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Surviving a “Carcinogen Rich Environment”: Steelworkers’ Democratic Intrusion into the Regulation of Coke-Oven Emissions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2015

Alan Derickson*
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University

Abstract

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

NOTES

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8. Nelson, Divided We Stand, 186 (quotation), 185–218, 258–61; Balanoff, “Black Community of Gary,” 220; Needleman, Black Freedom Fighters, 103; Stein, Judith, Running Steel, Running America: Race, Economic Policy, and the Decline of Liberalism (Chapel Hill, 1998), 4546Google Scholar, 50–51, 53, 56–58, 99–101; Dickerson, Out of the Crucible, 232–33, 243–46; Ichniowski, Casey, “Have Angels Done More? The Steel Industry Consent Decree,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 36 (January 1983): 182–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 185. For similar mechanisms confining Latinos, see Hernandez-Fujigaki, Jorge, “The Impact of Seniority Principles on the Status of Mexican Steelworkers in the Midwest: Historical Perspectives,” Perspectives in Mexican American Studies 4 (1993): 3032Google Scholar.

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10. R. B. O’Connor, “Improving the Environmental Health of Coke Oven Workers,” 27 May 1970, 1 (quotations), American Iron and Steel Institute Records, box 22, folder: Coke, Manuscripts and Archives Department, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del.; O’Connor, R. B., “Improving the Environmental Health of Coke Oven Workers,” Journal of Occupational Medicine 13 (February 1971): 8385CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lloyd, J. William and Ciocco, Antonio, “Long-Term Mortality Study of Steelworkers, I.: Methodology,” Journal of Occupational Medicine 11 (June 1969): 299310CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lloyd, J. William, “Long-Term Mortality Study of Steelworkers, V.: Respiratory Cancer in Coke Plant Workers,” Journal of Occupational Medicine 13 (February 1971): 5368CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Redmond, Carol K. et al, “Long-Term Mortality Study of Steelworkers, VI.: Mortality from Malignant Neoplasms among Coke Oven Workers,” Journal of Occupational Medicine 14 (August 1972): 621–29Google Scholar; Lloyd, J. William, “Study of Long-Latent Disease in Industrial Populations,” Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 64 (June 1972): 135–44Google Scholar; Mazumdar, Sati et al, “An Epidemiological Study of Exposure to Coal Tar Pitch Volatiles among Coke Oven Workers,” Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association 25 (April 1975): 382–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Redmond, Carol K., Strobino, Barbara R., and Cypress, Raymond H., “Cancer Experience among Coke By-Product Workers,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 271 (May 1976): 102–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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15. Dickerson, Out of the Crucible, 215–46; Hinshaw, Steel and Steelworkers, 200–213; Needleman, Black Freedom Fighters, 141–61 (and passim on the longer struggle in District 31); Stewart, James B., “The Pursuit of Equality in the Steel Industry: The Committee on Civil Rights and the Civil Rights Department of the United Steelworkers of America, 1948–1970,” in African Americans, Labor, and Society: Organizing for a New Agenda, ed. Mason, Patrick L. (Detroit, 2001), 165201Google Scholar, esp. 185; “Unit of NAACP Files a Racial-Discrimination Suit against U.S. Steel,” Wall Street Journal, 1 June 1966, 11; Ramsey Clark et al., “Complaint: In the United States District Court for the Western District of New York, United States of America . . . v. Bethlehem Steel Corporation,” 7 December 1967, 2 (quotation), Civil Rights Department Records, box 12, folder 64, USW Archives, Historical Collections and Labor Archives, Pennsylvania State University Libraries, University Park; Eugene Pughsley to International Staff Representatives of Local 1033 and International Officers, 2 January 1968, Civil Rights Department Records, box 18, folder 1; Pughsley to Joseph LaMorte, 17 July 1969, Civil Rights Department Records, box 21, folder 6; “Steel Firm’s Black Workers Fight Bias,” Chicago Defender, 12 October 1968, 14. The industry-wide consent decrees that essentially settled this matter in 1974 dealt with seniority, related transfer rights, and lost pay, but not directly with past exposure to health hazards. See United States of America v. Allegheny-Ludlum Industries et al., “Consent Decrees on Equal Opportunity in Steel Industry,” Daily Labor Report, 15 April 1974, D1-15; Needleman, Black Freedom Fighters, 205–12. On the wider (albeit marginal) pattern of radical dissidence within the union, see Nyden, Philip W., Steelworkers Rank-and-File: The Political Economy of a Union Reform Movement (South Hadley, Mass., 1984)Google Scholar. On challenges in another union, see Geschwender, James A., Class, Race, and Worker Insurgency: The League of Revolutionary Black Workers (New York, 1977)Google Scholar.

16. Cook, Warren A., “Problems of Setting Occupational Exposure Standards—Background,” Archives of Environmental Health 19 (August 1969): 272–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Paull, Jeffrey M., “The Origin and Development of Threshold Limit Values,” American Journal of Industrial Medicine 5 (1984): 227–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Castleman, Barry I. and Ziem, Grace E., “Corporate Influence on Threshold Limit Values,” American Journal of Industrial Medicine 13 (1988): 531–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ziem, Grace E. and Castleman, Barry I., “Threshold Limit Values: Historical Perspectives and Current Practice,” Journal of Occupational Medicine 31 (November 1989): 910–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Markowitz and Rosner, “Limits of Thresholds,” 257–58; C. Wayne Simpson, “Remarks . . . before the Standards Advisory Committee on Coke Oven Emissions,” 3 March 1975, 5 (quotation), at www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=OSHA-H017-2006-0891-0230; Annals of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists 9: Threshold Limit Values—Discussion and Thirty-Five Year Index with Recommendations (1984): 370. For an early, perhaps seminal, venture into technocratic regulation, see U.S., Division of Labor Standards, National Silicosis Conference, DLS Bulletin 21, 4 parts (Washington, D.C., 1938), passim, esp. 1:ii, vii, 34.

17. OSHA, “Part 1910—Occupational Safety and Health Standards, National Consensus Standards and Established Federal Standards,” Federal Register 36 (29 May 1971): 10504; I. W. Abel to James Hodgson, 8 July 1971 (quotations), SHDR, box 12, folder 9; OSHA, “American Iron and Steel Institute and United Steelworkers of America Petitions for Commencement of Rulemaking Proceedings and Related Relief,” Federal Register 36 (9 September 1971): 18128–29.

18. Edward Baier to John Sheehan, 24 March 1972 (quotation), Legislative Department Records, box 26, folder 23; Adolph Schwartz to All USWA Recording Secretaries of Local Unions with Coking Operations,” 3 May 1972 (quotations), USW District 31 Records, box 30, folder 1, Research Center, Chicago History Museum; USW, “Coke Oven Conference [Proceedings],” 22 June 1972, 130–33, 151–59, 194–95, Local 1557 Records, box 1, folder 20; AISI, “A Report . . . to Provide Information and Data for Use in Preparation of a Criteria Document for Coke Producing Operations,” n.d. [c. 31 October 1972], SHDR, box 22, folder: Report—American Iron and Steel Institute. For the tobacco industry’s similar model of resistance involving demands for hazard specification, see Michaels, Doubt Is Our Product, 3–11, 79–90.

19. Charles Powell to John Sheehan, 10 November 1972, Local 1557 Records, box 1, folder 5; Daniel Hannan, “My Labor Diary,” 1557 Labor Journal, November 1972, 1, 6; USW, “Evaluation of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Criteria for a Recommended Standard on Occupational Exposure to Coke Oven Emissions,” n.d. [c. 10 July 1973], SHDR, box 12, folder 9.

20. U.S., NIOSH, Criteria for a Recommended Standard: Occupational Exposure to Coke Oven Emissions (Washington, D.C., 1973), II–1 (quotation) and passim, esp. i, I 1, 9–12, IV 2–3, V 1–2, VII 3.

21. Adolph Schwartz to Jack Sheehan, 9 November 1972, USW District 31 Records, box 30, folder 1; Joseph Odorcich to Eugene Pughsley, 26 June 1973, USW District 31 Records, box 30, folder 1; Daniel Hannan, “Minutes of Coke Oven Advisory Committee Meeting,” 1 August 1973 (Pughsley quotation), USW District 31 Records, box 30, folder 1; John Stender to I. W. Abel, 7 December 1973 (quotation), Legislative Department Records, box 26, folder 24; John Sheehan, “Coke Oven Emissions: Promulgation of a New Standard,” 30 January 1975, 7, ibid., box 241, folder 11; John Sheehan to John Stender, 26 November 1973, SHDR, box 16, envelope: 1974 Negotiation Relating to Coke Ovens; “Make a Coke Oven Work without Killing People,” Steel Labor, February 1975, 7. For management criticism of the criteria document, see Robert J. Halen, “The Criteria Document for Coke Oven Emissions,” Journal of Occupational Medicine 15 (September 1973): 738–39. On the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972 and its democratizing aims, see Jasanoff, Fifth Branch, 45–48.

22. Bob Hayden to John Sheehan, 8 November 1974, Legislative Department Records, box 23, folder 10; Daniel Hannan to Joseph Odorcich et al., 10 February 1975 (quotation), SHDR, box 24, folder 1; “Deadline Nearing for Coke Oven Emissions Standards by US Advisory Unit,” Steel Labor, May 1975, 3; Daniel Hannan, “Testimony . . . ,” OSHA Hearings—Proposed Coke Oven Emission Standard,” n.d. [c. 4 May 1976], SHDR, box 23, folder: Dan Hannan, 1977; Hannan to James English, 2 April 1976, ibid., box 5, folder 1; James Fiore, “The President’s Message,” 1557 Labor Journal, April 1975, 1; “Emissions: Continued,” Steel Labor, April 1975, 7; Standards Advisory Committee on Coke Oven Emissions, “Meeting [Minutes],” 7 April 1975, 17 (Hannan quotation), at www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=OSHA-H017-2006-0891-0238.

23. John Sheehan, “Coke Oven Emissions: Promulgation of a New Standard,” 30 January 1975, 9–10 (quotation, italics in original), Legislative Department Records, box 241, folder 11; Thomas Mancuso, “Coke-Oven Operations Recommendations: Industrial Medicine Program and Epidemiological Surveillance,” 13 January 1975, SHDR, box 22, folder: Coke Oven; House, Black Lung Amendments, 242–46; James Smith, “Presentation of the United Steelworkers of America to the Standards Advisory Committee on Coke Oven Emissions,” 4 March 1975 (quotations), SHDR, box 23, folder: Coke Oven; “Emissions: Continued,” Steel Labor, April 1975, 7. For the employers’ assertions regarding the complexity of the emissions hazard and the impossibility of controlling it, see Howard Bumsted, “Remarks . . . before the Standards Advisory Committee on Coke Oven Emissions,” 4 March 1975, www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=OSHA-H017-2006-0891-0230; Earl Mallick, “Remarks . . . before the Standards Advisory Committee on Coke Oven Emissions,” 4 March 1975, ibid.; Standards Advisory Committee on Coke Oven Emissions, “Meeting [Minutes],” 29 April 1975, 69–81, at www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=OSHA-H017-2006-0891-0263.

24. Standards Advisory Committee on Coke Oven Emissions, “Meeting [Minutes],” 30 April 1975, 232 (Bingham quotation), 231 (Bingham quotation), at www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=OSHA-H017-2006-0891-0264; James Smith to I. W. Abel, 25 March 1975, SHDR, box 24, folder 1; Standards Advisory Committee on Coke Oven Emissions, “Proceedings,” 12 May 1975, 40–93, at www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=OSHA-H017-2006-0891-0285; Standards Advisory Committee on Coke Oven Emissions, “Report,” 24 May 1975, esp. 15, 21–24, 30–64, SHDR, box 17, folder: Coke Ovens; Robert Halen, John Munson Jr., and William Smith, “Report of the Industry Members of the Standards Advisory Committee on Coke Oven Emissions to the Secretary of Labor,” 9 June 1975, 9 (quotation), esp. 5–7, 20–22, ibid.

25. OSHA, “Exposure to Coke Oven Emissions: Proposed Standard,” Federal Register 40 (31 July 1975): 32273 (quotation), 32268–82; Joseph Odorcich to All Recording Secretaries of Local Unions with Coking Operations, 30 July 1975, SHDR, box 24, folder 1; “USW Starts Major Attack on Safety Rules Proposed for Emissions from Coke Ovens,” Wall Street Journal, 5 August 1975, 2; “Steel Industry Joins Fray over Standards Proposed for Emissions from Coke Ovens,” Wall Street Journal, 7 August 1975, 2.

26. AISI, “In the Matter of Proposed Standard for Occupational Exposure to Coke Oven Emissions: Prehearing Comments of the American Iron and Steel Institute,” 30 September 1975, SHDR, box 22, folder: American Iron and Steel Institute; “Coke-Oven Controls: Complex, Costly, and Controversial,” Chemical Week, 26 November 1975, 28–29; USW, “Position of United Steelworkers of America on Proposed Coke Oven Regulations,” 30 September 1975, 47 (quotation) and passim, Daniel Hannan Papers, box 1, folder 5, USW Archives, Historical Collections and Labor Archives, Pennsylvania State University Libraries, University Park; “Coke Oven Workers Will Give OSHA Heat on Standards This Month,” Steel Labor, November 1975, 3; James Fiore, “The President’s Message,” 1557 Labor Journal, October 1975, 1; Daniel Hannan to All USWA District Directors, Staff Representatives, and Recording Secretaries with Coking Operations, 12 and 20 November 1975, Hannan Papers, box 1, folder 3.

27. “‘Take a Trip across a Coke Battery,’ Probers Urged,” Steel Labor, January 1976, 10; OSHA, “Informal Public Hearing on Proposed Standard for Coke Oven Emissions,” 16 December 1975, 2922 (Fair quotation), 2925, 2935, 2957, 2969, Docket H-017, Document 153.16, OSHA Technical Data Center, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Frances Perkins Building, Washington, D.C.; OSHA, “Informal Public Hearing on Proposed Standard for Coke Oven Emissions,” 17 December 1975, 2995 (Ross quotation), 2995–97, 3046, 3051, 3112, 3120–21, ibid., Document 153.17; OSHA, “Informal Public Hearing on Proposed Standard for Coke Oven Emissions,” 18 December 1975, 3205, 3237, ibid., Document 153.18; OSHA, “Informal Public Hearing on Proposed Standard for Coke Oven Emissions,” 19 December 1975, 3360, ibid., Document 153.19.

28. OSHA, “Informal Public Hearing,” 17 December 1975, 3015, 3028–30, 3047 (Bester Robinson quotation), 3100 (Wayne Robinson quotation), 3099–102, Docket H-017, Document 153.17; OSHA, “Informal Public Hearing,” 19 December 1975, 3381 (Chapman quotation), 3386, 3413–25, 3437, 3446–49, ibid., Document 153.19; OSHA, “Informal Public Hearing,” 18 December 1975, ibid., Document 153.18, 3178, 3196–99, 3212–13, 3231 (Pughsley quotation), 3231–32, 3246, 3248. On the descent of disabled coal miners into low-wage work, see Alan Derickson, “Twice a Boy: Occupational Disease and Career Trajectory in Hard Coal, 1870–1930,” Industrial Relations 32 (Winter 1993): 94–110.

29. OSHA, “Informal Public Hearing,” 16 December 1975, Docket H-017, Document 153.16, 2978 (Buchanan quotation), 2978–80; OSHA, “Informal Public Hearing,” 17 December 1975, 3017, 3042, ibid., Document 153.17; OSHA, “Informal Public Hearing,” 18 December 1975, 3243, 3289, ibid., Document 153.18; OSHA, “Informal Public Hearing,” 19 December 1975, 3384, ibid., Document 153.19.

30. OSHA, “Informal Public Hearing,” 16 December 1975, Docket H-017, Document 153.16, 2909–14, 2932, 2937–39, 2965–66; OSHA, “Informal Public Hearing,” 17 December 1975, 3003, 3024, 3038, 3113–22, 3125–35, ibid., Document 153.17; OSHA, “Informal Public Hearing,” 18 December 1975, 3190, 3286, ibid., Document 153.18; OSHA, “Informal Public Hearing,” 19 December 1975, 3379, 3384, ibid., Document 153.19.

31. OSHA, “Informal Public Hearing,” 19 December 1975, 3394–96, 3396 (Lawson and Morris quotations), ibid., Document 153.19; Daniel Hannan, “The Development of a Coke Oven Emission Standard,” 5 January 1977, Hannan Papers, box 2, folder 7; House, Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1969, 1004 (Hannan quotation), 1004–6. For a union-sponsored “barefoot epidemiology” initiative, see United Auto Workers, The Case of the Workplace Killers: A Manual for Cancer Detectives on the Job (Detroit, 1980); Howard, Robert, “One Man Scoops the Experts,” In These Times, 18 March 1981, 7Google Scholar.

32. James English to Bernard Kleiman, 24 February 1976, SHDR, box 24, folder 2; Daniel Hannan to David Rhone, 1 March 1976, RG 174: General Records of the Department of Labor, Records of Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Morton Corn, 1975–77, box 7, folder: Coke Ovens; Rhone to Hannan, 24 March 1976, SHDR, box 5, folder 1; “Impact of Coke-Oven Rules on Steel Prices Seen Slight, but Competition May Suffer,” Wall Street Journal, 15 March 1976, 8; “USWA Hits Demand for Price Tag on Workers’ Lives,” Steel Labor, May 1976, 6. For Morton Corn’s skepticism about the value of cost-benefit analysis in setting this standard, see “Corn Jolted by White House Objection to Coke Oven Regulations,” American Metal Market, 31 May 1976, 15; Corn, Jacqueline K. and Corn, Morton, “The Myth and the Reality,” in Economic Effects of Government-Mandated Costs, ed. Lanzillotti, Robert F. (Gainesville, Fla., 1978), 106–8Google Scholar.

33. “U.S. Must Act by August 20 on Coke Oven Emissions,” Steel Labor, July 1976, 5; Grover Wrenn to Morton Corn, 23 September 1976, RG 174, Records of Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Morton Corn, 1975–77, box 7, folder: Coke Ovens; Jim Robinson to Morton Corn, n.d. [c. 7 October 1976], ibid.

34. OSHA, “Occupational Safety and Health Standards: Exposure to Coke Oven Emissions,” Federal Register 41 (22 October 1976): 46752 (quotation), 46742–90, esp. 46780, 46784–90; Daniel Hannan to Anthony Manguso, 22 December 1976 (quotation), SHDR, box 25, folder: Daniel Hannan—Miscellaneous.

35. “We Are Going to Win the Battle for Our Coke Oven Workers,” Steel Labor, February 1977, 10; George Cohen et al., “In the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit . . . , American Iron and Steel Institute, et al., Petitioners, v. Occupational Safety and Health Administration et al., Respondents, United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO, Intervenor: Petition for Review of a Standard of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration: Brief for Intervenor and Appendix,” 29 July 1977, SHDR, box 8, folder 1; James English to Joseph Odorcich et al., 7 December 1976, ibid., box 17, folder: Coke Ovens; English to Odorcich et al., 7 March 1977, ibid.; George Cohen to I. W. Abel, 22 February 1977, Legislative Department Records, box 76, folder 6.

36. George Cohen to Lloyd McBride and Bernard Kleiman, 21 August 1980, Hannan Papers, box 2, folder 4; James Smith to I. W. Abel, 10 June 1974, SHDR, box 3, folder 24; Republic Steel Corporation, “Chicago District Coke Plant Program,” n.d. [c. 7 June 1974], ibid.; Joseph Odorcich et al. and William Miller et al., “Memorandum of Agreement—Clairton Works,” 6 November 1974, ibid., box 23, folder: Daniel Hannan, 1977; Daniel Hannan to Smith, 17 April 1975, ibid., box 24, folder 1; J. Bruce Johnston to I. W. Abel, 9 April 1977, ibid., box 25, folder: Daniel Hannan—Miscellaneous; “Coke Ovens: ‘Looking into Hell,’” Steel Labor, April 1974, 10; “Coke Ovens: Safety and Jobs,” Steel Labor, December 1974, 5; “Make a Coke Oven Work without Killing People,” Steel Labor, February 1975, 7; “The 1977 USWA Wage Policy Statement,” Steel Labor, December 1976, 15; “Summary of 1977 Agreement,” 1557 Labor Journal, March 1977, 2, 4; “Court Order Fails to Halt Coke Strike,” Baltimore Sun, 29 January 1974, C6; Rudacille, Deborah, Roots of Steel: Boom and Bust in an American Steel Town (New York, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37. Adolph Schwartz, “Complaint [to OSHA against Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation],” 13 October 1977, SHDR, box 21, folder 4; Dan Hannan to Schwartz, 23 February 1978, ibid., box 23, folder: Coke Oven Misc.; Mike Olszanski, “Coke Smoke Over Hundred Times Limit,” n.d. [c. 7 July 1977], Legislative Department Records, box 29, folder 7; “Getting the Word on Coke Oven Emissions Standards,” Steel Labor, May 1977, 2; “Coke Ovens: We Cared, and the First Battle Was Won,” Steel Labor, May 1978, 16; “Battle for Coke Oven Safety Standards ‘Just Started,’” Steel Labor, October 1978, 13; “Cleaning Up the Coke Ovens—A Look at the Record,” Steel Labor, February 1979, 11; Peter Ettinger to Jim English, 28 September 1978, Hannan Papers, box 1, folder 6; [Daniel Hannan?], “Status of Coke Oven Cases,” 16 September 1980, ibid. folder 3. On the environmental regulatory efforts, see Longhurst, Citizen Environmentalists; Brian Mayer, Blue-Green Coalitions: Fighting for Safe Workplaces and Healthy Communities (Ithaca, 2009), 196–97; “State, County Join Forces to Compel Clairton Works Cleanup,” Steel Labor, March 1972, 17; “USWA Spurs J&L, EPA to Keep Jobs, Clean Up Pittsburgh Works,” Steel Labor, September 1975, 3; George McManus, “Is Pollution Control Good to the Last Drop?” Iron Age, 2 February 1976, 23–25; Andrew Hurley, Environmental Inequalities: Class, Race, and Industrial Pollution in Gary, Indiana, 1945–1980 (Chapel Hill, 1995), 132–33, 141–47, 149; “Steel, EPA Forge Area’s Future,” 1557 Labor Journal, September 1979, 3. For the USW’s more recent collaborations with environmentalists, see Mayer, Blue-Green Coalitions, 23–24, 197–99. On the competitive crisis in steel, see Hinshaw, Steel and Steelworkers, 231–56; John Hoerr, And the Wolf Finally Came: The Decline and Fall of the American Steel Industry (Pittsburgh, 1988).

38. On the efficacy of the standard, see Costantino, Joseph P., Redmond, Carol K., and Bearden, Audrey, “Occupationally Related Cancer Risk among Coke Oven Workers: 30 Years of Follow-Up,” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 37 (May 1995): 597604Google Scholar.