Laid-off steel workers, their families and concerned members of the community will converge Tuesday on Granite City to urge the federal government to "Put America Back to Work."
That's the theme of the march, which will begin at 11 a.m. Tuesday at U.S. Steel in the Granite City Works parking lot at 20th Street and Lee Avenue, and will continue to Niedringhaus Avenue, then turn left, ending at American Steel Foundries, known as Amsted Rail.
Months ago, steel workers thought they would be back in action near the end of March or early April. Although that's still their hope, it's not looking too good, said Russ Saltsgaver, president of the United Steel Workers Local 1899.
"Right now, it's hard to predict when we'll be back," Saltsgaver said. "We're going to have an economic march in support of the government taking action to stimulate the economy. One of our main problems at U.S. Steel is a lot of our customers have no credit line available to them. We need a stimulus plan, we need banks to open credit lines, and we need to put people back to work." Saltsgaver said new energy plans, roads and bridges and new infrastructure would create work for the industry and get people back on their feet. The march was born out of the desire to do something locally for their own cause, he said.
"We started talking about it in the middle of December - what we could do to help out or get our government's attention," he said. "We're expecting a big crowd. It's open to everyone that's affected by the downtown in the economy." Saltsgaver said media outlets have shown much interest in the event, as have local politicians, who will be watching as they work, he said. "The general mood right now is that people are starting to second-guess this economy. They're wanting to know when this recession is going to end, when they can go back to work and when they can support their families the way they want to support them," Saltsgaver said. "They want to get their lives back on track." At U.S. Steel alone, a little more than 1,600 employees have been laid off, and the plant is operating with only a ghost crew for security, maintenance and coke production.
