Youngstown Sheet & Tube Making National News, Again

Bloomberg has a story online today that leads off with the Youngstown Sheet & Tube story for a little historical irony.  "Black Monday" for Youngstown was when the Sheet & Tube plant in Campbell closed down for good in September 1977.  The loss of 5,000 jobs made national headlines 34 years before.

The Sheet & Tube plants have made national headlines before.  My grandfather was a reporter in Youngstown and covered the old Sheet & Tube.  He was covering a steel strike there in 1937 when, while standing among picketers on a nearby hillside, he found himself being shot at by plant guards.  Strikers were killed. 

His story ran in The Vindicator and was picked up on the wire nationally.  The stories out of Youngstown motivated FDR to intervene and bring an end to the strife.

So, it's great that the Youngstown Sheet & Tube is making national news again, this time for the good.

The oil and gas boom coming to states near you (if you live in America's Metals Heartland) has brought the construction of a new steel tube plant on the site of one of the old plants. The $650 million project has made many a mention nationally. It's a great economic story.