Introduction

On March 28, 1980 the Wisconsin Steel mill closed, never to open again. An employer of 3,500 steelworkers, the Southeast Chicago mill had been a community institution since 1902. Wisconsin Steel was only the first of three Southeast Chicago steel mills to close or significantly scale back operations in the early 1980s. Wisconsin Steel’s 3,500 were only a few among the many steel and other workers who lost their jobs as a result of plant closings in Southeast Chicago in the 1980s. Indeed, many would have been lucky to lose only their jobs. Unable to find comparable work, if any at all, cheated out of their last paychecks, and deprived of their pensions and benefits, many Wisconsin Steel workers lost their ability to support their families, their sense of dignity, their family relationships, their homes, their health, and even their lives.

Wisconsin Steel’s demise was simultaneous with challenges encountered by the American steel industry in general.¹ Throughout the 1960s and 1970s new competitors, both domestic and foreign, gradually captured an increasing share of the American steel market from America’s established integrated mills.² There has been much controversy over, and many explanations for these developments. Some have argued that the corporate search for high profits has driven American firms to move manufacturing plants from the United States to countries where the cost of production is less.³ Others have laid blame at the feet of foreign competitors who, they say, have been able undersell American steel because of “unfair” subsidization by their national governments.⁴ A few have argued that poor management decisions regarding investment levels and strategies have created an anachronistic American steel industry that has ceded technological superiority to foreign producers.⁵ Government tax policies, high national debts, and a disadvantageous monetary policy are held liable by some commentators.⁶ A few contend that the plant closings, and resultant unemployment, in the American manufacturing sector are simply a healthy, although delayed, business response to technological innovation and post-World War II foreign competition. While employment has declined, it has been argued, output has remained constant and productivity has improved.⁷

This paper aims to explain both the process of development that culminated in the closing of the Wisconsin Steel mill and the effects that closing had on its 3,500 former employees.

1. when speaking of “the steel industry,” unless otherwise noted, I mean the integrated steel mills and not the minimills. [↩]
2. Walter Adams, The Structure of American Industry, p. 82 [↩]
3. Bluestone & Harrison DOA, Why Corporations Close Profitable Plants [↩]
4. Chicago Tribune, 28 August 1977; The American Iron and Steel Institute and steel company executives have been vocal advocates of this position. [↩]
5. Schmenner, Abernathy & Hayes; Chicago Tribune 13 November 1977 [↩]
6. Calleo, Bankrupting of America [↩]
7. Robert Z. Lawrence; Forbes article [↩]