Big Steel's surprise comeback

Now, the workers are basically running the plant, making many of the day-to-day operating decisions. "We were 50 years coming to this point," says Jim Huber, a union trainer.

The workers are quick to point out that they are working harder too: Sometimes one hard hat is doing the work that used to be done by two or more. Some 165 different job descriptions - with all the union ramifications - have been trimmed to five. "It's been hard to get used to in the last six months," says Mr. Huber, "but a lot of growing pains have eased."

Even though wages remained the same, not everyone on the shop floor is happy. "Mouse" Banks is a mechanic who has worked at the company for 30 years. She stands in the hot strip mill beneath a moving crane whose giant hook swings gently above her head. "I'm one of the disgruntled employees," she says. "It's no better than it was," she says. "More work, less people - we go through the motions, do what we have to do, then we go home," she says with both anger and resignation in her voice.

Mr. Rosel concedes some workers are unhappy. But he says, "This was a tremendous accomplishment but not fully understood."

Some of the workers feel they are nothing more than pawns in a larger playing field. Thomas Johnson, who controls the movement of the red-hot steel bars through the mill from a "speed pulpit," thinks Bush lifted the tariffs to strengthen support abroad for the campaign in Iraq. "So what's a couple of steel workers?" asks Mr. Johnson.

It's hard to say how much politics played into Bush's final decision. But, this week, the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS) raised the ante at a press conference. Dennis Rochford, who represents the ports on the Delaware River, said the number of ships unloading steel had dropped from 400 to 150. "There are 38,000 jobs dependent on steel imports on the Delaware," he said.

The steel users had their own coalition putting pressure on Bush. They pointed out to the administration that nationally, some 100,000 businesses with 12 million workers use steel, compared with 160,000 steelworkers. And at a fundraiser on Monday, the president most likely heard from auto-parts executives in Michigan about the impact of the tariffs.

Yet with or without the tariffs, some analysts believe there will be steel shortages in the US next year. The mini-mills, which melt down scrap, are battling the Chinese for America's smashed-up used cars, so they can't expand production. Many integrated steel companies are still in bankruptcy. "By next year, steel imports will be rising, but it may not be enough to keep prices from rising too," says David Phelps, president of AIIS.

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