My father began working at Lukens Steel Company long before it was a union shop.

I worked for a short time in Lukens Steel Company in the 1960’s before the industry here began to move to foreign steel.



My father began working at Lukens Steel Company long before it was a union shop.



He told me about the days before President Roosevelt and the AFL-CIO when they worked a 70 hour week; six 12 hour days and one 10 hour Saturday.



When they worked a “double shift” it meant that you worked a regular 12 hour day an extra 12 hour day and then a regular 12 hour day before you could go home. That adds up to 36 hours of working in a row. The pain showed on his face when he told me this.



When he retired he held the record for the longest years as a steelworker at Lukens Steel Company.



He was proud that no one was hurt under his crane. He was most proud of his WWII days, helping to make armor plate and mines for the Navy.



If may have be fortunate for him that he lived most of his retirement without a reduction in his pension and health care. A man that gave that kind of loyalty to a company should not put up with being abandoned.



I am amazed that anyone thinks Mr. Obama’s statement about bitter people is controversial.



It is just a ho hum statement of the way it is here.



I can only conclude that the people who think it is controversial have never been to Pennsylvania and talked to former steelworkers.



Jim Pitcherella



"As nightfall does not come at once," "neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become victims of the darkness."

Justice William O. Douglas