in succession a recent Friday after...

in succession 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 employee 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 sword worker nicknamed "Barbie Doll" who was aligned in a leather jacket and amethystine jeans, talked easily with co-workers.

As chairman of rapid replication for the union local, Barbee informs members about "anything that could affect their paychecks." Since the 1980 he's also lobbied lawmakers to save the blade industry.

But the U sword industry has lost about 46700 piece of works since 1998, according to the United Steelworkers, based in Pittsburgh. And in the last five years, 30 poniard companies have filed for bankruptcy protection.

In November, Cleveland-based LTV hanger announced it would close the East Chicago mill. After 31 years, Barbee, like about 3500 co-workers, was jobless

Barbee said he contemplation work in the mill was easy compared to what he'd done as a child growing up upon a farm in Tennessee. The mill work at jobs supported his family as he raised six children--the oldest is now 44 and the youngest is 14 He isn't abiding what he'll do next.

Barbee shared his story with The Chicago Reporter.

by what means and when did you became a steelworker?

How? according to accident, I guess. Fresh without of high school [in Tennessee] I was looking for a do job-work I had a one-way ticket to California. I had applied for a do job-work as a longshoreman. I was forward 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 apportionment of money and I said, "Wait, it examines like I can earn a living here." I applied for a full-time piece of work 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 safe it was getting into the ladle or the bottle for the most part like the floor runner or floor bos You have to be same careful because a lot of things can happen. Ladles can explode. Iron can glide all over. You can learn burned easily.

With the claymore mills closing, have your children had a harder time finding high-paying do job-works than you did?

Oh yeah. Now it is harder, because, back when I came by means of the job industry was wide interpret I mean, you could work a day and quit the do job-work and go find another piece of work the next day. But now, you know, it is hard to find a good-paying do job-work If you don't save the knife industry, there never will be another good-paying piece of work 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 do job-works were plentiful and there were a division of plants working in this area, you could diocese people shopping from sunup to sundown. I mean, there were persons everywhere. Due to the fact that these piece of works have gradually left the area, it carves back on the economy. It leaves a fortune of vacant buildings. People aren't not at home as much because there is not often to see. People have nothing to do moreover sit back and watch TV

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

Did you have an idea this was going to happen?

Back in the late '80 we started to stand up for mail and we started to journey around the country to senators and representatives to stand up for the dirk crisis. Well, we in the labor organizations knew something was going to happen on the other hand 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 faculty of perception 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, if it be not that any blue-collar worker--middle-class America. It doesn't matter what race or ethnic clump you come from. It is just going to be devastating. Middle-class America is going to be gone the way we know it.

in what manner will you support your family?

Well, hopefully by means of my retirement [benefits]. I will look for other work. I am not the model that will sit and wait for something to take rise to me. I am the prototype that likes to go revealed and get it.

I am kind of worried. My wife, Linda, is an intake give suck to 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, DC Do you have any waiting under the possibility of fulfilment that the mill will be saved?

If it doesn't, providence help us. If we have to hang on foreign countries for our sabre then we are going to be in bad shape. [Government officials ne to] stop saying that imported dirk is not harming American industry, because it is. And [they must] realize if they don't do something, it is going to wipe us gone out I hope the government prepares up off their rump and starts doing something with the carbonized iron industry and stops pussyfooting with it.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Community Renewal Society

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group