Steelworkers in the spotlight at Pump House discussion
Banners depicting steelworkers from the past 100 years will be the backdrop for “Steelworkers: Then and Now,” a panel discussion set for 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Pump House in Munhall.
The free program is one of a series of events planned by the Battle of Homestead Foundation to mark the 125th anniversary of the famous strike and lockout at Carnegie Steel’s Homestead Works. A deadly shootout between steelworkers and Pinkerton detectives resulted in the deaths of at least 11 people on July 6, 1892.
The banners, created by local artist Bill Yund, represent mill workers in each decade from 1880 to 1980. The details of their clothing, tools and ethnicity change with the passage of time.
The panel discussion, which will be led by Carlow University assistant professor of history Joel Woller, will include three current or former steelworkers: Cheryl Sears, Anthony Slomkoski and Ray Henderson. They will discuss their experiences at the mills and the role they played in the surrounding communities. Mr. Woller said his introduction will focus on collective memory and how stories of the 1892 strike inspired 1930s workers to create the United Steelworkers union.
Mr. Henderson also took part in another program June 8 at the Pump House. He and local filmmaker Tony Buba collaborated on “Struggles in Steel,” a 1996 documentary on black steelworkers in Pittsburgh that was screened as part of the program.
“People forget that African-Americans worked just as hard to create steel and keep the steel mill running, ”Mr. Henderson said.
“There wasn’t a documentary [on steelworkers] with a single African-American in it, so we decided to make one,” said Mr. Buba.
The film began as a project with no funding, they said, but soon gained financial support from ITVS, Pennsylvania Humanities Council, The Pittsburgh Foundation, Howard
Heinz Endowment, Falk Medical Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, American Film Institute and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. A 60-minute version aired originally on WQED-TV and has been shown on the Starz and Sundance cable channels and at film festivals in Africa, France and Italy, Mr. Buba said.
“A lot of people still don’t know that these men were there,” said Mr. Henderson, who worked for 18 years in the now-closed U.S. Steel Duquesne mill.
Mr. Buba said there should be more dialogue about black steelworkers and their role in Pittsburgh history. More importantly, Mr. Henderson said, the documentary should serve as a permanent reminder that Pittsburgh, despite blossoming into a technology-oriented town, was first an industrial city.
“Somebody needs to remind us that this is the way it used to be.”
The images on the banners that hang in the Pump House have been turned into bookmarks and cards that are sold by the Battle of Homestead Foundation. It had its roots in the Homestead Strike Centennial Commemorative Committee, founded in 1990, and became an educational nonprofit in 1997.