Just what part of this are Liberal Democrats responsible for?
It's always the fault of the Liberals with you
During World War II, the steel industry underwent a production boom. Bethlehem’s mill at Sparrow Point, which built cargo and transport ships, expanded quickly to meet supply needs. The mill reached its peak employment in 1959, with 35,000 workers. Second- or third-generation steelworkers earning union wages could achieve financial independence with middle-class living standards, save for the future, and afford higher education for their children to prepare them for employment beyond the steel mill.
In short, union representation helped to transform an industry with a self-replicating workforce of unskilled workers into a means for economic and social advancement.
The latter part of the 20th Century saw a nationwide decline in the manufacturing sector, and Bethlehem Steel was no exception to this trend. In 1971, when Sparrows Point was the largest steel mill in the country, a surge in steel imports led to massive layoffs among domestic producers. Three thousand workers at Sparrow Point lost their jobs that year, followed by another 7,000 in 1975.
By the late 1980s, the workforce had dwindled to 8,000, accompanied by a decline in wages and benefits as the union conceded on many pay and benefits issues. Baltimore workers could no longer look to steel as a source of middle-class wages and job security.
The story of Bethlehem’s steel mill at Sparrows Point is a microcosm of economic changes that profoundly affected Baltimore and other “rust belt” cities across the US during this period. The manufacturing industries, having long been the economic base for employment and output for nearly a century, dwindled and disappeared.
Baltimore lost over 100,000 manufacturing jobs between 1950 and 1995, 75% of its industrial employment — not to mention most of the jobs with union representation. Currently, only 6% of all jobs in the City are in manufacturing. The collapse of industry led to a number of changes in the demographic makeup of the City and the surrounding region, contributing to a crisis in urban poverty that lingers today.
American Industry failed to change in the 60s when the rest of the world rebuilt their Industry after WW2 and suffered the loss of manufacturing jobs, this destroyed city after city including Baltimore and in Connecticut and Massachusetts, Machine tool, wire mills and others that failed to modernize their production methods and facilities.
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