GAIL WHITE Book revisits era of steel plant closings in U.S., Canada

"A siren wailed twice. Two more blasts shattered the silence. A minute passed before the siren sounded the last warning. A voice crackled onto the loud speaker for the final countdown and the four old blast furnaces were lifted by a series of thuds before they fell crashing to the ground. A huge red plume of iron ore rose up, threatening to shower the crowd of onlookers who had come to witness the demolition of the Ohio Works in Youngstown. It was a spring day in 1982."
So begins "Industrial Sunset: The Making of North America's Rust Belt, 1969-1984."
Steelworker Clem Smereck was one of 137 displaced workers whom author Steven High interviewed for "Industrial Sunset." Clem called that day in '82 the "second saddest day" of his life. The saddest was the day the mill closed.
"I have a lot of memories, a lot of good friends, in that dust there," Clem said.
"Industrial Sunset" began originally as Steven High's doctoral project in 1995. By 1999, when Steven completed his thesis, he was surprised at how much people had forgotten about the era of plant closings. He is an assistant professor of history at Nipissing University in North Bay, Ontario, Canada.
"The issue of worker dislocation and job loss, sadly, is as relevant today as it was during the 1970s and 1980s," Steven contends. "We can therefore learn much from past experience."
Responses
Truly, there is much to learn in "Industrial Sunset." The era of mill closings and plant shutdowns was a devastating time for the Great Lakes states and areas of industrialized Canada. Steven analyzes the differences between the two countries' response to the closings.
Canadian unions enveloped a spirit of nationalism. The United States unions focused more on local communities.
"Unions talked about Canadian workers, not Ontario workers," Steven found in his research. "In the United States, you heard about what the Ohio Valley workers wanted, but that didn't help the workers up in Detroit."
Steven found that the nationalism perspective of the Canadian workers proved to be effective in creating governmental changes, protecting workers from the sudden blow of plant closings and providing severance pay.
Steven shares the contrast of what was happening in the United States: "People heard the mill was in trouble one week, and a week later, they started losing their jobs."
Despite the differences during and after plant closings, Steven found that the stories of both Canadian and American workers at the mills were very much the same.
Interviews with 137 displaced plant workers revealed a common thread between the worker and their plant.
"When young men, and a growing number of women, chose to work at the mill, they frequently found themselves working among relatives and friends from school and the neighborhood," Steven writes. "Factory and mill work represented a way of life in many towns and cities across the industrial heartland,"
Impact on author
For the Valley, the fiery smoke from the mills was life.
It is impossible to discuss the deindustrialization era without mentioning Youngstown. Steven's description of the Ohio Works demolition in the introduction of his book along with accounts too numerous to mention are peppered throughout "Industrial Sunset."
Yet, it wasn't just the Valley's vast losses during the closing of the steel mills that caught Steven's attention. The resolve and determination of the people of the Valley captured his heart.
"Youngstown is hugely important to the American story," Steven insists. "Youngstown was the symbol of resistance."
Unlike other communities that stood in shocked disbelief at the closing of their livelihood, Youngstown fought back.
"Workers in Youngstown saw the steel mill closings as the potential destruction of their community," Steven quotes the findings of a study done in 1982.
"The community's refusal to die was something new," national news commented at the time.
A generation later, a young scholar from Canada captures the heart and essence of the post-industrialization era and insists there is still much to learn from those who have risen out of the dust.
gwhite@vindy.com
XSteven High will lecture at 5 tonight in DeBartolo Hall Room 260 at YSU.