Steel Worker Laments the End of an Era

On a recent Friday afternoon, downtown East Chicago, Ind., was desolate, save the headquarters of Local 1011 of the United Steelworkers union. At a standing-room-only meeting inside, a banker tried to convince laid-off employees of LTV Steel’s Indiana Harbor Works mill in East Chicago to invest their retirement money.

Outside the meeting, Johnnie Barbee, a 58-year-old steel worker nicknamed “Barbie Doll” who was dressed in a leather jacket and blue jeans, talked easily with co-workers.

As chairman of rapid response for the union local, Barbee informs members about “anything that could affect their paychecks.” Since the 1980s, he’s also lobbied lawmakers to save the steel industry.

But the U.S. steel industry has lost about 46,700 jobs since 1998, according to the United Steelworkers, based in Pittsburgh. And in the last five years, 30 steel companies have filed for bankruptcy protection.

In November, Cleveland-based LTV Steel announced it would close the East Chicago mill. After 31 years, Barbee, like about 3,500 co-workers, was jobless.

Barbee said he thought work in the mill was easy compared to what he’d done as a child growing up on a farm in Tennessee. The mill job supported his family as he raised six children—the oldest is now 44 and the youngest is 14. He isn’t sure what he’ll do next.

Barbee shared his story with The Chicago Reporter.

How and when did you become a steelworker?
How? By accident, I guess. Fresh out of high school [in Tennessee], I was looking for a job. I had a one-way ticket to California. I had applied for a job as a longshoreman. I was on my way out there when I stopped to visit my brother. I got stuck in East Chicago. I went to work in the mill and I made a lot of money and I said, “Wait, it looks like I can earn a living here.” I applied for a full-time job and got it. That was 1970. They were paying about $11 or $12 an hour.

What did you do in the mill?
I was a cast house operator and running liner. Cast house operators were responsible for catching the liquid iron, making sure it was getting into the ladle or the bottle. Mostly like the floor runner or floor boss. You have to be very careful because a lot of things can happen. … Ladles can explode. Iron can run all over. You can get burned easily.

With the steel mills closing, have your children had a harder time finding high-paying jobs than you did?
Oh yeah. Now it is harder, because, back when I came through, the job industry was wide open. I mean, you could work a day and quit the job and go find another job the next day. But now, you know, it is hard to find a good-paying job. If you don’t save the steel industry, there never will be another good-paying job that is equal to that, with that comfortable-type of living. It’s just not there.

When you started working there, what was the atmosphere like inside the mill and in East Chicago?
When jobs were plentiful and there were a lot of plants working in this area, you could see people shopping from sunup to sundown. I mean, there were people everywhere. Due to the fact that these jobs have gradually left the area, it cuts back on the economy. It leaves a lot of vacant buildings. People aren’t out as much because there is not much to see. People have nothing to do but sit back and watch TV.

The atmosphere inside [the mill] is like a family. Everybody gets pet names, nicknames, and you know it is like you are talking to your brother. There is a camaraderie that is hard to explain because you spend more time with them than you do at home.

Did you have an idea this was going to happen?
Back in the late ’80s, we started to stand up for steel and we started to go around the country to senators and representatives to stand up for the steel crisis. Well, we in the labor organizations knew something was going to happen but we didn’t know it would be this devastating. We knew there would be a mass layoff. We didn’t know the plants would close.

Do you sense that your white co-workers will have a better time rebounding?
I don’t think it is the color issue. It is going to be devastating for any steelworker, or, not necessarily the steelworker, but any blue-collar worker—middle-class America. It doesn’t matter what race or ethnic group you come from. It is just going to be devastating. Middle-class America is going to be gone, the way we know it.

How will you support your family?
Well, hopefully through my retirement [benefits]. I will seek other work. I am not the type that will sit and wait for something to come to me. I am the type that likes to go out and get it.

I am kind of worried. My wife, Linda, is an intake nurse at a clinic, but her salary is not going to support the family. Our youngest daughter still lives at home.

You and other co-workers are planning a march in Washington, D.C. Do you have any hope that the mill will be saved?
If it doesn’t, God help us. If we have to depend on foreign countries for our steel, then we are going to be in bad shape. [Government officials need to] stop saying that imported steel is not harming American industry, because it is. And [they must] realize if they don’t do something, it is going to wipe us out. I hope the government gets up off their rump and starts doing something with the steel industry and stops pussyfooting with it.