Sad Day in Baltimore...Bethlehem Steel

1978 NYB

1978 NYB

Warfighter
Legendary Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2011
Messages
72,143
Reaction score
50,234
Location
Classified
Sadly today the L-Furnace (biggest steel blast furnace in the Western Hemisphere) was demolished today. The blast furnance was the last structure standing...now it's all gone....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfTe3aRT6nU

http://www.wbaltv.com/news/sparrows-point-to-demolish-old-steel-mill-furnace/30964020

Was 320 feet tall...

Sparrows-Point-furnace-before-implosion.jpg


furnace-implosion-03-jpg.jpg


furnace-implosion-08-jpg.jpg
 
Heard about that.
When we go to war with say, North Viet Nam, who's going to make our steel. China? No.
F%#$. Let's get rid of everything and let's all go to work at Pashik's convenience store on the midnight to eight shift.
 
Very sad, indeed. Think of all the activity that was there from the earliest part of the 20th Century, lasting a hundred years. Thousands of people employed directly and indirectly as a result of steel. American steel. You can even see the arteries (train tracks) have been removed from the corpse. All that steel and iron. Sold off, placed on ships, and sent to China. CHINA! Who will smelt the steel, keep the finest of their output for their domestic use, and sent their crap back to a grateful US consumer; who is happy to buy their cheap, unsafe garbage.

Sad. Pathetic. Yet, unnoticed and un-mourned by the majority of our citizens, who seem to care more about the size of Kim Kardashian's giant ***, versus the state of our own nation's economic health.
 
Where are we going to get the material needed to defend ourselves against terrorists? From computer programmers? From insurance salesmen?
The New World Order is here and everybody thinks it's merely a Chicken Little syndrome. Nope. Not this time.
 
Too bad greedy execs couldn't see past their bonuses at the expense of everyone else's future.
 
Sad day for myself, my colleagues, and our families. I come from the Ohio river valley where there was literally hundreds of blast furnaces in the day. Pittsburgh alone had 33. I was the last bricklayer to repair the L furnaces tapholes. Also seen the last ( almost) total rebuild (January 2009). I traveled to Baltimore 2-3 times year repairing and maintenancing the old girl. There's lots of places to spend in America, but fewer and fewer places to make it!!! One of my colleges from Baltimore said in its day that mill was a city with its own grocery stores, schools, barbers, etc.
 
More work for the two in Braddock Pa. that keep me busy. I've hauled out of that mill when they were Severastal and when it reopened as R.G. steel the quality kept slipping and when they asked for volunteer layoffs they got a big NO the money ran out now its a flat field. Sad yes but not too many companies can use sheet steel in a coil that is full of holes. The giant gantry crane at Bethlehem steel in Bethlehem Pa. is a lawn ornament in front of the casino. The gantry crane at U.S.S. Homestead works is now a restaurant.
 
The guy RG steel hired to run the entire North American operation when they bought Sparrows Point, Mingo junction, and WCI steel, had bankrupted the previous three companies he worked for. That's when the writing was on the wall. There must be a huge profit in bankrupting companies and exploiting its workers, and disrupting so many lives.
 
In 1977 when I started work at Stelco in Hamilton Ontario they had just shut down the old # 2 Open Hearth with about 10 furnaces. At the time we had 3 blast furnaces and #3 Open Hearth steel shop was still running with 5 furnaces with the largest being a 500 ton monster. We poured the steel into moulds back then. I was a Melter there a couple years before #3 shut down and I went to the BOF Mould Shop. Stelco built a new Caster next to the BOF in the early 80's. U. S. Steel bought us out of creditor protection in 2007 and promptly shut down our last blast furnace and entire steel making operation a few years later. This year they put us back into creditor protection. Our pensions are jeopardized but not those of the executives in Pittsburgh. Pretty sure it's all about controlling the supply in the NA market. Hopefully we get bought the remainder of the operation here in Canada stays running. I'd like to make it to 40 years.
 
patrick66 said:
Sad. Pathetic. Yet, unnoticed and un-mourned by the majority of our citizens, who seem to care more about the size of Kim Kardashian's giant ***, versus the state of our own nation's economic health.
Click to expand...

You said a mouthful right there.
 
Stormer said:
Not to worry, the unions will protect us....
Click to expand...

Tell that to the union workers where I work....

Their worthless union hasn't done a damn thing to save their jobs since Obama started "Sequester". The government changed the name of the title of positions (same damn job - nothing changed) and made all of them submit a resume and apply for the same jobs again. Only the worthless *** kissers that were no value to the operation were retained. All the skilled people (that were the heart of the workforce that actually did work) would of continued to be employed with union seniority rules... were layed off. There's is another huge layoff coming in March/April and it's funny watching the rats backstabbing each other trying to suck up and F their buddies over.... on this sinking ship.
 
Guess what, guys, I'm on the union bashing soapbox with you. My local in the 70s, when I joined, was one of the biggest strongest Teamster Locals in the country. Now I sit on the Patio evenings reading how my old Local daily seems to be giving away the farm for short term benefits and anybody left in the Local has zero future there. Me and my retired buddies sit around in disgust with what the Teamsters has been doing to us starting about 15 years ago. Personally, I have zero faith in the Teamsters now. Yes, I collect a check but should I be smug that "I've gotten mine?". Maybe but I don't. It's because the old guard taught us to not throw the future of the younger guys under the bus which is what they all are doing now. Yes, I know that Unionism is dead in this country. America is back to 1899 in it's mentality. The new future for America is Muslemism (I know that's not a word but it sounded good).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top