[A Patriot Son]

Bethlem had over 300,000 working relatively high paying mostly blue collar during world war II. It had over 50,000 people working at Baltimore's Sparrows Point--the then largest steel plant in the world. Now it has less than 12,000 people nationwide.

[Norman Arbuthnot]

It had over 50,000 people working at Baltimore's Sparrows Point--the then largest steel plant in the world. Now it has less than 12,000 people nationwide.

The old abandoned steelworks of Bethlehem are now being converted to a museum.

Well we're living here in Allentown
And they're closing all the factories down
Out in Bethlehem they're killing time
Filling out forms
Standing in line

Billy Joel, Allentown, 1982

[DennisR]

We can thank the unions for that...

[STONEWALLS]

.....the article makes no distinction between hourly and salaried workers......this is not a Union vs. Management disparity.....ALL retirees are getting hit on this....

[Tribune7]

Steel employment is going down all over the world. Check this link

[1Old Pro]

Bethlem had over 300,000 working relatively high paying mostly blue collar during world war II. It had over 50,000 people working at Baltimore's Sparrows Point--the then largest steel plant in the world. Now it has less than 12,000 people nationwide.

Insert "General Electric" for Beth Steel and "Schenectady" for Baltimore and you get the same types of numbers.

Union labor is simply too expensive.