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MikeStout is a g 
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State Conference 
LABOR RESEARCH REVIEW 7 
Eminent Domain & 
Bank Boycotts: 
The Tri-State Strategy in Pittsburgh 
by Mike Stout 
While plant closings and job loss have plagued the industrial 
north and midwest for several decades, the disease is now 
reaching epidemic proportions. 
American steel corporations are currently in the process of 
cutting as much as 20 to 25 per cent of their productive capacity, 
much of it in the Pittsburgh area. With U.S. Steel's recent move to 
buy steel slabs from overseas steel companies, the snowball effect 
on other companies could eliminate more than 50 per cent of the 
hot-metal producing end of steelmaking in America. 
In the four-county Western Pennsylvania area surrounding 
Pittsburgh, nearly 65,000 of 90,000 basic steel workers remained on 
indefinite layoff in July. According to even the most conservative 
estimates, at least half of these people will never see the inside of a 
mill again. The final body count will, of course, be much higher. 
For nearly a century, billowing smokestacks lit the skies along 
the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh. As recently as 1980, 
U.S. Steel's six integrated mills there—Homestead, Edgar 
Thomson, Duquesne, Irvin, Clairton and National Works 
—employed more than 28,000 workers. With the formation of the 
"USS-Mon Valley Works" in late 1982, 15,000 steelworkers were 
erased with the stroke of a pen, and the death knell was sounded 
for the Valley. Today, barely 8,000 remain on the job. Surrounding 
communities, such as Braddock and West Homestead, teeter on 
the verge of bankruptcy. 
Instead of spending the billions needed to modernize its Mon 
Valley facilities—as it promised to do in the late 1970s—U.S. Steel 
Mike Stout is a griever at USS Homestead Works for USWA Local 1397; he is also 
coordinator of 1397's Food Bank. He is a member of the Executive Board of the Tri-
State Conference on Steel-Pittsburgh. 
8 Midwest Center for Labor Research 
(USS) is now squeezing out the last drops of blood and will soon 
abandon the Valley altogether, leaving its facilities and dilapidated 
equipment to be picked apart by Mellon Bank-financed liquidators. 
If USS is left to its way, by 1986 there will be no steel melted in this 
Valley, once considered the backbone of American industrial 
might. 
Many people in our unions and communities have simply 
resigned themselves into thinking that nothing can be done to 
reverse this industrial holocaust. Unable to tackle this moniunental 
problem, they advocate fleeing the "rust bowl" and retraining 
steelworkers for some high-tech mecca that doesn't exist and never 
will. 
On the other hand, there are those who know something must 
be done, and are seeking to find concrete solutions to the problems 
of disinventment and capital flight. They see very clearly what's at 
stake: the survival of basic industry and the industrial worker, the 
very heart of America's unions. 
Volumes have been written on what we need: Massive 
government-sponsored jobs programs; a national reindustrializa-
tion policy; retraining for displaced workers; extended unemploy-
ment benefits; union contracts and federal laws that prevent or 
minimize the cost of plant shutdowns on workers and 
communities. But tactics, strategies and concrete programs that 
mobilize masses of people to reach these goals have been few and 
far between. 
The Tri-State Perspective & 
The Eminent Domain Strategy 
With recent advances in technology, the steel industry has 
become more capital-intensive than ever. The higher and higher 
rates of profit needed by the banks and corporations to beat out 
their overseas competition are less and less attainable. This is why 
USS and other big steel companies have disinvested and opted for 
more profitable ventures, such as oil, real estate and the ownership 
of foreign steel-producing facilities. According to the American 
Iron & Steel Institute, American steel companies would have to 
double their cuitent investment to more than $6 billion annually, 
"merely to maintain existing facilities." This is money which they 
do not have. Its present owners and overseers will never revitalize the 
steel industry. It is a stubborn fact. The huge sums necessary to 
modernize the steel mills can only come from our tax money through the 
fedend government. 
\4 
LABOR RESEARCH REVIEW 9 
d will soon 
dilapidated 
liquidators, 
sited in this 
L industrial 
ave simply 
be done to 
tonumental 
1 retraining 
t and never 
thing must 
e problems 
y what's at 
vorker, the 
'.: Massive 
dustrializa-
unemploy-
prevent or 
rkers and 
grams that 
sn few and 
On the other hand, who can imagine a steel industry run by the 
likes of a Ronald Reagan or a Jimmy Carter? The mere thought is 
repulsive to most sane people. The mills must be owned and controlled 
iustry has at the local level, with workers and communities having a say in the 
ind higher 
l organization of production, as well as other decisions that have .o beat out such a direct effect on their lives. 
l\is is why The Tri-State Conference on Steel is a group of union, clergy and 
i opted for community activists who organized in 1979 to support 
ownership Youngstown steelworkers' attempts to save their mills. As the steel 
American corporations in Youngstown (USS and Jones & Laughlin) threw 
Id have to 12,000 steelworkers to the dogs, the courts upheld their right to do 
i annually, it. The U.S. government turned a deaf ear to workers' requests for 
Arhich they a $100 million loan to buy and upgrade the mills, and the Inter-
^vitalize the national leadership of the USWA stood on the sidelines blindly 
lecessary to defending the free-enterprise system. 
through the Tri-State saw the writing on the wall for the aging mills of the 
Mon Valley. Learning the lessons of Youngstown, we saw that 
10 Midwest Center for Labor Research 
only if everyone affected—workers and their unions, the the public's 
unemployed, churches, small businesses, borough councils or by whatever 
other forms of local government—pulled together in a common World War : 
front, would we have a chance of survival. Works and c 
As USS quickened the pace of liquidating the steel industry in production f 
this area, Tri-State Conference on Steel and its allies stepped up Traditional 
the search for a strategy and concrete tactics to take over and railroads, uti 
operate the mills. The legal basis for our plan was found in a little- of individua 
known Pennsylvania law called The Municipal Authorities Act of land from thi 
1945. for producin 
According to Section 306 of this law, a "public authority" neighborhoo 
(similar to a port authority or the Tennessee Valley Authority) interest and 
could be established by any number of government entities, rich and po^ 
including a borough or town council: controlled bj 
primarily as 
for the purpose of acquiring, But there \ 
holding, construct ing, pressure) wh 
improving, maintaining and to build new 
operating, owning, leasing preserve for-
...projects of the following public housi 
kind and character : . . . whole. 
industrial development pro- Because er 
jects, including but not past to bene! 
limited to projects to retain or its use in the 
develop existing industries and of "leading ] 
the development of new "too heavy" 
industries. [Italics added.] has faith in 
Under this law, such an what is good 
authori ty could acquire ruled the nei 
"existing industrial facilities" domain for tl 
through the use of eminent the exclusive 
domain. also be used 
Eminent domain is the hands of pol 
power, inherent in our federal Eminent d< 
and state governments, to seize State, someti 
or authorize the taking of hall when w 
private property for public use, Frank O'Brie 
conditioned upon payment of Pittsburgh ai 
just compensation to the nessed its us 
owner. Private property may be forcibly evic 
taken under eminent domain neighborhood USWA demonstrators at US Steel 
laws whenever it is required for stockholders' meeting. land to expar 
LABOR RESEARCH REVIEW 11 
the public's safety, health, interest or convenience, as determined 
by whatever government body is using it. During the early years of 
World War II, the U.S. government took over USS Homestead 
Works and other mills and modernized them in order to expand 
production for the war effort. 
Traditionally, eminent domain has mostly been used on behalf of 
railroads, utilities and other powerful corporations, at the expense 
of individual homeowners and workers. Whether it was taking 
land from the Indians for building railroads, taking bodies of water 
for producing power and electricity, or knocking down a whole 
neighborhood to build a plant, it seems that for years the public 
interest and "common good" have been identified with that of the 
rich and powerful. Since most federal and state lawmakers are 
controlled by the corporate class, eminent domain has been used 
primarily as a vehicle for their benefit. 
But there have been occasions (usually after some form of mass 
pressure) when eminent domain has been used by the government 
to build new roads and bridges, construct sanitary sewer systems, 
preserve forests, create national parks, build new schools and 
public housing and for other uses beneficial to the people as a 
whole. 
Because eminent domain has been used so extensively in the 
past to benefit private interests, some progressives have opposed 
its use in the fight against plant shutdowns. We have been accused 
of "leading people down a dead-end road." Our critics claim it's 
"too heavy" for the ordinary person to understand. But Tri-Staite 
has faith in the ability of the "ordinary person" to understand 
what is good for him. It was inevitable that the robber barons who 
ruled the new and growing industrial society would use eminent 
domain for their ends. But eminent domain is not merely a tool for 
the exclusive use of the rich and powerful. It is a weapon that can 
also be used to defend the people's interests, when put in the 
hands of political forces acting on their behalf. 
Eminent domain was never simply an abstract concept for Tri-
State, something tossed around in words but left in the meeting 
hall when we returned to the real world. One of our members, 
Frank O'Brien, past president of USWA Local 1843 at J & L in 
Pittsburgh and a former Pennsylvania state legislator, had wit-
nessed its use first hand. He had seen Jones & Laughlin use it to 
forcibly evict more than 500 residents of the Scotchbdttom 
neighborhood in Hazelwood; the company had said it needed the 
land to expand productive capacity, but ended up using it to store 
12 Midwest Center for Labor Research 
coke. O'Brien also remembered how the Municipal Authorities Act 
of 1945 and its eminent dofriain power was used to raze the 
triangular "point" area in downtown Pittsburgh, uprooting 
dozens of small businesses, and to form the Port Authority from 32 
formerly independent bus companies. 
While it was too late to use eminent domain in Youngstown (due 
to the lack of support for the idea by local political leaders, as well 
as the rapid development of the crisis), the appropriate lessons 
were drawn and actions taken. Within a year several steel workers, 
including Tri-State member and USWA Local 1397 President Ron 
Weisen, were elected to the Borough Council of West Homestead, 
where Mesta Machine Co. and part of USS Homestead Works are 
located. 
Around this same period, several other developments caught the 
eye of Tri-State members. In the battle by the City of Oakland, 
California, to keep the Raiders football team from leaving the city, 
the California Supreme Court ruled that eminent domain could be 
used to acquire any kind of property. Shortly thereafter, the 
Michigan Supreme Court ruled that Detroit had a right to condemn 
a major part of the Poletown section of the city so that General 
Motors could expand its plant. The Michigan Court ruled, 
definitively, that expansion of industry to retain or create jobs is a 
public purpose for which eminent domain can be used. 
During the latter part of 1981 and early 1982, Tri-State mounted 
an educational campaign in the Pittsburgh area about eminent 
domain and its possible use in condemning and seizing local steel 
mills. 
Midland-Crucible: The First Test 
The initial opportunity to use eminent domain came with the 
announcement, in the summer of 1982, of a shutdown of the 
Crucible Steel Co. mill in Midland, Pennsylvania, northwest of 
Pittsburgh. 5,000 jobs would be lost if the Crucible mill were shut 
down. 
According to newspaper reports at the time, the Cyclops Steel 
Co. wanted to buy the Crucible mill and had negotiated a contract 
with the local union, but Crucible would not sell the facility. A Tri-
State member, Monsignor Charles Owen Rice, was invited by the 
local clergy to present our plan to the Midland local government. 
In Midland there were several factors which favored the use of 
eminent domain. First, a municipal authority with the power to 
invoke eminent domain already existed, so the time needed to 
LABOR RESEARCH REVIEW 13 
es Act create such an authority 
ze the was avoided. Secondly, 
ooting Cyclops appeared to be a 
:om32 sure source of funding for 
the takeover, as well as the 
n(due operator of the facility. 
is well Finally, since Crucible is a 
essons relatively modern facility, 
Drkers, there would be no addi-
it Ron tional financial burden for 
;stead, immediate modernization. 
rks are The eminent domain 
''weapon" received exten-
;ht the sive media exposure after 
kland, several Tri-State members, 
te city, including attorney Jay 
>uld be Valley. Hornack and Monsignor 
;r, the Author^ Rice, explained how to use 
idemn it at a mass town meeting 
General in Midland. After a closed-
ruled, door session of the 
)bs is a Midland Borough Council 
one week later, however, 
Dunted it was officially announced 
cninent that the eminent domain 
al steel gun would not be fired. 
Apparently, the idea was too big and scary for the local leaders. 
For sure, one factor in the failure of Midland to pursue the 
eminent domain strategy was that Tri-State was viewed by some as 
ith the an outsider in that tight-knit community (several Midland borough 
of the officials even accused us of being front-runners for Cyclops). A 
vest of related factor in Midland's decision was the lack of time they had 
re shut to seriously consider our plan. Finally, Tri-State did not have time 
to develop the active support of the Crucible steelworkers' union, 
»s Steel which was extremely worried about what effect a takeover would 
ontract have on their pensions. 
.ATri-
by the The Nabisco Victory 
nment. The second opportunity for using eminent domain came in late 
use of 1982 when the Nabisco plant in Pittsburgh announced it was 
>wer to permanently closing its doors. 650 workers would lose their jobs. 
?ded to Immediately some 30 religious, labor and civic groups (including 
14 Midwest Center for Labor Research 
Tri-State) joined forces and formed the Save Nabisco Action 
Coalition <SNAC). At Tri-Stiate's suggestion, the idea of using 
eminent domain to take over the plant was proposed to the 
Pittsburgh City Council. At the same time, a boycott of Nabisco and 
ofEquibank was launched. Why Equibank? Because the chairman of 
the board of Nabisco is also a Director of Equibank, which controls 
most of the plant's money and credit. 
More than 1,500 people immediately pledged to withdraw their 
checking and savings accounts from Equibank. Within a week 
members of the Pittsburgh City Council were threatening to use 
eminent domain, through 'he city's Urban Redevelopment 
Authority. Even Pittsburgh Mayor Richard Caliguirri jumped on 
the bandwagon, publicly vowing to do "whatever it takes," 
including using eminent domain and suspending his "midnight 
cookie snacks." 
Looking down the double barrel of the threat of eminent domain 
and a boycott of their product as well as of a prominent bank, the 
Nabisco management backed off less than a week later, publicly 
announcing they had dropped their plans to close the plant. 
According to one reporter, "they not only had to deal with the 
workers, but with their neighbors who are the consumers, their 
churches—who raised problems with the justice of the situa-
tion—and 20 other local unions." With the addition of the city's 
political representatives, "Nabisco obviously decided they could 
not deal with such strength." While it is unclear exactly what 
prompted Nabisco to change its mind so quickly, Councilman Tom 
Flaherty reasoned, "I don't find it coincidental that they 
announced this right after Council took them to the wall on the 
issue." 
Coming off this victory for the Nabisco workers, their union and 
community, Tri-State was more convinced than ever that eminent 
domain was a viable weapon for fighting disinvestment and 
stopping plant shutdowns. 
Bank Boycotting 
Meanwhile, across the Monongehela River a group of more than 
30 Protestant ministers from five denominations, calling 
themselves the Denominational Mission Strategy (DMS), was 
launching a campaign to pressure politicians into helping the 
unemployed and giving "disaster aid" to the depressed 
communities of the Valley. The seemingly effective threat of 
money movement out of Equibank caught their attention. 
LABOR RESEARCH REVIEW 15 
Mike Stout shows organizing flyer for the campaign against Mellon Bank. 
Less than one month after the Nabisco victory, Tri-State, DMS 
and a half dozen USWA locals and other community people, as if 
drawn by a magnet, began meeting weekly and working together 
to fight the abandonment of the Mon Valley. Intensive research 
into the disinvestment-plant shutdown process quickly revealed 
the role of the banks: 
• By 1980 a consortium of 15 American banks, including our own 
Mellon Bank, had invested more than $2 billion overseas 
modernizing and building foreign steel mills, while at the same 
time severely restricting local credit and refusing to invest in 
American steel companies. 
• Pittsburgh's Mellon Bank, 12th largest in the country, had over 
$6 billion in foreign loans and deposits in 1982—nearly 30 per 
cent of its assets. 
• While USS Chairman David M. Roderick was publicly complaining 
that he could not get the capital to modernize Mon Valley mills 
because bank interest rates were too exorbitant, Mellon Bank was 
investing $50 million in Kobe Steel of Japan and $50 million more 
in China Steel of Taiwan. 
16 Midwest Center for Labor Research 
•As U.S. Steel went public bank* 
with its proposal to import mild-
steel slabs from Great small 
Britain, it was discovered bank, 
that Mellon Bank's biggest mone 
overseas investment in 1982 comn 
was $941 million in Great disuv 
Britain, whose government is The 
undoubtedly using a portion marri 
of this money to subsidize its 
steel industry. 
For 
With each new discovery it Home 
became increasingly clear that mach 
the big banks are the major The 
institutions greasing the flight years 
of capital out of America and ^| comir 
exporting our jobs overseas. It show; 
is equally clear that any strategy ment 
or program to stop disinvest- On 
ment will be futile without Pittsb 
taking on the banks. Mesta 
After several mass meetings inloaj 
in the Valley—one in February to cloi 
and the other in April, each Me* 
attended by well over 500 is a 
people—a massive "Pledge Card Campaign" was launched to our jo 
educate the public about the role of banks and to engage people Beg 
directly in the struggle against disinvestment. The Network to Save millio: 
the Mon Valley, as the group is now called, hopes to secure same 
pledges from 25,000 Valley residents to move their bank deposits J&L 
from the disinvestors and to a bank or group of banks which the brand 
Network will certify as having made a commitment to invest in These 
local industry. Over $30 million has already been pledged. other 
Even in tight-knit communities like Homestead, the population Atti 
is fragmented and divided. The difficulty of finding tactics and its effc 
practical activities that directly engage widely diverse sectors of the steel E 
people in struggles against such a seemingly insurmountable If Met 
problem as disinvestment or such a powerful institution as a bank, capaci 
has understandably frustrated union and community activists. efforts 
But everyone has a checking or savings account, and it is the sum Tri-5 
total of all these accounts which provides the "cash flow" for the Comn 
I 
LABOR RESEARCH REVIEW 17 
banks' overseas investment. Whether old or young, radical or 
mild-mannered, employed or unemployed, a union, a church, a 
small business or a borough council—everyone can walk into the 
bank, withdraw their money, close their account, and take their 
money to a bank that is more susceptible to the needs of the 
community. It is something all of us can do together, against 
disinvestment, in a concrete way. 
The bank boycott, or movement of money, is the perfect 
marriage to the eminent domain strategy. 
The Mesta Battle 
For more than half a century, Mesta Machine Co. in West 
Homestead was the leading producer of steel mill equipment and 
machinery in the world. 
The rapid decline of Mesta Machine in the space of only a few 
years is a classic example of corporate disinvestment and 
community abandonment. The role played by Mellon clearly 
shows to what degree the banks orchestrate the whole disinvest-
ment process. 
On February 9 of this year Mellon Bank, acting in concert with 
Pittsburgh National and Union National banks, foreclosed on 
Mesta Machine. Unable to meet its payments on some $20 million 
in loans ($13 million of which is owed to Mellon), Mesta was forced 
to close its doors and declare bankruptcy. 
Meanwhile, Mellon—whose PR slogan tells Pittsburghers that it 
is "a neighbor you can count on"—was busy making a mint selling 
our jobs overseas. 
Beginning in the mid-1970s, Mellon has poured more than $25 
million into Sumitomo Industries of Japan, a company that has the 
same product line as Mesta. To add insult to injury, both USS and 
J & L are currently in the process of purchasing and installing 
brand new continuous casters in mills in Alabama and Indiana. 
These new casters are being bought from and constructed by none 
other than Sumitomo Industries of Japan. 
At the time of the Mesta foreclosure, Tri-State was concentrating 
its efforts on preparing a plan for concretely rebuilding the area's 
steel mills. The implications of the Mesta loss were all too obvious. 
If Mesta were allowed to die, we would lose a large part of our 
capacity to rebuild the local steel industry. We quickly shifted our 
efforts to the battle to save Mesta. 
Tri-State immediately initiated the formation of a "Save Mesta 
Committee," composed of Mesta workers (both union and 
~~M 
18 Midwest Center for Labor Research 
management); West Homestead Borough Council members, West neighb 
Homestead residents and Tri-State activists. Despite the looseness a job tc 
and often antagonistic relationship of some members, the Build 
immediate crisis and urgency for action kept the group together. Comm 
Spearheaded by USWA Local 1397 President and West laid th< 
Homestead Borough Council Member Ron Weisen, the Borough at a tov 
Council passed by a 4-3 margin successive resolutions to establish a the mi 
"feasibility study" for saving Mesta through the use of eminent called 
domain and to call a town meeting to set up a municipal authority. funds i 
This was accomplished despite the active opposition of a minority As L 
on the Borough Council. contint 
At the same time as the eminent domain battle was unfolding in of com 
West Homestead, a coalition headed by DMS and Tri-State alread) 
launched a Pittsburgh-area publicity campaign against Mellon for eminei 
its role in dismantling Mesta. We began getting thousands of only a 
pledge cards signed by individuals willing to pull their money out them 1< 
of Mellon and other banks who are disinvesting out of the Valley. pensio 
By Easter, Local 1397 had more than $12 million pledged to be And 
moved, and the campaign as a whole, at least $30 million. wrencl 
Because Mesta owed Mellon $13 million, Mellon had frozen the issues, 
more than $1 million remaining in Mesta's account when it filed for "had < 
bankruptcy. This made it impossible for Mesta to pay some workei 
$430,000 it owed to its hourly and salaried workers for work done leaden 
before the shutdown. Mellon shunned appeals from the USWA to 
release this money, as the banks laid claim to all Mesta assets. Back 
wages were merely the tip of the iceberg: Mesta also owes some Rece 
$35 million in benefits to workers and retirees. establi 
Focusing on this issue, the USWA International leadership big lea 
joined our bank boycott in late May, mailing a letter to more than counci 
120,000 union members in the area, urging them to withdraw their bank, 
money from Mellon to protest the bank's treatment of Mesta succes 
workers. Within a few days others joined the call to withdraw strugg 
funds from Mellon—the United Mine Workers International, The 
militant UE Local 610, the entire 11-member Pittsburgh City millior 
Council, the Allegheny County Commissioners, and even several worke: 
state legislators. power 
In early June Mellon caved in, allowing the release of the money declare 
for back wages. The $35 million in pensions and benefits is still in Mesta, 
dispute. But 
Business Week commented, "Mellon's handling of [the] bankruptcy commi 
case at Mesta.. .seriously damaged the bank's local image." An local i 
official at another Pittsburgh bank said: "The whole 'good constr 
LABOR RESEARCH REVIEW 19 
neighbor' slogan will have to be rethought. Mellon has got a hell of 
a job to figure out how to get back in the graces of the public." 
Building on this victory, Tri-State, DMS and the Save Mesta 
Committee have continued our campaign against Mellon and have 
laid the groundwork for an eminent domain takeover. On June 21 
at a town meeting in West Homestead, the Borough Council set up 
the municipal authority needed to invoke eminent domain, and it 
called for the Allegheny County Commissioners to put up the 
funds necessary to pay "just compensation" for the Mesta plant. 
As Labor Research Review goes to press, the struggle at Mesta 
continues and the outcome is still uncertain. But the effectiveness 
of combining the eminent domain strategy with a bank boycott has 
already been proven. With Mellon on the defensive, the threat of 
eminent domain (with all its legal complications for the banks) not 
only advances the Mesta workers' long-term interests, it gives 
them leverage in advancing their rights to contractual benefits and 
pensions in the bankruptcy proceedings. 
And the $430,000 in back pay would probably not have been 
wrenched from Mellon without our mobilization around the larger 
issues. According to the Wall Street Journal, the USWA International 
"had dropped its request" for the release of funds to pay Mesta 
workers. The Journal credits "pressure from dissident local union 
leaders and radical clergy" with regaining the USWA's attention. 
Toward Big Steel 
Recently, West Homestead Mayor John Dindak vetoed the 
establishment of a municipal authority. This is a setback, but the 
big leap has already been taken: Steel workers and a tiny borough 
council dared to use the eminent domain weapon against a giant 
bank. And while we failed, failure is sometimes the midwife to 
success. Mesta can still be saved, but only in the context of a 
struggle to save the Mon Valley steel industry. 
The ease with which the bank boycott and actual withdrawal of 
millions of dollars forced Mellon to give in and grant Mesta 
workers nearly a half a million in back pay, shows the potential 
power behind this 'movement of money.' (Braniff Airlines, which 
declared bankruptcy 2 years ago under circumstances similar to 
Mesta, still has not given its workers the back pay owed to them!) 
But time is running out for workers, their families and the 
communities of the Monongahela Valley. Disinvestment in the 
local steel industry has kicked into "hyper-mobility." When 
construction is completed within a few years on the 5 new office 
20 Midwest Center for Labor Research 
towers and the financial corporate fortress in downtown 
Pittsburgh, the banks and financial community will move swiftly to 
replace the Valley's rusty, gigantic mills with hotels, plush 
condominiums, small 'high-tech' industrial parks, and gambling 
casinos to entertain the new corporate clientele. 
As for Reagan and the federal government, they literally could 
care less what happens to our mills and communities. And, as U.S. 
Steel Chairman David M. Roderick declared recently, "if the 
government has no desire to have a viable, strong steel industry 
.. .then we will not have one." 
Over the next several months, drawing from the experiences and 
knowledge of local industrial workers, as well as the expertise of 
lawyers and members of the academic community, the Tri-State 
Conference On Steel will put most of its efforts into pulling 
together a full-blown program for saving and revitalizing steel and 
other related industries in this area. 
Based on real conditions locally—such as m^ke-up and skills of 
the local workforce; types of existing facilities, machinery and 
equipment; the products now produced or which could be pro-
duced through modernizing these facilities—the Tri-State confer-
ence program will include specific proposals concerning: 
v POTENTIAL MARKETS for the products; specific needs 
for steel—both locally and nationally, based on numerous 
government and private studies made recently for 
rebuilding our roads, bridges, mass-transit systems, and 
the rapidly deteriorating infrastructures of our major cities. 
*" CAPITAL INVESTMENT SOURCES; realistic channels 
through which federal funds or other sources of financing 
can be obtained for upgrading facilities and financing 
continued operations. 
^ NEW TYPES OF ORGANIZATION & RELATIONS OF 
PRODUCTION, detailing the role of worker and 
community in running plants through local 'municipal 
authorities,' as well as altogether different relations 
between workers and management. 
Through our initial investigation of different plants and 
resources in the area, the Mon Valley and tri-state area seems 
perfectly suited to becoming a major center for the production of 
light rail, mass-transit systems for our cities, as well as structural 
products for bridges, roads, etc. 
LABOR RESEARCH REVIEW 21 
Having put together a program on paper, we will then attempt to 
educate, organize and mobilize the people of the Mon Valley to 
fight for its implementation. Our dreams will only become reality 
with bitter struggle. Either we do what's really necessary to save 
the industry and the very heart of our industrial unions, or we let 
them kill us. There is no half-way or in-between. Doing what's really 
necessary means unions, churches, community and local govern-
ment banding together to wrest control of the "Mon Valley Steel 
Works" away from the banks and corporations, and completely 
redefining its organization and relations of production, before they 
abandon and totally destroy it. 
Beginning this fall, the Tri-State Conference will intensify an 
educational campaign at the grass-roots level. We will hold 
meetings and forums and will go door-to-door in the community to 
talk about the situation, present our alternative program, and 
explain how eminent domain can be used to stop plant shutdowns 
and open the doors to attaining our goals. Crucial to this campaign 
will be convincing at least some local borough and government 
officials to use eminent domain, set up municipal authorities, as well 
as organizing public support for the eventual showdown with the 
corporate community. We will build a movement to take control of 
the enormous amount of "social capital" that has 
evolved—including union and worker pension funds, checking 
and savings accounts in internationalized banks such as Mellon, as 
well as our own tax money which is being wasted on the military 
and/or corrupt, repressive governments around the world. 
Radical problems require radical solutions. When the showdown 
comes here in the Mon Valley, we must be ready to move effectively, 
which will most probably involve actually seizing buildings or certain 
facilities, in order to turn the tide and stop the exodus of jobs. What-
22 Midwest Center for Labor Research 
ever it takes, we better get on it. The only alternative most of us 
face is eternal damnation amidst the flames below a Wendy's or 
Burger King, where minimum wage is the order every day. 
Conclus ion 
Today we are witnessing sharp clashes between the American 
working people and forces represented by giant banks and 
corporations who are attempting to smoothly transfer entire 
sections of our basic industries overseas. Hard-working people and 
their families are being thrown to the dogs by the thousands. Labor 
unions are losing members by the hundreds of thousands. In the 
face of this desperate situation, heads are turning around and 
minds opening up as people search for solutions. 
Using a powerful weapon such as eminent domain certainly 
poses many problems and will be no piece of cake. For instance, 
without a thorough educational effort among the people, the mass 
backing needed to use it at the appropriate time will not be there. 
Also, once it is used, getting the funds to pay the former owner 
"just compensation" for a plant will be a whole battle in itself, and 
certainly a difficult one. And, without some public officials who are 
not only sympathetic to the idea but are also willing to take on 
giant banks and corporations, it cannot happen. 
We in the Tri-State Conference do not believe that victory against 
plant shutdowns and disinvestment will come in one big bang at 
the national level, but through a series of small local battles 
building up to a big one. 
Eminent domain opens up the door to the political stage for 
working people and their allies in the community and churches. It 
allows them to stand squarely on center stage and become active 
participants, instead of passive bystanders. 
Working people must be informed that there already exists the 
means legally, on the books under the right of eminent domain, to 
protect their jobs, their communities, and their right to a decent 
way of life. Once they understand this fact, and see that their 
Congressmen and other political representatives refuse to use this 
weapon on their behalf, the type of pressures they put on our 
political bodies will radically change. 
Eminent domain in conjunction with powerful mass actions like 
bank boycotts provide a powerful one-two punch for the blighted 
industrial communities of the north and midwest.