USX Weighs Closure of Declining Chicago South Steel Works

USX Corp. said today that it is considering shuttering the remnants of its rusting South Works steel mill, a move that would idle 700 workers, unless union officials agree to major concessions by the end of the year.

The struggling Chicago facility cannot compete with new non-union plants unless fixed costs are substantially reduced, USX Chairman Charles Corry said.

The company wants workers to give up benefits and jobs under a new labor contract.

But union leaders angrily rejected Corry’s plea for concessions.

“My position is they can go to hell,” said Willie Ross, president of United Steelworkers of America Local 65. “They can close the damn thing. It comes to the point where we’re giving and giving and giving, and we’ve got nothing left to give.”

South Works once employed 18,000 workers and has made steel since 1881 under USX’s U.S. Steel Co. and predecessor companies.