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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ส.ค. 2024
- Richie Check spent more than 40 years working at Bethlehem Steel before it closed. He is now working to preserve its memory as the curator of his own small museum dedicated to the mill. Jim Axelrod reports. SUBSCRIBE to the CBS NEWS Channel here: bit.ly/WKcQhX
Nearly all of my family lineage worked at Bethlehem Steel. All five of my great grandfathers brothers died there. Dangerous work, much respect to those workers
A Proud Man who took pride and worked hard everyday. RIP Sir.
He died in 2018 at the age of 85 , a good long life . At least he's not suffering anymore , he was so heart broken . I kind of understand how he must have felt , the year I graduated HS (first year I could have worked at the steel) they had their first major layoff , I never got my chance to follow my father and grandfather , but I wanted to . Not too many people left that care anyway .
Just visited this place and I can tell Bethlehem still carries soul of those workers. I was fascinated by the size of the structure and imagination of thousands of worker there.
Back in the day it was nicknamed "Big Bertha" because of all the blast furnaces in the valley it was the largest. It's nuts to think that at one point there was 19 active blast furnaces the most of anywhere in the world. Now there's only 1 in the whole valley that I've heard the new Nippon owners want to shut it down
Mr.Richie Check 40 years in the Steel Mill...These are the Men I look up too..wow.
True Heros and Heroines who made our USA 🇺🇸
The steel mill I worked in, had several old timers, 👍 one guy that worked my shift had been working for the company 51 years, much respect to those men !👍
What a wonderful Story ,I could listen to this guy for hours ,the men who built America .
This guy is an unsung hero
I feel his pain from Lorain, Ohio when our steel mill closed down, lost thousands of good paying jobs. God bless America's Steelworkers.
I feel for you bros in the US, so many closed mills. :/
I have been lucky enough to work alongside a couple of 40+ year steelworkers for a couple of years in one of the last steel mills in West Virginia. How things have changed since their first days of steelworking. They were a different breed to say the least
Weirton, I'm there all the time.
My Grandfather Willie Chain Jr. is watching this with me right now....He was part of the 409 dept of Riggers as Mr. Check, RIP. He continuously speaks about their friendship and dedication to Bethlehem Steel Mill.
Alot of proud men, it is so sad American Steel is gone.
You are doing a great thing. I grew up on the S./E. Side of Chicago. My grandfather, my father and uncles all worked the steel mill at one time and another. Dangerous and dirty. But it kept our family going.
We had to move from the neighborhood because my brother's sinuses were very sensitive. His eyes were red all the time and he was always having sinus infections.
I don't know where we get our steel from today, but I hope it's getting recycled.
THANK YOU for all you did for the country. And thank you from the families ❤️😊 too.
Your museum work is a very good thing. Keep it up. Maybe we will do one on the East side of Chicago too.
I can remember when I was in high school and looking at the steel stuck sure of the building you could see bethel ham steel printed on the steel hear in Massachusetts and it all ways made me feel very proud god bless them men and women
We'll were living here in Allentown and their closing all the factories now
Great man of steel
Steel mill life built the USA. I'm still in it but people don't realize how important they are
They dont make them like that guy anymore.
Awesome story
Just like Consett in the North East of England. All gone. Houses there now. I remember all the surrounding building where a red colour. From the iron oxide.
thats the passion thats lost with workers now.
I just looked him up . Gawd rest his soul. Another long lived man that dedicated his life to a dead industry.
Only dead in a globalist America.
A large portion of my family worked at some mills of the Mon Valley. Its sad riding through the valley and seeing all the towns that collapsed from their closures. Its sad seeing the large empty lots knowing that a large awesome steel mill once was there. All these NGO's are calling for the last 4 of the valley to shutdown but I don't think they realize the awful back effects that would come from this
I just started working in a mill. And,. it's interesting!
For some reason these Bethlehem videos just popped up it's an abomination how our government stood by while our steel industry was decimated.
Rep Kucinich of OH was only one to defy the crook Bush and Clinton and object to NAFTA. For his stance they redraw Kucinich congressional district and forced him out. Both D & R sold out workers and sold out our country. Shame on them and time for workers to reclaim what is theres!
Government don't care about us they care about themselves
I worked at Homestead Works from 1978 until the end of 1981. My father worked there too. I've tried numerous times to contact the Rivers of Steel people to keep the history straight but they'd apparently rather keep spreading lies.
For instance...the stacks at The Waterfront are what's left of the 45 inch mill soaking pits, not the Open Hearth melt shop.
There is something in the Steel Mill Man, very Hot Hard Dangerous work but you miss it when your days are it gone, I Can't exsplain it ! Former Steel Mill Melt Shop guy 89-09 ! 🤔🇺🇸✊🏽
My steel mill is still going strong if that counts for anything.
What mill
@@andrewrichards5523 charter steel
@Argument Starter 2.0 no, I work in the saukville division. But yeah, the melt shop
@Argument Starter 2.0 600+ we've been taking Cleveland's work because our furnace is more efficient and so it saves them money. I don't know if you also work at Charter or in the Cleveland division but whenever I look at your guys's schedule it doesn't look like you guys are running 24/7. But I haven't checked in a couple months I guess
@@imtypingwordscleveland cliffs for da win 🥇
Forty plus years at the same location. Try that to-day!
It's sort of "ugly" ...... but it brought it's own joy and prosperity !!!
.
So in the same observation ..... there's beauty !!!
.
I know i've seen a sign saying "WELCOME TO ALLENTOWN MAKERS OF THE HARDEST STEEL IN THE WORLD" .............(like Snap-On Tools)
.
I know i would prefer to see the the sun setting and the workers walking home than some shopping mall !!!
.
I'm from a steel town in Wales UK and the industry has gone !!!.... along with the smiles.... the jokes.... the trucks ..... All to be replaced by new housing estates...... new housing estates and (what was the other) ?....... (i remember) new housing estates.
.
The gentleman is right...... the silence is heartbreaking
Mesabie Range iron ore for Bethlehem steel production made the launch platform for Apollo 11 Saturn V to enable ignition sequence.
With out such men,,, not possible.
You can tell he worked there, he called it “Bethlem”
Those were the days of real men
there was a much longer interview with him someplace and I lost it. Does anyone have it??
It was a special done by PBS Lehigh Valley.
He had so much more to say. Closure in 1995 was due to factors: greed though the unions and unrelenting demands plus intense and effective foreign competition. You lose a giant like the steel industry then the foundation of the country itself is shaken.
A steel plant job could send three kids to college because those jobs had hard won UNION wages and benefits. Sad day for USA and working class when our steel is made by cheap, exploited foreign labor. Workers need to stand together once again.
If you can get in there’s great money and union benefits still there but yeah it’s hard to find jobs since we’re buying steel from overseas now, the US steel plant near my house doesn’t have many workers anymore so current workers are basically forced into doubles and at least 60 hour weeks, which is why they make so much, used to have 6-7000 workers at its peak in 1971, less then 500 now
Sharing this information ℹ on my Facebook page 📄 since Twitter was shut off on my account?
My grandfather worked in the steel mill from 1913 to 1922
I wouldn't finish one day on the job at that place.
it's pretty comfy bro
Bethlehem Steel works the beathing haert of amerika.
No more steel :(
Such a shame this plant closed. NAFTA was the death nail for American industry.
A time a factory job could send three kids to college.
These people build workplaces just for the people who outsourced their jobs off sea.
I bet they wasn't making good money back then
Did he save his first dump there?
No, he saved the memories of the first cocoroach ever found. Ever looked at one of those cockroaches in the face???!!! And just right then a swarm of a million roaches will finish you off!!! Hasta la vista troll
@@jaymorpheus11 last dump?
@@MW-fs7vi Disrespectful troll. A real man that took pride in his work and for he fellow workers. Just trying to keep the memories alive.
Wow no cool
You wouldn’t understand what it means to have pride in a hard days work.
Looser!
I think he misses his work friends, the community more than anything else. Today, we have cars that are more lightweight, get better gas mileage, don't pollute as much and don't rust. We have made great strides.
sure, there's great strides made. but losing jobs like these overseas isn't one of them. it's a huge loss to the community when places that employ thousands of people vanish, and the loss of american manufacturing is one of the reasons why former US manufacturing cities look the way they do. detroit, gary etc
@@woljang2590I agree something needs to be done to bring America back on top again and harder taxes on foreign products to pay for the lose of jobs or invest into idk new jobs for us citizens
stay home and watch tik tok while eating cheetos > work in Mordor
Stop the influx of imported steel. Reduce corporate taxes. Make an environment for companies to find manufacturing in USA more cost saving than importing. It's not hard to bring these jobs back. People if they have jobs, will not need social security to the point that they need now. That will be a huge saving in expenditure for the US government. This saving can well be compensate lower corporate taxes.
A lot of expectation from the Trump government up ahead. As a foreigner, it pains me no less than the people who lost their jobs. No country should put others' priorities forward than their own's.
Personal responsibility. That’s a bygone era. That’s what they tell black families.
I blame liberals for making this poor man cry 😢
Yup. They sold this country out
That's a BS statement and you know it. Corporate America, by disinvesting in the industrial infrastructure, as well as changes in technology, i.e. the production of iron without a blast furnace using the direct reduction process, are the factors that caused the closure of old steel plants. BTW, I worked for engineering companies that specialized in iron and steel facilities.
@@marka5478 People believe what makes them feel good . Blaming whoever lessens their pain. People who write history have wealth .
This gentleman is partly to blame, his union keep asking for more wages and when they didn't get them they strikes the very company that gave them their jobs, that gave a sliver of opportunity for foreign producers to import steel into the US
Very true. Also, Bethlehem didn't upgrade to continuous casting as Japan had done. Foreign steel was "dumped" on the market in those days.
Try working at a steel mill, just then a river of 5,000 degree molten steel hits ya... still want the job... punk
@@jaymorpheus11I bet you don't even have a job, try moving out of your parents basement punk.
M W take a look at the thermostat punk!!!
The one in your mother's house?
😂😂
Preciate what you did but your guys greed ruined things for future generations
Who closes down a steel mill? Where is the common sense in buisness did it just disappear
Almost all of them closed down.
Globalist
We gave away our jobs to a country that doesn’t have any regard for human rights and freedom of speech.
South Bethlehem was physically obsolete by the 60s, although good equipment, the processes were woefully out of date and cost far more to run and maintain than more efficient methods. Sadly, most heavy industry in the US was at that state, that’s why so many went under
well, hate to say this...but chet and my father ruined it for our generation....my father was a railway worker...keep complaining about those wages, and benefits, keep voting in those lazy democrat leaders, and what you got....corruption....my father coulda kept the same job for all 38 years, but threw bankruptcy as well as term oil...1 railway shutdown, 1 downsized a lot.....I don't feel pain for this man....like my own father....who complained a lot and voted for a democrat leader....I have a position with the railway....not only did my dad make more than me in 1993....but now there is no union leader that has power to stand up for me.....its this guy, and my dad, who made it bad for us new generation....
Thank to Democrats, unions and republican establishment
LOL
TheFequalsMA 😡
Yes. The steel plant is gone. Cry baby.
Maybe you can get a job at the Amazon warehouse?
@@spaceflight1019 Tell that to the old white man crying about losing his White Social Privilege.
@@breakingbadenterprise328 That guy is dead, and I can't find batteries for my Ouija board, so it's up to you.
I worked at Bethlehem Steel Corp in 1974 to 1990 Steelton Pa. I worked there in the booming years at Frog and Switch. Built many crossings ,frogs and switches for N.Y.C.,SEPTA NORFOLK SOUTHERN. The rails made to open the Toronto Skydome roof were made by me and several others.