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In retrospect, the industry failed to respond appropriately by lobbying for federal restrictions on imported steel instead of recognizing the need to embrace a newer technology in the form of modern oxygen furnaces as an improvement over the open-hearth furnaces that replaced the Bessemer process almost a century earlier.
Similarly, steel industry leaders like the infamous U.S. Steel Company continued to ignore the reality of decreased quality of North American iron ore; instead of importing higher quality foreign raw material, they invested unwisely in the expensive refinement processes required by the use of lower grade American iron ore.
Management issues and worker relations also contributed to the decline of Pennsylvania steel. Traditionally, the ranks of steel industry management consisted of former steel workers who rose into leadership positions after decades of first-hand experience. In the post-industrial age, industry management followed the general
American big business trend of hiring management candidates whose credentials were academic rather than practical, one unanticipated consequence of which was a fundamental change in relationship between workers and management (Hoerr, p.37).
Whereas earlier generations of steelworkers took personal pride in their work, their product, and their industry, the late 1980s witnessed a fundamental change in that dynamic: steelworkers...
This attitude culminated in their habit of actually sleeping on the job during the overnight shift, further undermining production in an industry already struggling to compete with foreign manufacturers and to overcome costly management decisions to resist better business planning evident in countries like Japan (Hoerr, p.117).
In 1980, the Pennsylvania steel industry employed more than 100,000 workers;
before the end of the decade, that number had dwindled to barely one-fifth of its prior numbers. As a result, steel plants closed one after another and the entire economy of the Pittsburgh area shifted away from the steel industry. In some respects, the, decline of the American steel industry was the result of natural phenomenon in the form of depletion of its natural raw material resources; in other ways, it is more attributable to management mistakes within the industry that undermined its ability to readjust in light of modern realities. Ultimately, both probably combined, leading to an inevitable result.
References
Nevins, J., Commager, H.S. (1992) a Pocket History of the United States.
New York: Pocket Books
Hoerr, J. (1988) and the Wolf Finally Came: The Decline of the American Steel Industry. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press
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