As a Pittsburgh area resident, I remember those days well. I remember how the mood of the entire country was against the steel workers. Greedy overpaid bast##ds got it coming, everyone said. But folks in this area knew this was a test case. If the government and the people in power could do that here, they could do it everywhere. We’re not surprised that eventually the working class everywhere began to suffer. Ha ha ha.
I too live in Pittsburgh and I can tell you, the Steel industry at the time was full of a lot of bloat and other things.... because being the only industrialized post war power had thrown off a lot of wealth and lead to a lot of complacency and bloat.
Ask any of the old hunky’s left what happened if you went over your quota in the mills.....
There is a lot behind the decline of steel, its not as simple as black and white. Legal and policy factors, combined with management that didn’t react to the growing threat as the rest of the world came back from WWII until it was too late. However, don’t kid yourself, the Union helped hasten the decline as well.