pa1778data.pdf

U.S. STEEL DUQUESNE WORKS
HAER No. PA-115
(Page 41)
that the agreement effectively revoked the industry-wide
agreement regarding Section 2-B. If one local could ignore an
industry-wide agreement, they feared, the union could dissolve
into numerous competing locals.
One man who shared this point of view was Mike Bilcsik, the
president of the United Steelworkers of America Local Union #1256
at the Duquesne Works. Bilcsik, who believed that the union
should be flexible on the work practices issue, had tried
unsuccessfully to convince Duquesne's management to set up a
Labor Management Partnership Team (LMPT) in 1982 to deal with the
issue. However, when corporate officials told him in 1983 that
his local had to agree to a reduction in crew sizes in order to
make the mill competitive, Bilcsik replied that he would
negotiate on the issue only in return for a guarantee that the
company would invest in the modernization of the mill. Refusing
to agree to Bilcsik 1 s proposal, the company cut off negotiations
with the local. Although the permanent shutdown of the Duquesne
Works was clearly due to the depression in the primary market for
its steel—the domestic oil and gas pipe industry—tensions over
Section 2-B plagued labor-management relations until the mill
shutdown. 53
Plant and Community, 1946-1984
The relationship between plant and community during the post
World War II period turned, to a large extent, on a tripartite
interaction between community and regional activists, corporate
officials, and the local, state, or federal government with
respect to the regulation of the mill's affairs. This
interaction produced dramatic improvements in the environmental
qualities of the community. However, after 1984 when community
activists sought to draw on this relationship to extend its power
and influence, they found that their effort to save the Duquesne
Works from permanent shutdown exceeded the accepted bounds of
economic possibility.
The development of an effective tripartite coalition that
focused on improving the Monongahela Valley's environment through
the control of industrial wastes began in February of 1941 with
the creation of the Mayor's Commission for the Elimination of
Smoke in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The commission was the
outgrowth of the successful efforts in the late 19 3 0s of several
prominent citizens and civic organizations to garner public
support for ideas promoting the social and economic value of
cleaner air in the city. It consisted of representatives from
business, organized labor, local government, the media, the
53 Brody, "The Uses of Power I: Industrial Battleground," 195-
98; Hoerr, And the Wolf Finally Camef 101, 262, and 438-42.