We are losing something important if we let industry and manufacturing in America slip away from us. I’ve written these stories to connect people to a world they may not know and may not understand. But it is a world that shaped the character of this nation as surely as the places of our heritage, the social movements that formed our principles, and the beliefs that guide our decisions. Because within these stories are the fundamentals of how our nation was built and the kind of people who built it.
I worked at Bethlehem Steel’s Steelton Plant for over thirty years and was privileged to be the Local Union President there for eighteen of those years. I had a unique vantage point with my co-workers, a once-great company in decline, a workforce that wouldn’t give up and a community that struggled with these changes. Today the Mill is owned by Arcelor/Mittal, one of the largest steel companies in the world. Steelton has survived in a global market that closed 6,300 manufacturing facilities in the last decade. Steelton still exists because of its people and to no small measure, the United Steelworkers Union.
If people reading these stories begin to understand how and why that is, the stories will be a success.
Enjoy and feel free to add your own workplace experiences to this blog and share wide and far….
Ike Gittlen
ikegittlen's .........mill stories 
Thanks Ike…you are correct…putting our stories in a place for all to read is a great idea…I’m going to pass this website to my kids in hopes they will talk to my grandkids about what it was like in the mill
thanks
I also worked in the Fruehauf plant in Middletown, PA. I was there in mid 1970’s through 1989, but it was a long time ago, and I don’t remember the local union. Do you know what it was?
I believe it was a Machinists Local (IAM).
allied industrial workers
I am trying to help a person find out who handled the retirements for steelton plant bethlehem steel…..the man is a stroke person and he cant remember a lot
Call Greg Reese at USW Local 1688. He’s been handling questions for RETIREES
Call him at 717.939.9366
The Bethlehem pension is now in the hands of the government PBGC.
Hello:
My dad Alexander Swan worked at Bethehem Steel Plant for 38 years and never missed a sick day. His nickname was “tomatoes” from Dillwyn, VA His time period was 1940 to 1978. He received 13 weeks vacations. I went with him for retirement that how I learned his history. The doctor shared the 38 years and no sick day with me. “I was floored”
Something to add “The Bethehem Men”
Thanks
Charles W. Swan:IMBD
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3285193/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
Thanks
thanks. I posted this on the blog. good luck with the movie…
Hey ike…i am trying to help the wife of a former steel worker….she has no idea who the retirement company is that pays retirement benefits…well i should say she has no address or phone number…her husband had a stroke…he was the former worker…can you help us out with the name of the retirement company and address and phone number…you can reach me at ljumper452@gmail.com asap please
the man retired from the plant about 13 years ago
i thankyou for supporting fellow workers of the mill
Great job Ike, keep up the good work.
Tom Sedor from the Bethlehem Plant
Scott Marshall – Greeting the Company Board – ikegittlen's mill stories
Ike – Thanks so much for this blog – great idea and great stories.
My story is from Nashville and the United Glass and Ceramic Workers Union (later merged into the USW). Ferro Fiberglass was a major manufacturer of the basic glass to make fiberglass for marine, auto and other major manufacturing lines. Making fiberglass is sort of a cross between steel (a continuous 24hr/7day melt process and textile (weaving, spinning etc).
Anyway I worked at Ferro Nashville in the early 70’s. We had a week long strike that we won, but that brought out some of the best and worst in people. My crew in the furnace area worked with a guy that crossed the line. He was not a great guy and I do hope he matured into a better person later on. We called him the weekend warrior in a derogatory way because he was always bragging about being a reserve Marine. He had never served overseas but was more gung-ho and bragged more about being a Marine than anyone who actually had been in combat. And he was the biggest company suck-butt you can imagine always talking about how the company was going to make him a superintendent because of his Marine weekend warrior training.
We heard after the strike that Owen-Corning glass was going to buy our plant. The rumors flew. Then the company took all of the local officers and stewards into a meeting and told us that a top management group from Owen-corning was coming to our plant for an inspection. We spent days cleaning up and fixing up the plant and it was obvious that the rumors were probably true. We had several meetings with the company but they never positively said the plant was for sale but also never said it wasn’t. Anyway at the next meeting they told us that the Owen-Corning people were coming on Friday and to be ready. Coming out of that meeting in a nasty mood as you can imagine I ran into the weekend warrior coming into work.
I told him about the meeting and then told him that the company wanted him to help with the Owen-Corning tour of the plant. “Why me,” he asked. I told him that the company said that he was a great example of the kind of workers we have in the plant and wanted him to bring his full dress uniform to work on Friday so he could escort them around the plant. He did. We told him we would let him know when to go change and meet the delegation.
On Friday just after the first shift began our foreman told us to look sharp because the company big wigs were on the way. The main office for the plant was a separate building set up on a hill in front of the main production building. Off to the side between the offices and the plant was the washhouse. We told Weekend to go change and come out and meet the delegation as they came down the hill. A lot of us who worked in the melt house hid out on the roof behind the coolers to see what would happen.
Sure enough – as the company group started down the hill, Weekend came out of the washhouse wearing full dress including his saber. The company group, about ten people, stopped dead in their tracks. They didn’t know whether to laugh or what. Then the plant manager peeled off and grabbed weekend and took him back into the washhouse and left him there for the rest of the day. We were rolling around for days and Weekend become his permanent nickname.
Believe it or not there really wasn’t any serious fallout from our prank. My foreman told me that when the front office folks weren’t around line management was laughing as hard a we were.