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Bethlehem Steel: The People Who Built America

Bethlehem Steel. You’ll find it in the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge, the stately U.S. Supreme Court building, New York City’s legendary skyline and the vivid memories of thousands of steelworkers. Bethlehem Steel, The People Who Built America chronicles more than 140 years of this once colossal company’s rich history as seen through the eyes of those who made steel. Bethlehem Steel.

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  2. I am outraged. So heartwarming and heartwrenching at the sametime.

    It is a wonder, the brightest, more educated and the top level of workers are always the ones that seem to fail us all.

    I remember reading each year that GM lost Billions and I would wonder: How could they lose that much every year, wouldnt they have bright management, top administrative employees?

    This documentary leans the blame on the average worker for health benefits and pensions. I am certain no health coverage or pension system was ever either not factored in the low salaries or deductions calculated properly, therefore, had the administration been as rigorous as the skilled had been, the company would be here today.

    I suspect the golfcourse nurtured a strain of infection among the top level that slithered down to every level in every department.

    Golf courses are the most flagrant displays of arogance and class seperation, and they seem to actually sneer at all others in so many ways; golf is just a bit more strenuous than using a tv remote, yet, they call it a sport. Where are the bars and showers built with the football, baseball and basketball public grounds?

    Okay, top level receives more money than the coke worker. It is also cleaner and safer, but you can have the coke worker without the top level guy, you cannot have the top level guy without the coke worker.

    So when someone decides to purchase the best prime real estate of town and builds a luxourious lawn, not only is it in “everyone’s face” it tends to poke at the dignity of skilled workers that top management is broadcast leaning on a club on that manicured lawn whilst they are pelted with sparks and steam burns.

  3. My folks are from the North of England, and have similar tales about Cammel Laird Shipyards, or the firms in Birmingham and Manchester which invented modern steelmaking.  I’m pretty sure the French have similar tales about their famous Le Creuset steelworks, and the Japanese whose cheaper products brought about the demise of Bethlehem are themselves facing the result of Chinse and Indian competition. 

    It is so sad, though, to think of the demise of one of the firms which made it great to have America come in on one’s side during WWII.

  4. Good doc, though a bit heavy on the bleeding hearts over the loss of the industry.

  5. Good doc, though a bit heavy on the bleeding hearts over the loss of the industry.

  6. What a sad tale. The same pictures face you on 2nd Avenue in Pittsburgh, Pa. J&L, US steel. Republice steel all shut down. I was an Indian Govet steel trainee (INSTEP) in 1959. I consider those years the dream period of my life.