Steelworker

All right, and, so what and you, you--I know you started working for Wisconsin Steel, right, at a certain point?$$(No audible response, nodding yes).$$Now, is that when you start--did you start working at Wisconsin Steel as soon as you got here? How did you find out about it?$$Now, let's see, 'cause I worked there thirty-some years. You see actually, in the steel mill, they wasn't like the ones are now, you know, if you got around there you could get a chance to get in there and see how things done. But then, I learned how to chip defects, you know, smooth defects with steel. And, so, I went there for a job and they said, "Well, come over here and if you can chip, you can get a job." And, I was there for thirty-some years, but a lot of other things happened (laughter) during that time. 'Cause I lived on the South Side of Chicago [Illinois] where--and then we moved from there to Gary, Indiana, and I spent thirty years with the steel mills.$$Okay. And, I know you were involved with a strike, right, in the steel mill?$$Strangely enough, I was always involved in 'em and I did it on purpose. But, you see, the steel mill that I was in was International Harvester-owned. And, they would guarantee to get the raise that anybody else in the steel got like the other steel mills that was around, like the one in Gary and what have you. So, Wisconsin Steel was never a part of the steelworkers union. It was separate but they would guarantee you whatever steelworkers got retroactive. So, that was a break.$$Okay. So, did you ever join the union at Wisconsin Steel? It was a company union, she's [Beatrice Lumpkin] saying. What--$$Yeah, it was a company union. It was a company union that--that was you know, International Harvester that made them trucks and tractors and everything else. That's where the steel mill, that made that kind of steel products that many were able to do what they were doing. So, I got a chance to get in that mill and learn how to chip and then I applied for the job and got the job (laughter). It wasn't the--the steel mills wasn't as tight as they became later, you know. You could walk out there and you could walk up to the steel mill and you could walk in there and talk to the guy and find out what's going on.$$No security to stop you?$$Naw, they stop you right there.$$So, you could just walk on in there and talk? Okay. All right, so, did you like working in the steel mill? Was it okay? Was the--was management fair? Did they do--did they treat you all right?$$According to who the management was, you know, usually it was fair. It was fair, usually.$$Okay. So--$$What do you mean, they wasn't fair?$$So, you had a good time working at Wisconsin Steel?$$Huh?$$You had a good time, pleasant time there?$$(Nodding head). Sixteen hours, one time I worked there twenty-one hours a day and they come out and stopped me. But, I need the money, and it wasn't hard to get there, you know. You chip or you do what you had to do until they resupplied and you just work till it get done. You'd do what your job was.$$Okay.$$And, you got paid a fair wage for that?$$I think so.$$You had good medical coverage?$$So far, yeah.$$Okay.$All right. Mr. Lumpkin, can you tell me about what happened when Wisconsin Steel closed [in 1980]?$$We had some marches. I know at that time, Harold Washington was the mayor of the City [of Chicago]. And, Ed Sadlowski [Edward Sadlowski] who was a labor leader in the South Side, father knew about it and I talked with little Ed Sadlowski. And, so, I go to City Hall to talk to Mayor Washington, no chance 'till I started down, and I met little Sadlowski. And, he went right up the way and then he got me to talk, sit down and talked with Harold Washington who came out to a meeting one night at the union hall, and, you know, when he was mayor. And we worked there--worked together hand and hand to what you got doing there. But, in organizing working with many people--you know, you gotta talk to the people and figure out what the best way to get things done there and the struggle in which we won out on the whole thing. But, it's a lot of other things, you have to understand, that when I went in the steel mill, it was much different than the time I came out because we had a lot of improvements that went on in the mill. I went in there to chipper that used the hammer to dig the--and chisel to cut the defects out. And, while I was still there, they put in grinders. Big grinders that would take the steel and would grind it out in a tenth of the time it take a guy to get with a chisel and an air hammer to cut it out. So, it was an improvement that was made in, within the mill and what have you. The idea of getting the company to increase the pay of the guys who was working there. So, he was able to call a meeting and you were able to slow down. Or, you was able to do what was necessary to force the company to sit down and let's talk about real business and that everybody there got a right to make a living. And, so, things like that they, you know, was the things that I liked about working in the mill. You could talk. You call five guys together and say, "Let's talk." And, then the foreman, when the steel goes down, the foreman would have to do what he was gonna do or either he had to listen to what the workers was fighting about. And, that was my idea of what was going on in that mill and it wasn't long for--I think I had thirty years in that mill. But, I knew the guys. I did my job and I never, you know, done something that would force more work on the guy that was working next to me or with me in that plant.