The
Aliquippa Tragedy

The steel mill in my home town.

The Aliquippa tradegy

What unfair trade has done to an American community.

Aliquippa, Pennsylvania.
The latest victim of unfairly traded steel imports.

Foreign steel, unfairly subsidized and unfairly dumped, is the principal culprit behind what's happened at the once-mighty Aliquippa Steel Works of LTV Steel.
But there are other imports, threatening other industries just as vital to America.
Textiles. Chemicals. Energy. Silicon Valley. The list goes on and on.
How many more Aliquippas before this country moves to enforce fair trade?

One of the most disheartening tasks for a company is to announce the idling of a plant. It's not a question of bricks and mortar - we are talking about people's lives.

On May 17, 1985, LTV Steel Company gave notice to 1,300 employees that most operations at the Aliquippa Works will be idled indefinitely.

This was a plant where in 1981 almost 10,000 people worked, forming the economic backbone of an entire community. This was a plant where photographers came to capture America's industrial might, and where the most productive steelmakers in the world made high-quality products to meet the world's demand.

Most important of all, this was a plant where $600 million was spent, most of it in the last 10 years, to modernize facilities and remain competitive.

LTV Steel has done everything possible to keep this plant going. But our losses in the first quarter of this year alone are estimated at $25 million. Over the last several years, product after product has been dropped; unit after unit shut down; employee after employee laid off. The community of Aliquippa has been crippled in the process.

Why did this grim change come about?

Will there be more plant idlings in the steel industry like this one?

The answer is yes - unless America acts.

We cannot say that every management move at LTV was correct. We cannot ignore the increase in steel-substitute products. And we cannot deny that costs- including employment costs-reached high levels.

Still, the truest answer to Aliquippa's trauma lies not in Pennsylvania, but overseas.

Unfair foreign competition, in the form of subsidized and "dumped" steel, intruded on product lines of steel bars, oilfield pipe and casing, continuous weld pipe, rod and wire, light structural steel, fence wire, and even nails - until we could no longer compete. What was finally left - pipe - now has an import penpenetration level of more than 60%.

LTV Steel, as well as the entire steel industry, has been pleading for fair treatment under our existing trade laws. Not protectionism, but fair trade. We can compete with anyone in the world in quality and price - if we all play by the same rules.

Last September, the Administration announced a plan to curb steel imports to the 18.5% level. Although this is a commitment to give away 18.5% of the U.S. market right off the top, we supported it in the best interests of all Americans and our trading partners.

But despite the considerable efforts of U.S. trade negotiators, little has happened. In fact, steel imports soared to the 30% level in January.

Unless these imports are curbed now, there will be more Aliquippas. Soon.

LTV Steel will continue to press for fair trade. All we want, and all our employees want, is a fair fight.

The LTV Corporation
AEROSPACE/DEFENSE · ENERGY · STEEL

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The above appeared in the Monday, May 20th, 1985 issues of:
The USA Today, page 7B
The Wall Street Journal, page 15

THE BESSEMERS' BLOW

J & L - North Mill. - The way it was in the 1950's.

Aliquippa. Pennsylvania

Bessemer Converters changed Blast Furnace molten iron into steel by forcing compressed air upward through tuyeres or openings at the bottom of the refractory lined pear-shaped vessel called a converter.
This violent oxidation or "burnoff" of iron, silicon and manganese formed into slag that man dumped and carbon which left the vessel as a gas . . . Carbon Monoxide!
The night skies of Aliquippa, Midland. Pittsburgh, and Homestead lit up bright enough to read by for the fifteen minute "blow."
This historical aerial view shows two of the three converters at the Aliquippa Works of J & L, one beginning a blow and the other completing its blow.
The third vessel was usually on standby and being relined.
It is obvious that smoke and pollution controls were unheard of in 1954.

Copyright - All rights reserved
Photo by - Wm. Brady O'Neil
Dist. 1994 By - Landmark Scenic Views, 1108 Irwin Street, Aliquippa, Pa. 15001
Phone (724) 375-3381.

The Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation (LTV Steel) hired me as a summer employee at the Aliquippa Works. It was the toughest job I ever loved. Without that job, I don't think I would have made it financially at the University of Pittsburgh. 910 was my badge and employee number. I worked in the following departments:
- Blast Furnace
- Tin Mill
- Sinter Plant
- Welded Tube
- Basic Oxygen Furnaces
- Seamless Tube
- By-Products (Coke Ovens)

JONES AND LAUGHLIN STEEL CORP.

Aliquippa Works, North Mills - The way it was – 1979

This aerial view shows the five iron smelting blast furnaces and the steel producing North Mill area of former Jones and Laughlin.
For almost 80 years, J & L Steel employed 10,000 steelworkers in a 3 ½ mile complex on the west bank of the Ohio River.

Photograph taken by William B. O'Neil (a former J&L employee and Recorder of Deeds of Beaver County).

Copyright - All rights reserved
Photo by Bill O'Neil
Distributed by © 1989 Landmark Scenic Views, 11081rwin Street, Aliquippa, PA 15001
Telephone number 724-375-3381
Photo: October 1979

This page is considered a perpetual construction site.

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