There was a cycle that became an industry standard every three years where USWA would strike, manufacturers would stockpile steel, both domestic and imported, then there would be a contract and everyone was out of work for about a year until inventories came down then it returned to normal. This cycle really hurt the economy. Management and Union agreed to an Experimental Negotiating Agreement in 1973 agreeing to binding arbitration rather than striking. It broke the cycle of stockpiling and importing but at the same time, like I said, other factors came to the table as far as both parties relying on outdated tech and the rest of the world taking advantage of it.
That 1959 strike, USWA shot themselves in the foot. It wasn't hard to see that the record production levels were from rebuilding much that was destroyed around world during the war. Someone should have had half a brain and realized at some point there should be a drop off in production.
It picked up with the war in Nam for maybe ten years then dropped off again....then Carter and all the damage he inflicted on the economy.....so it just wasn't 1959, it was a lot of other factors. Reagan years once again brought a rise in production but in the late 70's and early 80's the economy tanked and so did steel. Global trade and globalism was alive and flourishing....recycling also drastically affected basic steel production.
You'll always need steel but after WW2 America itself was growing and booming and so was the rest of the world. And it caught up with us in a myriad of ways.
We stacked slabs around 48"x8"x235" three high for a lift weight of around 60,000 pounds each stack and then put three stacks across a cooling base alternately on top of each other until they were about five stories high and they did this on seven bases in two cooling yards (total 14 bases) 24/7. One yard would load into railcars while the other cooled. I used to look at them and wonder where the hell all this steel goes and when will it end.
I found out 1-2-1982.
