pa1778data.pdf

U.S. STEEL DUQUESNE WORKS
HAER No. PA-115
(Page 37)
Despite the apparent clarification, company and union
officials continued to disagree over the proper interpretation of
Section 2-B. This was particularly true of the skilled craftsmen
in the industry who jealously guarded their jurisdictional
rights. The intensity of the conflict over the issue was amply
demonstrated by the events which took place at the Duquesne Works
during a period of slack operations in 1958-59. Spurred by fears
of unemployment, the works' skilled craftsmen became increasingly
upset over changes in work practices which they believed
threatened the security of their jobs. Their grievances
reflected three specific concerns: the impact of the development
of new materials technology on work practices, the growing
prevalence of outside contracting, and the guestion of using non-
craftsmen or unauthorized craftsman to do work which fell within
the jurisdiction of specific craft groups. In an effort to
resolve the concerns of the craftsmen, management and union
officials representing the various crafts on the site conducted a
series of meetings in the fall of 1958.
The first issue—the development of new materials
technology—primarily affected the mill's bricklayers and
carpenters. Long accustomed to repairing soaking pit and heating
furnace walls at the primary and bar mills, the bricklayers
complained that this class of work had been recently turned over
to production laborers. Management defended the new work
practice by arguing that the development of cheaper and more
easily installed plastic cast materials changed the underlying
circumstances of the job. In other words, the materials, which
could be simply rammed or pressed into those areas of the soaking
pit or furnace walls that needed repair, obviated the necessity
of the bricklayers' skills. A major grievance of the carpenters
centered on the use of workmen other than themselves to hang
newly developed prefabricated scaffolds. Until their
development, scaffolds had been customarily built in the
carpenter shop and hung by the carpenters throughout the mill.
The prefabricated scaffold, according to management, was new and
completely different from any type of scaffold previously used at
the works. Because of the simplicity of the scaffold*s design,
the carpenters' specialized skills were no longer required to
hang them.
Objections to outside contracting were particularly evident
among the skilled employees of the tractor and electric repair
shops. Mechanics from the tractor repair shop, for example,
argued that overhaul and/or reboring work on engines from the
mill's mobile equipment should be done in their shop instead of
by outside contractors. Likewise, electricians from the electric
Industrial America, 195-96.