Union Roots

Strongholds

Each light is a local. Where several locals stood in one town, the glow grows brighter. Filled lights are steel; open rings are auto. Tap any light for the local, the plant and the source.

Steel localAuto localGlow = locals nearby

The roll

Every local on the map, with the plant, the town and the record that ties them together.

Brightest towns

Local	Plant or mill	Town	Record	Source

Locals merged, split, renumbered and moved over the decades. Each row is a documented link between a local and a plant, not that local's full history. "Record" shows the dates the source covers. Plant locations are placed by hand and are approximate.

Not on the map yet. Some famous locals are missing because we could not yet find a source that ties the number to the plant: among them Wisconsin Steel, the Youngstown Sheet & Tube works at Campbell and Brier Hill, U.S. Steel Ohio Works, Bethlehem, Johnstown and Flint Chevrolet. They will be added when the record is found. If you hold that record, we want it.

The hands

The people who did the work, as government photographers saw them: welders, inspectors, line workers and the crews at the furnace mouth. Public-domain photographs from the Library of Congress, shown in black and white.

Blast furnaces, Detroit, 1942, black and white photograph — Blast furnaces, Detroit1942

Geneva UT steel mill under construction, 1942, black and white photograph — Geneva UT steel mill under construction1942

Inactive steel mills, Pittsburgh, 1938, black and white photograph — Inactive steel mills, Pittsburgh1938

Sparrows Point MD steel mill, 1940, black and white photograph — Sparrows Point MD steel mill1940

Steel mill, Pittsburgh, 1938, black and white photograph — Steel mill, Pittsburgh1938

Tapping a blast furnace, Pittsburgh, 1938, black and white photograph — Tapping a blast furnace, Pittsburgh1938

Tapping for slag, Pittsburgh, 1938, black and white photograph — Tapping for slag, Pittsburgh1938

Tapping slag at blast furnace, Pittsburgh, 1938, black and white photograph — Tapping slag at blast furnace, Pittsburgh1938

Decatur AL shipyard welder's helper, 1942, black and white photograph — Decatur AL shipyard welder's helper1942

Welder, Douglas Dam TN, 1942, black and white photograph — Welder, Douglas Dam TN1942

Welder, New Orleans shipyard, 1943, black and white photograph — Welder, New Orleans shipyard1943

Welder, Shasta Dam, 1941, black and white photograph — Welder, Shasta Dam1941

Woman welder, Beaumont TX shipyard, 1943, black and white photograph — Woman welder, Beaumont TX shipyard1943

Milwaukee war production, 1943, black and white photograph — Milwaukee war production1943

Milwaukee war production workers, 1943, black and white photograph — Milwaukee war production workers1943

Milwaukee workers making guns, 1943, black and white photograph — Milwaukee workers making guns1943

New Britain CT bearing inspector, 1943, black and white photograph — New Britain CT bearing inspector1943

Aircraft assembly line, Stratford CT, 1940, black and white photograph — Aircraft assembly line, Stratford CT1940

B-25 assembly line, 1942, black and white photograph — B-25 assembly line1942

B-25 bomber final assembly, 1942, black and white photograph — B-25 bomber final assembly1942

B-25 final assembly line, 1942, black and white photograph — B-25 final assembly line1942

Inspector checks P-51 assemblies, 1942, black and white photograph — Inspector checks P-51 assemblies1942

Nashville, moving assembly line, 1942, black and white photograph — Nashville, moving assembly line1942

Outside assembly line, aircraft plant, 1942, black and white photograph — Outside assembly line, aircraft plant1942

P-51 assembly line, 1942, black and white photograph — P-51 assembly line1942

P-51 final assembly, 1942, black and white photograph — P-51 final assembly1942

Wilmington CA shipbuilding, general view, 1942, black and white photograph — Wilmington CA shipbuilding, general view1942

Union Roots

Sources

Walter P. Reuther Library (Wayne State), National Labor Relations Board case records, the Calumet Regional Archives, the Chicago History Museum, the University of Pittsburgh labor databank, Kent State, union local sites and plant histories. Photographs: Library of Congress, public domain; no copyright is claimed in them.

Sister galleries

Region Rats →Gilded Curation →Steel & Soil →