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FREEDOMWAYS                             FOURTH QUARTER 1971

duced in eight. The continuous casting process will also be installed which will eliminate molds, mold prep departments, soaking pits and much of the transportation work. The United Steel Workers Union says, In 1960, 461,000 workers produced 99 million tons of steel. In 1969, 141 million tons were produced with only 428,000 workers." And much more of the same looms in the near future.
  Taking full advantage of the layoffs (as a club over the heads of the workers on the job), steel management is tightening the screws on the men, particularly the Black and Spanish-speaking workers. In the crafts and shops, Black boilermakers, welders and other mechanics are more often sent to work on down turns (where mills are down for repairs for one eight hour turn). This work provides little or no incentive earnings. White craftsmen, on the other hand, who enjoy more seniority are for the most part given the gravy jobs with high incentive pay.
  The corporations must not be permitted to succeed in their efforts to wipe out the gains Black steel workers have made in the past few years by their heroic struggle and sacrifice. The new, ominous developments in the mills will require new tactics of struggle, in which the unity and cooperation between organized Black steel workers and Black liberation movements like SCLC can be decisive.

  For a biography of Arna Bontemps-writer, scholar, and librarian-I would welcome any information regarding his life and letters, especially during the twenties and thirties. In this same regrd, I am seeking any information leading to the whereabouts of Faye Jackson (married Robinson), former reporter of the California Eagle.

                                 Charles L. James
                                
27 Spencer Drive
                                Oneonta, New York 13820

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