In Birmingham, it’s the end of an era. The city was founded and fueled by the steel industry. But U.S. Steel announced Monday it would close its Fairfield Works mill just west of the city leaving about 1,100 workers without jobs. It’s a noteworthy passing for a city that still identifies with an industry now found mostly in historic pictures.
To understand how much Birmingham honors its steel city roots, just look up. On Red Mountain, south of the city center, is a 50-ton iron statue of the Roman god Vulcan. With an arrow in one hand and hammer in the other, Vulcan represents the industrial history of Birmingham, which was once called the Pittsburgh of the South.
Vulcan Park and Museums’ Education Director Mark Akerman says company towns sprung up around steel plants as did stores.
“You had your butcher, you had your post office,” said Akerman. “Then you had things like baseball. Company towns had baseball teams that helped entertain everybody. And they had dancers and they put on plays. And they do all these fantastic things to keep the workers happy.”
Of course, Birmingham-area leaders today are not happy with the news U-S Steel would close its blast furnace starting in November.
Andrew Yeager,WBHM
The U.S. Steel Fairfield Works rises among the hills just west of Fairfield.
“[It’s] quite devastating,” said Kenneth Coachman, mayor of Fairfield, a planned company town adjacent to the plant. It opened about a century ago and made steel used to build ships during World War I. Coachman says he wasn’t surprised about the closure. U.S. Steel had laid off scores of workers in recent months.
“They kind of were kind of preparing you for this in increments,” said Coachman. “That’s the way I see it.”
A statement from U.S. Steel says the decision to permanently close the plant was necessary to improve efficiency and keep the company competitive. The mill closure comes as U.S. Steel is negotiating a new contract with the United Steelworkers union. A statement from the union blamed “unfairly traded steel imports,” in particular from China.
Industry analyst Charles Bradford says in this case it’s not about imports. It is about competition. He says U.S. Steel is losing ground to smaller mills in the U.S. that are more efficient and not-unionized. Still he says the strong dollar poses a problem for steelmakers.
“It’s the strong dollar that leads to imports,” said Bradford. “The industry likes to claim dumping and all kinds of other things. It’s the strong dollar that makes imports less expensive.”
Today, Birmingham’s economy is less dependent on the steel industry with medicine and higher education now dominating. Foreign automakers, such as Mercedes-Benz, Honda and Hyundai, have major operations in the state. Fairfield Mayor Kenneth Coachmen says the plant closure announcement is a setback, but not insurmountable.
“Fairfield has to forge ahead and as we have before and I believe we will do it again,” said Coachman.
He says there is a silver living. U.S. Steel says it will keep open an associated operation that makes steel pipe. That keeps about 700 jobs. Far from the ten of thousands once employed across the region.