Books about Metal workers from Amazon.com

.
Price: $15.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This powerful book documents--in images and words--the unsettling experience of a dozen men and women workers who lost their jobs in the steel mills of Buffalo, New York, and had to fashion new lives for themselves A stunning collection of revealing narratives that bears witness to wrenching changes in the American economy. Photographs..
Price: $5.89 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Once the great symbol of American industrial strength, the steel industry by 1960 had begun its fall to a position of confusion and weakness, while its leading off-short competitors--primarily Germany and Japan--were surging into the world market. Most accounts of this shocking fall have focused on the short-sightedness of steel executives. But in The Decline of American Steel, Paul Tiffany offers a much broader perspective on the post-World War II steel industry, identifying the long-standing antagonism among steelmakers, government, and labor as the root of this industry's decline.
Focusing in particular on the crucial interval from 1945 to 1960, Tiffany finds that a combination of public policy failure, excessive labor demands, and management shortcomings accounted for the industry's subsequent problems. Immediately after the war, the Truman administration, worried about what it believed would be pent up demand for steel, pressured the steel producers to expand capacity by building new mills. The industry was skeptical about increased demand and only reluctantly took the less expensive "rounding out" approach (adding on to existing mills), instead of the more costly and time-consuming "greenfield" approach (building mills from scratch). As a result, the industry was saddled with obsolete mills and could not compete effectively with Germany or Japan. The leaders of the United Steel Workers union were equally short-sighted, says Tiffany, particularly during the disasterous strike of 1959, which permanently opened the doors to foreign steel.
Neither steel managers, nor union leaders, nor several Administrations escape blame in this study. If they had worked together, Tiffany argues, the industry might have maintained its dominant position in the world market. Instead, they provide a valuable lesson for executives, union leaders, and politicians involved in any aspect of the national economy..
Price: $25.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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 a 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 punishing 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 shopfloor 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 so that 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 shopfloor 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 honorable examples of what collective action can and did achieve. Jack Metzgar's "Striking Steel" is a stirring call to remember and renew the struggle. Jack Metzgar is Professor of Humanities at Roosevelt University..
Price: $22.74 [Notify me when price goes down.]