aug. 1958, and Apr. 1959.

54 USA-IEB minutes of meeting, 14 June 1959, 8, USA-IEB Records, Box 46, File 12. I wish to thank the United Steelworkers of America for granting me permission to examine restricted Executive Board minutes from the 1950s and 1960.

55 Grievance A-53-53, US Steel Records, Box 17. Also see, for example, grievances A-57-104 and A-58-82, US Steel Records, Box 8.

56 Of the 1953 2-B grievances, management compromised on A-53-41, A-53-65, and A-53-69. For 1953, 1957, and 1958 grievances, see US Steel Records, Boxes 8, 17, 31.

57 Basic Steel Arbitration Information Bulletins, vol. 1, 1201–1206, 1215–1216.

58 DWIRD, “Information for Review of Our Position on Force Reductions in Light of Recent Arbitration Awards,” 12 Feb. 1953, US Steel Records, Box 3. File S-3(g); Materials related to grievances A-49-11 and A-49-24.

59 Handwritten entry, 27 Jan. 1953, in DWIRD, “Elimination of Bottom Makers, Soaking Pits—Blooming Mill,” handwritten entries by industrial relations managers, 1950–1954, US Steel Records, Box 19, File D-l(b-3); Handwritten entries, 2 July and 4 Nov. 1953, in DWIRD, “Proposed Force Reduction in Blooming Mill.”

60 DWIRD, “Potential Sources of Labor Relations Trouble,” 23 Oct. 1953; and A. L. Norman to R. W. Graham, “Labor Relations Problems,” 27 Nov. 1953, both in US Steel Records, Box 19, File D-l(b-3).

61 A. L. Norman to F. A. Blanning, 21 Mar. 1957, US Steel Records, Box 9, File L-2(a).

62 Grievances A-53-16, A-53-25, A-53-32, and A-53-65, US Steel Records, Box 17; Project 2:1, in J. M. Latta to J. L. Turner, 11 Dec. 1953; “Force reduction accomplished with installation of new equipment and an incentive plan,” and “unsuccessful attempt by management to install flexible crew,” attached to Johnson, Kirkpatrick, and Blanning to Superintendents-Industrial Relations, 5 Mar. 1957.

63 Grievances A-58-25 and A-58-34, US Steel Records, Box 8.

64 A. L. Norman to J. Warren Shaver, 20 Mar. 1958, Box 20, File D-l(z-l); G. J. Connors to G. H. Dowding, “Fourth-Step Grievances Pittsburgh District Plants,” no date, Box 9, File Grievance Procedures and Correspondence (General), 1937–1959, both in US Steel Records.

65 Grievances A-58-32 and A-58-74, US Steel Records, Box 8.

66 DWIRD, “Record of Experience Demonstrating Employee or Union Abuse …,” 2 Apr. 1954, in Grievance A-53-38 materials, US Steel Records, Box 17.

67 See, for instance, minutes of third step grievances A-54-3, A-54-16, A-54-48, A-54-52. A-54-60, A-54-67, A-54-68, A-54-71, A-54-73, A-54-76, US Steel Records, Box 23, Third Step Minute Book.

68 See minutes for third step grievance A-54-16.

69 H. H. Fait to G. J. Connors, 1 Dec. 1958; P. G. Kirkpatrick to E. J. Woll, 2 Dec. 1958; R. W. Mehaffey to G. J. Connors, 3 Dec. 1958, all in US Steel Records, Box 9, File Section 2-B.

70 US Steel, Report of Labor Relations Quarterly Meeting, 12 Dec. 1958, US Steel Records, Box 9, File L-2(a).

71 Strohmeyer, John, Crisis in Bethlehem: Big Steel's Struggle to Survive (Bethesda, Md., 1986), 68–69Google Scholar; Hoerr, And the Wolf Finally Came, 327.

72 The Pittsburgh Press, 23 Aug. 1959.

73 Willis, ed., Steel Arbitration Digest, 501–673.

74 U.S. News and World Report, 2 Nov. 1959, 42.

75 For general chronologies and accounts of the 1959 steel strike, see Livernash, Collective Bargaining in the Basic Steel Industry, 300–307; Libertella, , “The Steel Strike of 1959”; Richard William Nagle, “Collective Bargaining in Basic Steel and the Federal Government, 1945–1960” (Ph.D. diss., The Pennsylvania State University, 1978), 219–292Google Scholar. Donald Rarick quoted in Libertella, 98.

76 Although the union argued it was caught unaware by the June proposal, union leaders knew for weeks that the industry would ask for revision of 2-B. See USA, “News Flash,” 3 June and 13 July 1959, McDonald Papers, Box 105, File 6; Minutes of meeting of joint negotiating committee, 4 and 5 June 1959, Hague Papers, Box 44, File 7; USA-IEB, minutes of meeting, 4 June 1959, 7–8, 10, 14–15, USA-IEB Records, Box 46, File 12; USA, Proceedings of International Wage and Policy Committee, 12 June 1959, 15.

77 Hoerr, And the Wolf Finally Came, 231.

78 Steel, 31 Aug. 1959, 29.

79 E. J. Woll to Superintendents of Industrial Relations, 11 Nov. and 3 Dec. 1958, US Steel Records, Box 9, File Section 2-B; US Steel, Report of Labor Relations Quarterly Meeting, 12 Dec. 1958.

80 See, for example, Steel and Inflation: Fact vs. Fiction (New York, 1958)Google Scholar; The Iron Age, 23 Jan. 1958, 38; 30 Jan. 1958, 7; 13 Feb. 1958, 93; 19 Feb. 1959, 82–83; 28 May 1959, 65; Steel, 1 June 1959, 45–46; Wall Street Journal, 28 May 1959.

81 The Iron Age, 25 Feb. 1958, 64.

82 US Steel, Report of Labor Relations Meeting, 29 Apr. 1960, US Steel Records, Box 9, File L-2(a).

83 Ibid.

84 A copy of the industry's eight point proposal and the union's response is found in Hague Papers, Box 43, File 9.

85 USA, “News Flash,” 13 July 1959, McDonald Papers, Box 105, File 6.

86 The Pittsburgh Press, 2 Aug. 1959.

87 See, for example, Anthony Sancosky and Albert G. Barker to I. W. Abel, 20 Sept. 1957, USA, District 15 Records, File District Meetings; Demands from District 15 meeting, 22 Apr. 1959, Hague Papers, Box 10, File 13; USA, District 15 conference minutes, 18 and 19 Oct. 1957, Hague Papers, Box 10, File 15; USA Homestead local 1397, The Sentinel, Apr. 1959, John McManigal Collection, UE/Labor Archives.

88 USA-IEB, minutes of meeting, 4 Oct. 1959, 15, USA-IEB Records, Box 46, File 19.

89 USA to all U.S. Steel Local Unions, 17 Sept. 1959, Hague Papers, Box 43, File 14 (underscore in original).

90 The Iron Age, 30 July 1959, 158.

91 US Steel, “United States Steel Corporation's Last Offer for Strike Settlement…,” [1960], Harold J. Ruttenberg Papers, Box 2, File 11, HCLA.

92 Steel Companies Coordinating Committee, Press release, 18 Oct. 1959, McDonald Papers, Box 105, File 6.

93 Wall Street Journal, 19 Oct. 1959.

94 USA-IEB, minutes of meeting, 19 Oct. 1959, 1–6, USA-IEB Records, Box 46, File 23.

95 For a summary of the ending of the strike and contract settlement, see Libertella, “The Steel Strike of 1959,” 169–231.

96 Report of Labor Relations Quarterly Meeting, 29 Apr. 1960, US Steel Records, Box 9, File L-2(a).

97 USA-IEB, minutes of meeting, 5 Jan. 1960, 9, USA-IEB Records, Box 46, File 26.

98 Wall Street Journal, 30 Nov. 1960; New York Times, 30 Nov. 1960; “Review of Rulings and Problems on Local Working Conditions,” 22 June 1960, USA Research Department Records, Box 80, File 7.

99 Hoerr, And the Wolf Finally Came, 326–328.

100 The Iron Age, 2 July 1959, 40; US Steel, Report of Labor Relations Meeting, 29 Apr. 1960.