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147-487: On March 13, 1937, the United States Steel Corporation (US Steel) signed a historic collective bargaining agreement with SWOC. The agreement provided for a standard pay scale, an 8-hour work day, and time and a half for overtime. Although US Steel ("Big Steel") signed the deal, there were smaller companies that refused to sign. That is why the strike is known as the "Little Steel" strike: US Steel Corporation

294-667: A 5% base wage increase each year for the four years, a $ 4,000 bonus upon ratification of the deal, $ 0.50/hour increase in hourly contributions to the Steel Workers Pension Trust, $ 0.10/hour increase in 401(k) contributions, and uncapped profit-sharing. During the 1948 Donora smog , an air inversion trapped industrial effluent (air pollution) from the American Steel and Wire plant and U.S. Steel's Donora Zinc Works in Donora, Pennsylvania. In three days, 20 people died... After

441-403: A Democrat, was elected in 1955, in the era of machine politics . In 1956, the city conducted its last major expansion when it annexed the land under O'Hare airport, including a small portion of DuPage County. By the 1960s, white residents in several neighborhoods left the city for the suburban areas – in many American cities, a process known as white flight – as Blacks continued to move beyond

588-617: A Republic Steel plant in Chicago, Illinois. On the day of the Massacre, moreover, ten to fifteen percent of the marchers were women. Two of them, Tillie Brazell and Catherine Nelson, were shot in the legs by company agents. The very next month, at Republic's "Stop 5" gate in Youngstown, Ohio, on Women's Day, on the picket line, some fifteen women were demonstrating when a belligerent city police captain reproached them, as women, for doing so. Moments later,

735-552: A bargaining tool. It was aggressive strike breaking tactics from Little Steel, lack of organization from SWOC, and demoralized unionists that made the strike end by the end of the summer of 1937 with the companies victorious. Immediately after the collapse of the strike, the Little Steel companies reopened all the mills affected. That sent a message that they had clearly won and were returning to business as usual. The Little Steel companies fired and blacklisted any worker associated with

882-414: A broken arm, was serious. A notable example of police misbehavior was the treatment of pro-union victims of the Massacre. Although the police brought in ambulances for their men, they did little to aid grievously wounded demonstrators and did not even bother to use their stretchers to carry the injured. One shooting victim, Earl Handley, probably died when the police removed him from a union car, marked with

1029-453: A civil rights pioneer, Henry Johnson, the college-educated son of a union man, George Kimbley, the first full-time black person on staff with SWOC, Leondies McDonald, an organizer in the steel and meatpacking industries who had the ability to recruit people of all races to the union, Jesse Reese, discussed above, and Eleanor Rye, a journalist for a prominent black newspaper and one of a handful of black women organizers, became important players in

1176-505: A contentious relationship with U.S. Steel, but far less so than the relationship that other unions had with employers in other industries in the United States. They launched a number of long strikes against U.S. Steel in 1946 and a 116-day strike in 1959 , but those strikes were over wages and benefits and not the more fundamental issue of union recognition that led to violent strikes elsewhere. The Steelworkers union attempted to mollify

1323-833: A crisis with its union, the United Steelworkers of America . The Supreme Court blocked the takeover by ruling that the president did not have the Constitutional authority to seize the mills. President John F. Kennedy was more successful in 1962 when he pressured the steel industry into reversing price increases that Kennedy considered dangerously inflationary. According to the author Dan Carter in The Politics Of Rage: George Wallace, The Origins Of The New Conservatism, And The Transformation Of American Politics, U.S. Steel strongly resisted Kennedy administration efforts to enlist Alabama businesses to support

1470-809: A deal with SWOC. On March 30, 1937, SWOC proposed an agreement similar to the one with US Steel to Little Steel. The proposal sought an eight-hour work day, a forty-hour work week, overtime pay, a $ 5-per-day minimum wage, paid vacations, health and safety standards, seniority, and procedures for resolving grievances. Rather than sign, Little Steel representatives met, debated, dragged their feet, sent spies to infiltrate SWOC, and prepared for actual battle. The companies bought poison gas and other weapons, hired private police, donated weapons to official law enforcement, encouraged law enforcement to hire more deputies, stocked their plants with food and bedding, installed search lights and barbed wire, and fired hundreds of union workers. The Little Steel Strike started on May 26, 1937, when

1617-486: A heart attack soon after. Washington was succeeded by 6th ward alderperson Eugene Sawyer , who was elected by the Chicago City Council and served until a special election. Richard M. Daley , son of Richard J. Daley, was elected in 1989. His accomplishments included improvements to parks and creating incentives for sustainable development , as well as closing Meigs Field in the middle of the night and destroying

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1764-418: A major subsidiary. About 22,000 USX employees stopped work on August 1, 1986, after the United Steelworkers of America and the company could not agree on new employee contract terms. This was characterized by the company as a strike and by the union as a lockout . This resulted in most USX facilities becoming idle until February 1, 1987, seriously degrading the steel division's market share. A compromise

1911-484: A message through the industry, and giving SWOC legitimacy. The contracts had greater benefits than simply turning the mills into closed shops. Workers also received pay raises, forty-hour workweeks, and one-week vacations, along with three guaranteed holidays. The achievements gave SWOC and the CIO the confidence to expand into the smaller-market Little Steel Industry. After Jones & Laughlin signed union contracts, signing with

2058-610: A model for the new field of social work . During the 1870s and 1880s, Chicago attained national stature as the leader in the movement to improve public health. City laws and later, state laws that upgraded standards for the medical profession and fought urban epidemics of cholera , smallpox , and yellow fever were both passed and enforced. These laws became templates for public health reform in other cities and states. The city established many large, well-landscaped municipal parks , which also included public sanitation facilities. The chief advocate for improving public health in Chicago

2205-472: A new grade with the use of jackscrews for raising buildings. While elevating Chicago, and at first improving the city's health, the untreated sewage and industrial waste now flowed into the Chicago River , and subsequently into Lake Michigan , polluting the city's primary freshwater source. The city responded by tunneling two miles (3.2 km) out into Lake Michigan to newly built water cribs . In 1900,

2352-409: A red cross, which was trying to take him to a hospital, slipped a tourniquet that was stopping him from bleeding to death, and piled him, blood pouring from a severed artery in his thigh, with fifteen other people into a patrol wagon. After the incident, Little Steel's public relation team sent out multiple reports justifying the actions of the Chicago police force. Reports began coming in claiming that

2499-726: A site on the Delaware River in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania , where the soil had been contaminated with arsenic , lead , and other heavy metals , as well as naphthalene . Groundwater at the site was found to be polluted with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and trichloroethylene (TCE). In 2005, the EPA, United States Department of Justice , and the State of Ohio reached a settlement requiring U.S. Steel to pay more than $ 100,000 in penalties and $ 294,000 in reparations in answer to allegations that

2646-559: A whole. During the 1970s, the logo's meaning was extended to include the three materials used to produce steel: yellow for coal, orange for ore and blue for steel scrap. In the late 1980s, when the AISI founded the Steel Recycling Institute (SRI), the logo took on a new life reminiscent of its 1950s meaning. The Pittsburgh Steelers professional football team borrowed elements of its logo, a circle containing three hypocycloids , from

2793-495: Is an American steel company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , with production facilities in the U.S. and Central Europe. The company produces and sells steel products, including flat-rolled and tubular products for customers in industries across automotive, construction, consumer, electrical, industrial equipment, distribution, and energy. Operations also include iron ore and coke production facilities. In 2008, U.S. Steel

2940-447: Is characterized as one of the most violent strikes of the 1930s, with thousands of strikers arrested, three hundred injured and eighteen dead. The Little Steel companies eventually defeated the strike, which lasted just over five months time. However, groundwork for the unionization of the Little Steel industry was set and the goal to unionize Little Steel occurred five years later, in 1942, as World War II began to ramp up. Early in 1937

3087-407: Is known to botanists as Allium tricoccum and known more commonly as "ramps". The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as " Checagou " was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir. Henri Joutel , in his journal of 1688, noted that the eponymous wild "garlic" grew profusely in the area. According to his diary of late September 1687: ... when we arrived at

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3234-554: Is routinely ranked among the world's top six busiest airports by passenger traffic , and the region is also the nation's railroad hub. The Chicago area has one of the highest gross domestic products (GDP) of any urban region in the world, generating $ 689 billion in 2018. Chicago's economy is diverse , with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. Chicago is a major destination for tourism , including visitors to its cultural institutions , and Lake Michigan beaches . Chicago's culture has contributed much to

3381-597: Is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States . With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 census , it is the third-most populous city in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles . As the seat of Cook County , the second-most populous county in the U.S., Chicago is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area , often colloquially called "Chicagoland" and home to 9.6 million residents. Located on

3528-473: The Black Belt . While home loan discriminatory redlining against blacks continued, the real estate industry practiced what became known as blockbusting , completely changing the racial composition of whole neighborhoods. Structural changes in industry, such as globalization and job outsourcing, caused heavy job losses for lower-skilled workers. At its peak during the 1960s, some 250,000 workers were employed in

3675-699: The Calumet River in the industrial far South Side—flow either entirely or partially through the city. Chicago's history and economy are closely tied to its proximity to Lake Michigan. While the Chicago River historically handled much of the region's waterborne cargo, today's huge lake freighters use the city's Lake Calumet Harbor on the South Side. The lake also provides another positive effect: moderating Chicago's climate, making waterfront neighborhoods slightly warmer in winter and cooler in summer. When Chicago

3822-548: The Chicago School , the development of the City Beautiful movement , and the steel-framed skyscraper . Chicago is an international hub for finance, culture , commerce, industry, education, technology, telecommunications, and transportation . It has the largest and most diverse finance derivatives market in the world, generating 20% of all volume in commodities and financial futures alone. O'Hare International Airport

3969-580: The Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad. Manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy . The Chicago Board of Trade (established 1848) listed the first-ever standardized "exchange-traded" forward contracts, which were called futures contracts . In

4116-419: The Great Lakes . Because of heavy debts taken on at the company's formation—Carnegie insisted on being paid in gold bonds for his stake—and fears of antitrust litigation, U.S. Steel moved cautiously. Competitors often innovated faster, especially Bethlehem Steel , run by Charles Schwab, U.S. Steel's former president. U.S. Steel's share of the expanding market slipped to 50 percent by 1911. James A. Farrell

4263-535: The Homestead, Pennsylvania , plant was, for many years, broken after a violent strike in 1892. U.S. Steel defeated another strike in 1901, the year it was founded. U.S. Steel built the city of Gary , Indiana, in 1906, and 100 years later it remained the location of the largest integrated steel mill in the Northern Hemisphere. U.S. Steel reached a détente with unions during World War I , when under pressure from

4410-525: The Jefferson Township , which now makes up most of Chicago's Northwest Side . The desire to join the city was driven by municipal services that the city could provide its residents. Chicago's flourishing economy attracted huge numbers of new immigrants from Europe and migrants from the Eastern United States . Of the total population in 1900, more than 77% were either foreign-born or born in

4557-633: The Memorial Day massacre of 1937 . Of the twenty-three people killed or seriously injured in the Memorial Day Massacre identifiable as steel workers, eighteen were married and eight were at least forty years old. Middle-aged family men were not the only victims of the Memorial Day Massacre: an eleven-year-old boy, Nicholas Leverich (or Leurich), was hit in the ankle, a baby was wounded in the arm, and as discussed below, two women were shot in

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4704-503: The Miami , Sauk and Meskwaki peoples in this region. The first known permanent settler in Chicago was trader Jean Baptiste Point du Sable . Du Sable was of African descent, perhaps born in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti), and established the settlement in the 1780s. He is commonly known as the "Founder of Chicago." In 1795, following the victory of the new United States in

4851-578: The New Negro Movement , in art, literature, and music. Continuing racial tensions and violence, such as the Chicago race riot of 1919 , also occurred. The ratification of the 18th amendment to the Constitution in 1919 made the production and sale (including exportation) of alcoholic beverages illegal in the United States. This ushered in the beginning of what is known as the gangster era, a time that roughly spans from 1919 until 1933 when Prohibition

4998-803: The Northwest Indian War , an area that was to be part of Chicago was turned over to the U.S. for a military post by native tribes in accordance with the Treaty of Greenville . In 1803, the U.S. Army constructed Fort Dearborn , which was destroyed during the War of 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn by the Potawatomi before being later rebuilt. After the War of 1812, the Ottawa , Ojibwe , and Potawatomi tribes ceded additional land to

5145-479: The S&;P 500 since 1957, U.S. Steel was removed from that index on July 2, 2014, due to declining market capitalization. The Board of Directors considers the declaration of dividends four times each year, with checks for dividends declared on common stock mailed for receipt on 10 March, June, September, and December. In 2008, the dividend was $ 0.30 per share, the highest in company history, but on April 27, 2009, it

5292-794: The Steel Workers Organizing Committee , an arm of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) led by John L. Lewis . Taylor was an outsider, brought in during the Great Depression to rescue U.S. Steel. Watching the upheaval caused by the United Auto Workers ' successful sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan , and convinced that Lewis was someone he could deal with on a businesslike basis, Taylor sought stability through collective bargaining. Still, U.S. Steel worked hand-in-hand with

5439-616: The Unisphere in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , Queens , New York , for the 1964 World's Fair . It is the largest globe ever made and is one of the world's largest free-standing sculptures. The Chicago Picasso sculpture was fabricated by U.S. Steel in Gary, Indiana, before being disassembled and relocated to Chicago. U.S. Steel donated the steel for the construction of St. Michael's Catholic Church in Chicago since 90 percent of

5586-481: The United Steelworkers (USW), forced the company to abandon plans to import British Steel Corporation slabs. U.S. Steel finally acquired National Steel's assets in 2003, after National Steel went bankrupt. As part of its diversification plan, U.S. Steel had acquired Marathon Oil on January 7, 1982, as well as Texas Oil and Gas several years later. Recognizing its new scope, it reorganized its holdings as USX Corporation in 1986, with U.S. Steel (renamed USS, Inc. ) as

5733-463: The University of Chicago , Northwestern University , and the University of Illinois Chicago , among other institutions of learning . Professional sports in Chicago include all major professional leagues , including two Major League Baseball teams. The name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the indigenous Miami–Illinois word shikaakwa for a wild relative of the onion ; it

5880-663: The Washington and Jackson Parks. During World War I and the 1920s there was a major expansion in industry. The availability of jobs attracted African Americans from the Southern United States . Between 1910 and 1930, the African American population of Chicago increased dramatically, from 44,103 to 233,903. This Great Migration had an immense cultural impact, called the Chicago Black Renaissance , part of

6027-423: The "Little Steel" Strike finally came to an end. However the failure of the strike was not solely from violence, well-organized public relations, or the failing morale of the strikers. Right before the Little Steel strike began, the economy had slipped back into a slight depression, causing less demand for steel. Fewer employees were needed to satisfy the decreased demand. The SWOC was not able to use lost profits as

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6174-490: The 1800s, Chicago became the nation's railroad hub, and by 1910 over 20 railroads operated passenger service out of six different downtown terminals. In 1883, Chicago's railway managers needed a general time convention, so they developed the standardized system of North American time zones . This system for telling time spread throughout the continent. In 1893, Chicago hosted the World's Columbian Exposition on former marshland at

6321-477: The 1850s, Chicago gained national political prominence as the home of Senator Stephen Douglas , the champion of the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the "popular sovereignty" approach to the issue of the spread of slavery. These issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln , to the national stage. Lincoln was nominated in Chicago for U.S. president at the 1860 Republican National Convention , which

6468-443: The 1920s, U.S. Steel, like many other large employers, coupled paternalistic employment practices with "employee representation plans" (ERPs), which were company unions sponsored by management. These ERPs eventually became an important factor leading to the organization of the United Steelworkers of America . The company dropped its hard-line, anti-union stance in 1937, when Myron Taylor, then president of U.S. Steel, agreed to recognize

6615-425: The 1937 Little Steel Strike. The Little Steel Strike unfolded at a time when few married women held regular jobs outside the home. Nevertheless, women played a meaningful role in the conflict. They walked picket lines, led marches, and risked life and limb to press the union's cause. Three days before the Memorial Day Massacre, for instance, a woman was one of three people leading a column of some 700 to 1000 people to

6762-681: The 57th mayor of Chicago. Chicago is located in northeastern Illinois on the southwestern shores of freshwater Lake Michigan. It is the principal city in the Chicago Metropolitan Area , situated in both the Midwestern United States and the Great Lakes region . The city rests on a continental divide at the site of the Chicago Portage, connecting the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes watersheds . In addition to it lying beside Lake Michigan, two rivers—the Chicago River in downtown and

6909-522: The Birmingham (Alabama) Police Department as it vigorously investigated and targeted labor activities during the 1930s and 1940s. The corporation developed and fed information to a "Red Squad" of detectives "who used the city's vagrancy and criminal-anarchy statutes (liberally reinforced by backroom beatings) to strike at radical labor organizers." In the 1950s, those investigations shifted from labor to civil rights activists. The Steelworkers continue to have

7056-455: The Chicago River were devastated; by 1933 over 50% of industrial jobs in the city had been lost, and unemployment rates amongst blacks and Mexicans in the city were over 40%. The Republican political machine in Chicago was utterly destroyed by the economic crisis, and every mayor since 1931 has been a Democrat . From 1928 to 1933, the city witnessed a tax revolt, and the city was unable to meet payroll or provide relief efforts. The fiscal crisis

7203-483: The ENA in 1984. In 1986, U.S. Steel employees stopped work after a dispute over contract terms, characterized by the company as a strike and by the union as a lockout . In a letter to striking employees in 1986, Johnston warned, "There are not enough seats in the steel lifeboat for everybody." In addition to reducing the role of unions, the steel industry had sought to induce the federal government to take action to counteract

7350-486: The Little Steel industry, like that of US Steel in the Big Steel industry, powerhouses of their industry. After big steel unionized, Lewis immediately tried to convince these little steel companies to sign SWOC union contracts similar to those signed by US Steel, just weeks earlier. The hope was to hit the powerhouses early in the movement to send a message throughout the industry for negotiations with smaller companies. However,

7497-568: The Midwest and Northeast as more conflicts emerged between Little Steel (mostly Republic Steel) and the SWOC protesters. The Republic Steel mill in Youngstown, Ohio , one of the two mills to remain open, had a conflict just less than a month later. On June 19, 300 officers were working at the mill, and a large number of picketers were outside of mill property. After a woman made a comment that embarrassed one of

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7644-527: The Mississippi River. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed an area about 4 miles (6.4 km) long and 1-mile (1.6 km) wide, a large section of the city at the time. Much of the city, including railroads and stockyards , survived intact, and from the ruins of the previous wooden structures arose more modern constructions of steel and stone. These set a precedent for worldwide construction. During its rebuilding period, Chicago constructed

7791-562: The South arrived in the city to work in the steel mills, railroads, and shipping yards. On December 2, 1942, physicist Enrico Fermi conducted the world's first controlled nuclear reaction at the University of Chicago as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project . This led to the creation of the atomic bomb by the United States, which it used in World War II in 1945. Mayor Richard J. Daley ,

7938-527: The Southside of Chicago remained open, using around two hundred to three hundred workers who disapproved of the strike to keep the mills running. SWOC officials and striking steel workers targeted the mill in South Chicago with massive numbers of picketers and rallies, hoping to bring national attention and make keeping the mill open a nightmare for Republic Steel. At the beginning of the strike, more than 50% of

8085-582: The Steelmark logo belonging to the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and created by U.S. Steel. In the 1950s, when helmet logos became popular, the Steelers added players' numbers to either side of their gold helmets. Later that decade, the numbers were removed and in 1962, Cleveland's Republic Steel suggested to the Steelers that they use the Steelmark as a helmet logo. U.S. Steel financed and constructed

8232-465: The US economy was just starting to recover from the Great Depression . Steel workers, represented by the CIO affiliated Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) participated in protests ranging from sit-ins to picket lines . Within days of SWOC's authorization of the strike, 67,000 workers were off the job and the scattered violence that began to erupt was a harbinger of more dire things to come. The strike

8379-612: The United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis . The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the 1833 Treaty of Chicago and sent west of the Mississippi River as part of the federal policy of Indian removal . On August 12, 1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 6,000 people. On June 15, 1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as Receiver of Public Monies. The City of Chicago

8526-775: The United States of foreign parentage. Germans , Irish , Poles , Swedes , and Czechs made up nearly two-thirds of the foreign-born population (by 1900, whites were 98.1% of the city's population). Labor conflicts followed the industrial boom and the rapid expansion of the labor pool, including the Haymarket affair on May 4, 1886, and in 1894 the Pullman Strike . Anarchist and socialist groups played prominent roles in creating very large and highly organized labor actions. Concern for social problems among Chicago's immigrant poor led Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr to found Hull House in 1889. Programs that were developed there became

8673-520: The Wilson Administration it relaxed its opposition to unions enough to allow some to operate in certain factories. It returned to its previous policies as soon as the war ended, however, and in a 1919 strike defeated union-organizing efforts by William Z. Foster of the AFL. Heavy pressure from public opinion forced the company to give up its 12-hour day and adopt the standard eight-hour day. During

8820-469: The back of the crowd began throwing sticks and stones and whatever else they could get their hands on, hitting several officers. The officers panicked and opened fire on the crowd. Soon ten protesters lay dead and 100 more with gunshot wounds. One steelworker later recounted, "I was in the war and I fought in France, but I never heard so many bullets as those coppers fired. Women and children were screaming all over

8967-433: The brunt of capricious workplace policies. Not surprisingly, then, they found the idea of rationalizing employment policies by unionism attractive. That was true despite their justifiable skepticism of unionism based on the unions' history of discrimination against and outright exclusion of blacks. Ultimately, blacks and whites alike recognized that an integrated union was an imperative, black steelworkers deserved to be part of

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9114-458: The cause of the SWOC. As one protester put it, "They imported weapons, bombs, and what-have-you and had them all set though the plants with mounted machine guns, threatening, in case something would happen that they would kill thousands of us." As police and the National Guard began enforcing court orders to vacate, the weakened and demoralized picket lines began to crumble, and after five months,

9261-553: The city include the central business district, called the Loop , and the North, South , and West Sides . The three sides of the city are represented on the Flag of Chicago by three horizontal white stripes. The North Side is the most-densely-populated residential section of the city, and many high-rises are located on this side of the city along the lakefront. The South Side is the largest section of

9408-540: The city of River Rouge, Michigan , and the residents of River Rouge and the nearby city of Ecorse filed a class-action lawsuit against the company for "the release and discharge of air particulate matter...and other toxic and hazardous substances" at its River Rouge plant. The company has also been implicated in generating water pollution and toxic waste . In 1993, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an order for U.S. Steel to clean up

9555-529: The city was affected by a series of tenant rent strikes , which lead to the formation of the Chicago Tenants Protective association, passage of the Kessenger tenant laws, and of a heat ordinance that legally required flats to be kept above 68 °F during winter months by landlords. Chicago was the first American city to have a homosexual-rights organization. The organization, formed in 1924,

9702-415: The city's first African American woman mayor and its first openly LGBTQ mayor, was elected to succeed Emanuel as mayor in 2019. All three city-wide elective offices were held by women (and women of color) for the first time in Chicago history: in addition to Lightfoot, the city clerk was Anna Valencia and the city treasurer was Melissa Conyears-Ervin . On May 15, 2023, Brandon Johnson assumed office as

9849-424: The city's first female mayor, was elected. She was notable for temporarily moving into the crime-ridden Cabrini-Green housing project and for leading Chicago's school system out of a financial crisis. In 1983, Harold Washington became the first black mayor of Chicago. Washington's first term in office directed attention to poor and previously neglected minority neighborhoods. He was re‑elected in 1987 but died of

9996-450: The company against criticisms and legal liability. U.S. Steel ranked 16th among United States corporations in the value of World War II production contracts. Production peaked at more than 35 million tons in 1953. Its employment was greatest in 1943, when it had more than 340,000 employees. The federal government intervened to try to control U.S. Steel. President Harry S. Truman attempted to take over its steel mills in 1952 to resolve

10143-438: The company illegally released pollutants into Ohio waters. U.S. Steel's Gary, Indiana facility has been repeatedly charged with discharging polluted wastewater into Lake Michigan and the Grand Calumet River . In 1998 the company agreed to payment of a $ 30 million settlement to clean up contaminated sediments from a five-mile (8 km) stretch of the river. With the exception of the Fairless Hills and Gary facilities,

10290-461: The company unions." The CIO immediately began placing union representatives within the mills of the companies. The representatives were often met with harassment and beatings by spies placed within the union by the companies to prevent unionization. As word of unionization spread, the SWOC was able to quick gain the quick support of many black steel workers mainly in the Chicago mills from their openness and willingness to accept black steel workers into

10437-458: The company's corporate headquarters have been located there. It is the tallest skyscraper in the downtown Pittsburgh skyline, built out of the company's Corten Steel. New York City's One Liberty Plaza was also built by the corporation as that city's U.S. Steel Tower in 1973. When the Steelmark logo was created, U.S. Steel attached the following meaning to it: "Steel lightens your work, brightens your leisure and widens your world." The logo

10584-515: The convention hall, with anti-war protesters, journalists and bystanders being beaten by police. Major construction projects, including the Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower , which in 1974 became the world's tallest building ), University of Illinois at Chicago , McCormick Place , and O'Hare International Airport , were undertaken during Richard J. Daley's tenure. In 1979, Jane Byrne ,

10731-426: The crowd off a block away from the mill by creating a line cutting access to the gate. With no access to the plant, more and more angry protesters began crowding in front of the line of officers, arguing to let them pass and continue as they meant no harm and wished to continue their planned march. As the protesters and police argued, the conversations became heated, and violence followed. Some reported that protesters in

10878-506: The debate." In July 2024, Nippon Steel hired Mike Pompeo to lobby for its acquisition of U.S. Steel. By September, the Biden Administration signaled plans to block the deal, citing national security concerns. U.S. Steel is a former Dow Jones Industrial Average component, listed from April 1, 1901, to May 3, 1991. It was removed under its USX Corporation name with Navistar International and Primerica . An original member of

11025-465: The desegregation of the University of Alabama , which Gov. George Wallace had promised to block by standing in the schoolhouse door . Although the firm employed more than 30,000 workers in Birmingham, Ala., company president Roger M. Blough in 1963 "went out of his way to announce that any attempt to use his company position in Birmingham to pressure local whites was 'repugnant to me personally' and 'repugnant to my fellow officers at U.S. Steel. ' " In

11172-479: The district and forcing a shutdown of electrical power. The area was shut down for three days and some buildings did not reopen for weeks; losses were estimated at $ 1.95 billion. On February 23, 2011, Rahm Emanuel , a former White House Chief of Staff and member of the House of Representatives , won the mayoral election. Emanuel was sworn in as mayor on May 16, 2011, and won re-election in 2015. Lori Lightfoot ,

11319-488: The dumping of steel by foreign producers at below-market prices. Neither the concessions nor anti-dumping laws have restored the industry to the health and prestige it once had. In December 2022, a new four-year contract was ratified between members of the United Steelworkers union and U.S. Steel. This contract covers 11,000 workers at 13 locations. The new agreements were retroactive to September 1, 2022, and included

11466-570: The early 2010s, U.S. Steel began investing to upgrade software programs throughout their manufacturing facilities. In January 2012, U.S. Steel sold its underperforming Serbian mills near Belgrade to the Serbian government. On July 2, 2014, U.S. Steel was removed from S&P 500 index and placed in the S&P MidCap 400 Index , in light of its declining market capitalization. In October 2019, U.S. Steel invested $ 700 million in Big River Steel,

11613-529: The employers. With the job of preventing violence, strict regulations were placed on the picketers, such as limiting the number of picketers to ten. Strikers lost hope for success, and the strike ended quickly. At the time of the Little Steel Strike, about ten percent of steelworkers were black. Nearly three quarters of them were common laborers, who performed the roughest work in the hottest, dirtiest, and most dangerous departments. That meant that they bore

11760-526: The fair was technological innovation over the century since Chicago's founding. During World War II , the city of Chicago alone produced more steel than the United Kingdom every year from 1939 – 1945, and more than Nazi Germany from 1943 – 1945. The Great Migration, which had been on pause due to the Depression, resumed at an even faster pace in the second wave , as hundreds of thousands of blacks from

11907-598: The federal government in subsequent years. Researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute have ranked U.S. Steel as the 58th-greatest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States (down from their 2000 ranking as the second-greatest). In 2008, the company released more than one million kg (2.2 million pounds) of toxins, chiefly ammonia , hydrochloric acid , ethylene , zinc compounds, methanol , and benzene , but including manganese , cyanide , and chromium compounds. In 2004,

12054-565: The first LEED-certified steel facility, gaining a 49.9% ownership stake. In December 2020, U.S. Steel announced it would acquire the remaining ownership interest in Big River Steel for $ 774 million. The acquisition was completed in January 2021. In February 2022, U.S. Steel began construction on a new mill in Osceola, Arkansas which will be operational by 2024. In April 2022, the electric arc furnace flat-rolled Big River Steel mill in Osceola became

12201-691: The first ResponsibleSteel site certified in North America following an independent audit by SRI Quality System Registrar (SRI). On December 18, 2023, Nippon Steel agreed to buy U.S. Steel for $ 14.1 billion, or $ 55 per share, pending approval. Nippon pledged to keep U.S. Steel’s Pittsburgh headquarters and honor union contracts. However, the deal received widespread criticism, including from prominent steelworkers labor union United Steelworkers (USW). On March 14, 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden declared that U.S. Steel must remain American-owned, stating

12348-406: The gate to keep strikers at a distance safe enough for the mill to still be productive and running smoothly. The South Chicago mill was one of two steel mills still open. On Memorial Day 1937, the third day of the Little Steel Strike, more than 1500 SWOC members and their families were gathered at a park just a few blocks from the front gate of the mill for a march planned for the day. The atmosphere

12495-640: The growth of U.S. Steel and its subsidiaries in the South was partly dependent on the labor of cheaply paid black workers and exploited convicts. The company could obtain black labor at a fraction of the cost of white labor by taking advantage of the Black Codes and discriminatory laws passed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Southern states after the Reconstruction Era . In addition, U.S. Steel had agreements with more than 20 counties in Alabama to obtain

12642-541: The high government pressure to maintain production for the war effort and because of the risk of lost profits and lost contracts due to slowdowns. The National War Labor Board attempted to persuade Little Steel to accept the terms of unionization. Little Steel management surrendered instantly. Republic Steel was even forced to pay twenty million dollars' worth of back pay to those blacklisted in 1937. At last, Little Steel became unionized. United States Steel Corporation U.S. Steel , or United States Steel Corporation,

12789-491: The inversion lifted, another 50 died, including Lukasz Musial, the father of baseball great Stan Musial . Hundreds more lived the rest of their lives with damaged lungs and hearts. But another 40 years would pass before the whole truth about Donora's bad air made public-health history. Today the Donora Smog Museum in that city tells of the influence that the hazardous Donora Smog had on the air quality standards enacted by

12936-427: The labor of its prisoners, often paying locals nine dollars a month for workers who would be forced into their mines through a system of convict leasing . This practice continued until at least the late 1920s. While some individuals were guilty of a crime, they did not receive payment or recognition for their work; many died from abuse, malnutrition, and dire working and living conditions. This practice of convict leasing

13083-481: The large American steel companies ("big steel") were facing union pressure. The success of several sit down strikes in the automobile industry and the rising strength of unions made US Steel chairman Myron C. Taylor very hesitant to confront the unions. The pressure from other union successes throughout the industry and also the persistent work of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) made Taylor decide to agree with CIO president John L. Lewis to recognize

13230-422: The lawsuits concern facilities acquired by U.S. Steel via its 2003 purchase of National Steel Corporation , not its historic facilities. In 2021, U.S. Steel announced a goal to target net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The company previously set a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 20% by 2030. The U.S. Steel Tower in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , is named after the company and since 1970,

13377-403: The legs. All in all, four demonstrators died of gunshot wounds on or near the scene; six others died over the next three weeks, also of gunshot wounds. Another thirty demonstrators were shot and sixty were otherwise injured, for a total of around one hundred significant casualties, of which around ten involved permanent disability. Thirty-five police were injured, but none of their injuries, besides

13524-451: The lowest points are along the lake shore at 578 ft (176.2 m), while the highest point, at 672 ft (205 m), is the morainal ridge of Blue Island in the city's far south side. Lake Shore Drive runs adjacent to a large portion of Chicago's waterfront. Some of the parks along the waterfront include Lincoln Park , Grant Park , Burnham Park , and Jackson Park . There are 24 public beaches across 26 miles (42 km) of

13671-634: The merger to Morgan, ultimately emerged as the new corporation's first President. In 1907, U.S. Steel bought its largest competitor, the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company , which was headquartered in Birmingham , Alabama . Tennessee Coal was replaced in the Dow Jones Industrial Average by General Electric . The federal government attempted to use federal antitrust laws to break up U.S. Steel in 1911 (the same year Standard Oil

13818-547: The merger. The architect of tax concessions to steel firms, Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), complained that "we go out on a limb in Congress and we feel they should be putting it in steel." The events are the subject of "The U.S. Steal Song" by folk singer Anne Feeney . In 1984, the federal government prevented U.S. Steel from acquiring National Steel , and political pressure from the United States Congress , as well as

13965-487: The newly created branch of the CIO, the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC), as the sole agent for his company on March 2, 1937. By signing the union contract, Taylor started a domino effect , and other steel companies began signing union contracts with very little fight, many just at the slightest rumor of a strike. Several steel companies, who held very strong anti-union, anti-labor stances, such as Jones and Laughlin , signed union contracts following US Steel, sending

14112-472: The officers on patrol duty about how to do his job correctly, things escalated quickly, leading to gas canisters to be fired directly into the crowd of protesters. A massive riot then ensued, the " Women's day massacre ", leading to a gunfight between the heavily armed officers and the protesters that lasted well into the night leaving dozens injured and two dead. Many were arrested after the event, many of which were through home raids of those who were prominent in

14259-415: The other areas of the factory to operate. In addition, workers not on strike refused to cross the picket lines. Victims of violence were labeled as troublemakers, communists, or people with disregard for the law. Officers of the companies claimed that force was needed to protect the plants and the nonstriking workers. Several governors tried to quell the violence by calling in the National Guard, which helped

14406-455: The parishioners worked at its mills. U.S. Steel sponsored The United States Steel Hour television program from 1945 until 1963 on CBS. U.S. Steel built both the Disney's Contemporary Resort and the Disney's Polynesian Resort in 1971 at Walt Disney World , in part to showcase its residential steel building "modular" products to high-end and luxury consumers. Chicago Chicago

14553-421: The place. They were like a herd of cattle panic stricken. I ran till they got me. I saw one woman shot down and a policeman dragged her away." Scores of club-wielding police were beating people, men and women, black as well as white, and firing gas weapons and firearms, striking down dozens. Jesse Reese, a black man, observed: "I'd never seen the police beat women, not white women". The incident later became known as

14700-746: The postwar years, the steel industry and heavy manufacturing went through a restructuring that caused a decline in U.S. Steel's need for labor, production, and portfolio. Many jobs moved offshore. By 2000, the company employed 52,500 people. In the early days of the Reagan Administration , steel firms won substantial tax breaks in order to compete with imported goods. But instead of modernizing their mills, steel companies shifted capital out of steel and into more profitable areas. In March 1982, U.S. Steel took its concessions and paid $ 1.4 billion in cash and $ 4.7 billion in loans for Marathon Oil , saving approximately $ 500 million in taxes through

14847-498: The present location of Jackson Park . The Exposition drew 27.5 million visitors, and is considered the most influential world's fair in history. The University of Chicago , formerly at another location, moved to the same South Side location in 1892. The term "midway" for a fair or carnival referred originally to the Midway Plaisance , a strip of park land that still runs through the University of Chicago campus and connects

14994-593: The problem of sewage contamination was largely resolved when the city completed a major engineering feat. It reversed the flow of the Chicago River so that the water flowed away from Lake Michigan rather than into it. This project began with the construction and improvement of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and was completed with the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal that connects to the Illinois River , which flows into

15141-415: The problems of competitive foreign imports by entering into a so-called Experimental Negotiation Agreement (ENA) in 1974. This was to provide for arbitration if the parties were not able to reach an agreement on any new collective bargaining agreements , thereby preventing disruptive strikes. The ENA failed to stop the decline of the steel industry in the U.S. U.S. Steel and the other employers terminated

15288-469: The proposed acquisition by Nippon Steel would pose a risk to national security, and also declared that he would use U.S regulatory authorities to scuttle the deal. After this revelation, it was noted the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) had the authority to block the acquisition based on national security matters. According to USW President David McCall, Biden's decision "should end

15435-595: The protesters were armed and planned to raid the mill and that the protesters were led by marijuana -smoking communists . With both local police forces and the National Guard on the side of Little Steel, the situation deteriorated for the strikers after the events of the Memorial Day massacre. The events of the massacre turned what seemed to be a peaceful strike of picketing and the occasional rally march into five months of arrests, beatings and several more deaths across

15582-584: The runways. After successfully running for re-election five times, and becoming Chicago's longest-serving mayor, Richard M. Daley declined to run for a seventh term. In 1992, a construction accident near the Kinzie Street Bridge produced a breach connecting the Chicago River to a tunnel below, which was part of an abandoned freight tunnel system extending throughout the downtown Loop district. The tunnels filled with 250 million US gallons (1,000,000 m ) of water, affecting buildings throughout

15729-596: The said place called "Chicagou" which, according to what we were able to learn of it, has taken this name because of the quantity of garlic which grows in the forests in this region. The city has had several nicknames throughout its history, such as the Windy City , Chi-Town, Second City, and City of the Big Shoulders. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by the Potawatomi , an indigenous tribe who had succeeded

15876-467: The same officer started a violent confrontation that ultimately turned deadly. At least seven women were injured, four of them by gunfire. With so many of the unionists on strike being killed, beaten and arrested, the protesters quickly lost morale and motivation to continue with the strike. Protesters knew that even on a day that seemed quiet, violence could explode at any minute over the most insignificant cause, and many could no longer risk their lives for

16023-486: The scenes to unionize Little Steel. SWOC officials were eventually able to get in front of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and argued that the force used against strikers broke federal labor laws. The argument was that the fact that Little Steel companies used unlawful tactics to provoke protesters and that fired workers should be reinstated. Little Steel argued that any crime against their company

16170-486: The shore of Lake Michigan , Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed . It grew rapidly in the mid-19th century. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed several square miles and left more than 100,000 homeless, but Chicago's population continued to grow. Chicago made noted contributions to urban planning and architecture , such as

16317-408: The smaller steel producers ("little steel") became the next goal of the CIO. The three main targets were decided to be Republic Steel , Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company , and Inland Steel Corporation, which owned mills across the Midwest and Northeast United States, with close to thirty mills between the three of them. The three companies became the focus of the CIO from status that they held within

16464-570: The steel industry in Chicago, but the steel crisis of the 1970s and 1980s reduced this number to just 28,000 in 2015. In 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. and Albert Raby led the Chicago Freedom Movement , which culminated in agreements between Mayor Richard J. Daley and the movement leaders. Two years later, the city hosted the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention , which featured physical confrontations both inside and outside

16611-528: The strike in the area. Another example of strike violence was an event that occurred on July 11 in Massillon, Ohio , when a company agent somehow came into the control of the local police force and rallied to attack the local union headquarters. The police force completely destroyed the building, two unionists were killed, and one hundred and sixty five were brutally arrested, some still in their pajamas and held for several days without cause. Ten days sooner, there

16758-541: The strike. Youngstown striker Danny Thomas, a leader at one of Sheet & Tube’s plants there, recalled: "There was a group of us that was blackballed to the point that we couldn’t secure any positions or work anywhere. No one would give us a job, credit, or anything." It was through the blacklisting that the strikers were placed in an even worse situation, as many could not find work anywhere, and even if they did, they were soon fired when their employers were made aware of their position. SWOC officials continued to work behind

16905-498: The striking employees were from Republic Steel. Republic Steel was headquartered in Cleveland and was among the top five steel producers in the country. By 1942 Republic Steel housed 9,000 workers which made it one of the top employers in the city of Cleveland. The Republic Steel South Chicago mill was home to largest arsenal and police force involved in the labor dispute. Police maintained a line made up of 150 police officers in front of

17052-500: The three companies refused the contracts without hesitation, as they had withstood unionization before, and refused to sign with SWOC. After the contracts were rejected, CIO and SWOC immediately began planning to organize the smaller steel companies. The SWOC had two major ideas behind their organizing drive: "overcoming, by successfully organizing all groups of workers, the racial and ethnic conflicts that had crippled earlier efforts to organize steel workers; and infiltrating and co-opting

17199-497: The unemployed. In the spring of 1937 Republic Steel Works witnessed the Memorial Day massacre of 1937 in the neighborhood of East Side. In 1933, Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was fatally wounded in Miami, Florida , during a failed assassination attempt on President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt . In 1933 and 1934, the city celebrated its centennial by hosting the Century of Progress International Exposition World's Fair . The theme of

17346-550: The union and with management and proceeded to have proxy battles with shareholders and management. But he abandoned all efforts to buy out the company on January 8, 1987, a few weeks before union employees returned to work. By the late 20th century, U.S. Steel earned most of its revenue from energy operations. In 2001, under CEO Thomas Usher , it spun off Marathon and other non-steel assets, except Transtar , and expanded internationally by acquiring plants in Slovakia and Serbia. In

17493-473: The union, and an industrial union that excluded them did not warrant the name. Many unions made a point of reaching out to black-dominated institutions, recruiting blacks to their cause, and insuring that they had blacks in leadership positions within their organizations. With that backdrop, black union supporters, including Ben Careathers, a veteran organizer who had agitated on behalf of the " Scottsboro Boys ", Hosea Hudson, an Alabama steelworker later renowned as

17640-446: The union. It was due to the black support that the SWOC was able to gain momentum so quickly, allowing whole mills to be involved in the movement. As May approached, it was clear that the companies were preparing for a strike. Republic Steel fired many union supporters and conducted lockouts at several other locations as a way weaken union support. It was then that the CIO and SWOC decided they must take action. A deadline of May 26, 1937

17787-625: The visual arts, literature , film, theater , comedy (especially improvisational comedy ), food , dance, and music (particularly jazz , blues , soul , hip-hop , gospel , and electronic dance music , including house music ). Chicago is home to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera of Chicago , while the Art Institute of Chicago provides an influential visual arts museum and art school . The Chicago area also hosts

17934-644: The waterfront. Landfill extends into portions of the lake providing space for Navy Pier , Northerly Island , the Museum Campus , and large portions of the McCormick Place Convention Center. Most of the city's high-rise commercial and residential buildings are close to the waterfront. An informal name for the entire Chicago metropolitan area is "Chicagoland", which generally means the city and all its suburbs, though different organizations have slightly different definitions. Major sections of

18081-574: The way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court then upheld the National Labor Relations Board ’s ruling and told Little Steel to begin collective bargaining. By 1942, the economy had recovered due to the war. The demand for steel was higher than it had been in years, leading to Little Steel to begin hiring workers by the thousands, and SWOC saw its opportunity to pounce on the desperate Little Steel industry. Rumor of another strike began to circulate, making Little Steel owners extremely nervous because of

18228-514: The word well enough for a seamless beginning to the strike across a total of eight states. Workers began picketing, marching, and holding rallies outside their respective mills trying to gain the support of those workers not already involved with the union, along with their local communities to add pressure on the companies by adding supporters. The majority of the mills were empty after the massive walkout on May 26 and unable to continue production. However, two Republic Steel mills in Youngstown, Ohio and

18375-525: The world's first skyscraper in 1885, using steel-skeleton construction. The city grew significantly in size and population by incorporating many neighboring townships between 1851 and 1920, with the largest annexation happening in 1889, with five townships joining the city, including the Hyde Park Township , which now comprises most of the South Side of Chicago and the far southeast of Chicago, and

18522-431: Was John H. Rauch, M.D. Rauch established a plan for Chicago's park system in 1866. He created Lincoln Park by closing a cemetery filled with shallow graves, and in 1867, in response to an outbreak of cholera he helped establish a new Chicago Board of Health. Ten years later, he became the secretary and then the president of the first Illinois State Board of Health, which carried out most of its activities in Chicago. In

18669-406: Was a stockpile of munitions, including poison gas. That Memorial Day, there were approximately 250 city police and twenty to thirty private police forming a defensive perimeter around the plant. They were armed with revolvers, nightsticks, blackjacks, and hatchet handles. Because of the large number of protesters, an additional two hundred police officers were called in to protect the mill by cutting

18816-467: Was a strike at Inland Steel Company as well on the east side of Chicago. The strike was not as violent but ended just as abruptly. In Monroe, at the Newton Steel Plant, the SWOC decided to organize a strike that would hopefully shut down the plant. The strike worked for a time. With almost all of the workers on strike coming from one of the main departments of the plant, that made it impossible for

18963-461: Was broken up), but that effort ultimately failed. In 1902, its first full year of operation, U.S. Steel made 67 percent of all the steel produced in the United States. About 100 years later, as of 2001, it produced only 8 percent more than it did in 1902, and its shipments accounted for only about 8 percent of domestic consumption. According to the author Douglas Blackmon in Slavery by Another Name ,

19110-443: Was brokered and accepted by the union membership on January 31, 1987. On February 4, 1987, three days after the agreement had been reached to end the work stoppage, USX announced that four USX plants would remain closed permanently, eliminating about 3,500 union jobs. Corporate raider Carl Icahn launched a hostile takeover of the steel giant in late 1986 in the midst of the work stoppage. He conducted separate negotiations with

19257-467: Was called the Society for Human Rights . It produced the first American publication for homosexuals, Friendship and Freedom . Police and political pressure caused the organization to disband. The Great Depression brought unprecedented suffering to Chicago, in no small part due to the city's heavy reliance on heavy industry. Notably, industrial areas on the south side and neighborhoods lining both branches of

19404-427: Was fairly ubiquitous as eight Southern states had similar practices and many companies, as well as farmers, took advantage of this. The Corporation, as it was known on Wall Street , was distinguished by its size, rather than for its efficiency or creativity during its heyday. In 1901, it controlled two-thirds of steel production and, through its Pittsburgh Steamship Company, developed the largest commercial fleet on

19551-405: Was festive and picnic-like. There were a large number of women and children in the group. As Steelworker Jesse Reese of Youngstown Sheet and Tube recalled, "Republic Steel was scabbing. So we went to South Chicago with truckloads of people, working-class people." Republic had long been anticipating a strike and fortified the factory. There were loyal employees stationed there around the clock. There

19698-462: Was founded in 1837, most of the early building was around the mouth of the Chicago River, as can be seen on a map of the city's original 58 blocks. The overall grade of the city's central, built-up areas is relatively consistent with the natural flatness of its overall natural geography, generally exhibiting only slight differentiation otherwise. The average land elevation is 579 ft (176.5 m) above sea level . While measurements vary somewhat,

19845-503: Was given to the steel companies to sign the union contracts or endure a strike. After that day passed with no response from Little Steel, John L. Lewis made an official strike call and workers walked away from their positions just hours after the deadline, shutting down almost every mill of the three largest Little Steel companies. Within hours of the call, there was already a quicker start than most people had predicted. Union representatives were able to lay down enough groundwork and spread

19992-566: Was held in a purpose-built auditorium called the Wigwam . He defeated Douglas in the general election, and this set the stage for the American Civil War . To accommodate rapid population growth and demand for better sanitation, the city improved its infrastructure. In February 1856, Chicago's Common Council approved Chesbrough 's plan to build the United States' first comprehensive sewerage system. The project raised much of central Chicago to

20139-521: Was incorporated on Saturday, March 4, 1837, and for several decades was the world's fastest-growing city. As the site of the Chicago Portage , the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicago's first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad , and the Illinois and Michigan Canal opened in 1848. The canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on

20286-490: Was named president in 1911 and served until 1932. In March 1908, the company formed the Committee on Safety of United States Steel following chairman Elbert H. Gary's meetings on safety with casualty managers of the operating companies, thereby leading to the introduction of the modern "Safety First" movement. The committee's formation was intended not only to focus on workplace safety to prevent worker accidents, but to safeguard

20433-635: Was opposed by the United Steelworkers , the Trump campaign, and the Biden administration. As of November 2024 , the Biden administration was still set on blocking the proposed acquisition. J. P. Morgan formed U.S. Steel on March 2, 1901 (incorporated on February 25, 1901), by financing the merger of Andrew Carnegie 's Carnegie Steel Company with Elbert H. Gary's Federal Steel Company and William Henry "Judge" Moore 's National Steel Company for $ 492 million ($ 18 billion today). At one time, U.S. Steel

20580-453: Was reduced to $ 0.05 per share. In February 2020, the dividend was reduced to $ 0.01 per share but was then later increased back to $ 0.05 per share in November 2021. U.S. Steel maintained the labor policies of Andrew Carnegie . Carnegie believed that "good wages and good workmen I know to be cheap labor." The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers union that represented workers at

20727-455: Was repealed. The 1920s saw gangsters , including Al Capone , Dion O'Banion , Bugs Moran and Tony Accardo battle law enforcement and each other on the streets of Chicago during the Prohibition era . Chicago was the location of the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929, when Al Capone sent men to gun down members of a rival gang, North Side, led by Bugs Moran. From 1920 to 1921,

20874-469: Was resolved by 1933, and at the same time, federal relief funding began to flow into Chicago. Chicago was also a hotbed of labor activism, with Unemployed Councils contributing heavily in the early depression to create solidarity for the poor and demand relief; these organizations were created by socialist and communist groups. By 1935 the Workers Alliance of America begun organizing the poor, workers,

21021-455: Was so massive that it gave rise to the moniker "Little Steel" for its four smaller competitors, Republic Steel Corporation, Bethlehem Steel Corporation , Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company, and Inland Steel Company, each ranked among the hundred largest firms in America. The strike did not start immediately. In fact, there was an expectation that Little Steel would follow Big Steel's lead and sign

21168-593: Was the largest steel producer and largest corporation in the world. It was capitalized at $ 1.4 billion ($ 51.3 billion today), making it the world's first billion-dollar corporation. The company established its headquarters in the Empire Building at 71 Broadway in New York City; it remained a major tenant in the building for 75 years. Charles M. Schwab , the Carnegie Steel executive who originally suggested

21315-645: Was the world's eighth-largest steel producer. By 2022, it ranked 24th globally and second in the U.S., behind Nucor . Though renamed USX Corporation in 1986, the company was renamed United States Steel in 2001 after spinning off its energy business, including Marathon Oil , and other assets, from its core steel concern. Nippon Steel , Japan's largest steel producer, announced plans to acquire U.S. Steel for $ 14.1 billion, pending approval from regulators and shareholders. The deal, announced in mid-December 2023, would retain U.S. Steel's name and headquarters in Pittsburgh. It

21462-426: Was unforgivable and demanded for the blacklist to stay in place. The NLRB decided that those accused of crimes during the strike were free from the blacklist unless they were found guilty or were in the process of being tried. For several years, the Little Steel conflict seemed to settle down, workers returned to work, but the SWOC was not satisfied with the results of all their effort and eventually took their case all

21609-403: Was used as part of a major marketing campaign to educate consumers about how important steel is in people's daily lives. The Steelmark logo was used in print, radio and television ads as well as on labels for all steel products, from steel tanks to tricycles to filing cabinets. In the 1960s, U.S. Steel turned over the Steelmark program to the AISI, where it came to represent the steel industry as

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