When Steelworkers Defined Chicago: How Chicago Gary Area Led the U.S. Industrial Union Movement

A Fight for the American Dream Did you know that American steelworkers went from brutal 12-hour, seven-day-a-week shifts, where safety was nonexistent and wages were barely subsistence, to becoming the highest-paid industrial workers in the world within fifty years?The Epicenters of Union Power When Steelworkers Defined Chicago tells the dynamic, popular-style history of the United Steelworkers (USW) in the vital Chicago-Gary region, a working-class powerhouse whose struggles and hard-won victories often led the entire U.S. industrial union movement.More than a mere chronology of strikes and contracts, this book is a gripping account of how ordinary men and women, immigrants, African Americans, and community activists, banded together to demand dignity, democratize their unions, and transform their country. From the smoky, dangerous mills of early Chicago to the high-stakes political battles of the 20th century, author Doug Nelson chronicles the generations of dedicated activists who fought not only their corporate bosses but also their own bureaucratic union leaders to hold them accountable.