CAMPBELL, Ohio— Sept. 19 marked 47 years since thousands of workers, who were mainly men, did what they did every Monday in the valley. They walked into the Campbell Works of Youngstown Sheet and Tube along the Mahoning River for the early shift.
Within an hour of the workers’ shift, Youngstown Sheet and Tube abruptly furloughed 5,000 of them in a single day. Within months, 16 more plants owned by U.S. Steel shut down, including Youngstown-based Ohio Works.
The company cited foreign imports, lack of profitability, aging facilities, and the cost of growing government regulations on the industry to explain the move.
Workers mumbled, “It didn’t help that the company hadn’t upgraded their facilities in decades.”
The community came together in a way that was passionate and admirable. The late Staughton Lynd, a leader in the 1960s social justice movement, said…
