I write this little story, so that those who never worked in a steel mill would know that the work was dirty but was fullfilling too. This is about a steel mill which was one of the best in the world until it went belly-up, because of one hippy who milked it dry.
Once upon a time, here in the city of Kokomo, there came into being ,a company destined to be the backbone of the city, and to be the main source of income for the families who lived here. The name of that business was Kokomo Steel & Wire. Now this happened way before my time, and my fathers, but it played a big part in the survival of the Day family, and many more families, who without it, probaly would of moved elsewhere. That company was a family type of business, run by men who could be trusted ,and they wanted to be a part of the growing up of the city of Kokomo. Eventually the company changed names, but the trust and respect was still there. "Continental Steel Corporation" was born and in 1934, my dad started there, after working at Globe American, and other places.
So the steel mill , also known by some of the older folk ,as the rod mill, was the source of income for our family, and we ate good, because Dad would work all the overtime , to stay ahead in case someone got sick ,or money was needed for an emergency. The wages were low, but back in those days, things were low in cost, and if you couldn't pay a bill, your word was good for it. And of course, most families of any size would plant gardens, and have chickens for the meat and the eggs.
Well, back to the steel mill, as I was saying , since the mill was good to us, I decided to go to work there, for the summer, and attend IU in the fall of 1955. That summer, I found out how hard it was to work in a mill ,and I also found out how hard my father had worked to raise us. So I put off going to IU for awhile, and did some college work on the side, as I made Continental Steel my first steady work place. To say that working at the mill was easy ,was to say that lifting the world onto my shoulders was easy. I found out that dirt and sweat went together with strength and togetherness. I found out that one man can not get the job done alone. It was the work of all to make a team, that worked together, to get the job done.
When you start working at the mill, you are assigned to the extra board, and you would wait for them to send you to a department to work at a specific job. Sometimes this will turn into a steady job in that area, if you show that you wanted to work. Many times if you didn't get sent out by the extra board manager, you had to come back on another turn, to see if there was work then.
If a furnace was down for repairs, and at that time there were five furnaces, many were sent to the Yard Department, to work on the repair. This was a time when many would get all the overtime wanted. It was a very hot job, and many times you had to go down into the soot tunnels to clean them out. Soot tunnels were small shafts under the checker chambers, and they caught all the soot and slag that would fall through the checker brick. These tunnels were about waist high to a short person, and you had to get down on your knees and using a short handeled shovel, dig the debris out, put it in a bucket and it was passed down to the other men, who proceded to send it up above by using a pulley, to another worker who then dumped it into a wheelbarrow ,and hauled it off to a pit area. This was a very hard job to do ,as there were about ten tunnels, each about fifty feet long, in each furnace. Sometimes ,it was so hot down there ,that you had to wear wooded shoes, and masks on your face, just so the heat would not burn your face and nose. Needless to say that there were many, who after doing this once, decided to find work elsewhere. It took someone who wasn't afraid of work and sweat, to survive in that mill.
Another place, that would be repaired, was the slag pockets, where the impurities from the melting down of all the materials needed to make steel , would run off from the pan above, into the pockets. Many times when you started to work in this spot, the pockets would be cherry red, and the only way to break lose the large hunk of slag, was to first break it loose from the sides by using an air hammer. You would work as long as you could, and then let another worker take his turn. The heat from this job ,would burn the inside of your nose, and you could feel the burning through your clothes. So even though it was a hot job, you wore as much clothing as possible. Think about it; if you put on thick clothing to keep the cold out, then you do the same to keep the hot burning air out.
Before the furnaces could be relined with new furnace brick, the pan which was where the scrap was melted, had to be cleaned out ,and this was another of those jobs that was not only very dirty, but also very hot. Many men quit the mill ,before going to that repair job a second time. Once again ,the workere took turns using an air hammer, that usually was heavier than the worker, and working together, got the furnace ready for the brick gang , who then would reline the pan, the checker chambers, and the slag pockets. It took a big effort on all the workers ,to get this repair done as soon as possible ,so that the furnace could start making steel again. Needless to say, the overtime spent by the company ,was money well spent. As long as a furnace was down, no money was made by the company ,and by the men who ran that furnace. I averaged at least three overtme shifts a week, and I could of had more.
So just on furnace repair alone, the teamwork of all was a major factor, in getting a job done as soon as possible . This was the same in each department you worked in. No matter where you were sent, you had to hold up your end of the job, or it didn't get done in time. Time was an important part in the making of steel, and also the different by-products. Steel was poured into ingots which then were reduced into billets or bars. The billets would then be reduced into rods, which then was reduced into wire, part of which was turned into nails. Some of the wire was made into fence. Continental fence and nails were the best, and were sent all over the country. The name of Continental was respected, because the buyer knew that he was getting a great product. The bars that were made went to the sheet mill, and they were turned into sheets, which in turn were turned into roofing stock as well as calvert stock. The sheets were of the best and were wanted by companies all over the country, because they knew that if it was made by Continental Steel, it had to be good. The work of a great bunch of workers, sold the product. The name of the company meant that you were getting a product that you could trust. Needless to say, you would believe that as long as there were men and women out there that was not afraid to get dirty, Continental Steel would live forever.
During the thirty-one years that I spent at the mill, I worked at the repair of the furnaces, in the sheet mill, in the technical and clerical positions, and sixteen years as a supervisor. I have never regreted taking a job there, because of the family type of co-workers, and the family type of top management. That is until a hippe-type of man started buying enough stock, to eventually take control of the operation, and slowly but surely,milk it dry. This man was buying stock on the exchange, and noboby knew who he was ,until he had enough power to take over. He came in one day, and we took him on a tour of the mill, which eventually started going down hill. This man knew nothing about steel-making, and he wanted something to milk ,so that the cement company he owned could survive, using the mill as a source of income. When that was done ,then there was no need to keep the mill as that source, so then it was time to do the milking of the mill as well as the pension plan. He did a great job of that , and he lives somewhere down in Florida, reaping the profits from his venture in our city. The twelve million that he swindled from the pension plan ,is being reaped by his wife and his father, who held on to everything, while he spent his repentance in a six month stay at a country club type of penal system.
It is odd that we and the heads of the city government let this happen. We sit back ,and say that it can't happen to us, but it can. Don't be mislead by thinking that you are secure. Anytime that big companies merge, you will see some downsizing, and that will be where there is less profit and higher overhead. It doesn't matter if is going to hurt the people involved, as long as the work is done as cheaply and in less time, so as to increase the profit. That is big business, and the name of the game is money. The more they make, the bigger it gets.
So now we see the mill being taken down after all these years, and we wonder why it was not done earlier. The answer to that ,is that as long as there is money to be drained from the mill, it won't happen. For the last eight years, we have listen to the polution group, telling us that the mill was contaminated, and that homes around the area were contaminated with lead. There was no basis for that claim, except for lead found in small quantities, in the yards of the homes close by. Some had none, and others had a lot. No one thought of the fact ,that up until fifteen or so years ago, they painted their houses with paint that had a lead base. After several of these paint jobs, there would be lead in the soil of those homes. It didn't come from the mill, it came from the people who kept their homes up with paint that had a lead base. That is fact where the polution group's is just an suspicion.
"The three paragraphs above in yellow were ones that were left out of my article in the Tribune due to sensure. They said there was no room for it and so it had to be trimmed. Yet there was a picture at the bottom of my article that had no bearing on anything in that issue of the paper. Was it right for them to leave out the actual core of the article?"
Now ,as we see the mill's siding being taken down, they are wrapping it up ,so that the dust won't get blown around. They say that there is no market for the scrap, that will come from the demolition, but I bet that they will find someone who will pay a pretty penney for it, and use it without fear that it is, or is said to be contaminated. I have to defend myself ,and all the other people who spent the better portion of their lives working in that mill, in saying that we ,as workers, and as taxpayers, along with all the other taxpayers in this great city, have been mislead by a group, that goes around and lays claims of contamination, anytime a company has closed down. In other words, they create jobs for themselves. Wouldn't it be great, if you could create a new job, anytime you wanted to?
The question here is, if the mill had not closed, would this group had found problems? I say no, because as long as we were working, they had no basis. Here in 1999, if the mill was still running ,would there had been more workers and neighbors worried about the possible contamination? I say no, because there would not be any basis to go by. Wouldn't it be nice if you were part of a group that looks for ways to create jobs? You never would be out of work, because fear tells us that they could be right, or could they just be trying to pull the wool over our eyes?
Look at the deaths of the Continental workers in the past 13 years. Just about all of them have been from natural causes ,except for the sixteen or more that took their own lives, because they couldn't cope with the loss of their jobs. The ones who had cancer ,were ones who smoked a lot ,and the ones who had liver problems were ones that drank a lot. The idea of contamination in that steel mill ,is about as far-fetched as anyone can concieve. The thirty-one years that I spent there, were ones of about as much dirt and dust, that anyone could breathe and it didn't affect me. So the biggest question of all is; have we been taken down the roads blindfoaded, while being told we are not moving? Think about that and then you ask some questions.
As of now, I will be glad to see the mill gone, because it is an eyesore. I only hope that I am still here, to help erect a memorial to the twenty-five hundred or more of those workers and supervisors, who were there before the fall of this giant. Until then, I hope to get back to writing about the old days, when trust and respect were part of your bringing up. So I say, that I hope that you , the reader, enjoys my articles that come "straight from the heart". See you next time with some more enjoyable writing.
Ray"Uncle Ray" Day- 1616 Primrose Court- Kokomo, Ind 46901
For anyone to think that there job is safe, is like sticking your nose into the south end of a mule going north.
If you have comments or suggestions, email me at [email protected]
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