Out of This Furnace: Part 4, Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Following the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act’s (NIRA) Section 7 (A) “affirming the right of workers to collective bargaining through representatives of their own choosing,” the steel companies immediately begin skirting the act by establishing so-called Employee Representation Plans (ERP). These are essentially “Company Unions,” in which steel bosses perform the roles of labor organizers, thereby denying workers the right to choose their own representatives.

Dobie and other workers refuse to vote for the ERP reps. The AFL, jolted into action by the creation of the ERPs, sends its organizers into the steel towns and holds a meeting in Homestead. Dobie attends and gets a card. He recognizes several men from Braddock at the meeting and asks the organizer when the AFL will hold a meeting in Braddock. “When enough men over there sign up,” the organizer responds, suggesting that 500 men is a good start. The next week, Dobie returns to Homestead and delivers 500 signed cards to the organizer. “We could have used a couple hundred more if we had them,” he adds. And so, “after fifty years the union came back to Braddock.”

The representatives for the ERP consist almost entirely of men handpicked by the company, with the exception of Bill Hagerty, the pugnacious representative chosen by the Maintenance Department. Hagerty is a married father of nine children. The ERP holds its first meeting, and General Superintendent Flack reads a canned speech likely written by the City Office. He then produces a list of men he wants the assembled representatives to accept as officers. When the representatives object, Flack keeps them there, guarded by a “mill cop,” until nine in the evening, when they finally relent.

At the second meeting, Hagerty, now the meeting chair, offers “a resolution asking for a general ten per cent wage increase and vacations with pay.” Management’s representative at the meeting rejects the resolution, laughably claiming the ERP has “no authority to consider plant wide questions of wages and hours.” The absurdity of such a claim somehow does not make it into the carefully edited meeting minutes, which are also “mimeographed in a pale violet ink which faded to invisibility when exposed to light.” The company frequently posts the meeting minutes too high for workers to read.

Although the ERP’s shenanigans prove exceedingly frustrating, Dobie still sees hope in the ERP’s very existence. “The only reason they started the company union was to keep the real union out,” he argues, saying that “that shows they're afraid of it.” The fact that the government backs a legitimate union also helps “break down the fear of unionism the company had built up through decades of merciless repression.” Indeed, workers greet the opening of the Amalgamated’s new office in Braddock with a sense of awe.

Much of the work of rebuilding the union, however, comes from men like Dobie, “who joined the union and got others to join, who talked and argued and gave up evenings to go calling on men they knew, visiting at their homes with pockets filled with leaflets and application cards.” At a union meeting at Turner Hall, Dobie gives a speech decrying the company’s use of “food boxes,” which it then deducts from workers’ wages. Julie is proud of Dobie’s work for the union but resents his spending so much time away from her. He promises her that he will no longer go out more than two nights a week.

Despite her irritation, Julie is happy when Dobie tells her about the speech he gave at the Turner Club. He beams with pride, explaining how hopeless he felt during the Depression, when the rich and powerful made out like bandits while everyone else watched as everything they worked for was “shot out from under us without being able to do anything.” Now, Dobie adds, “we ain't waiting for anybody and anything that happens from now on we're going to have plenty to say about.”

When the Braddock union lodge opens, the men elect Dobie secretary. Julie tells him he deserves the honor because he is the best man for the job. “I knew something had happened as soon as I saw your face,” she says, “you looked so pleased […] it shows what they think of you.” He explains to her what a secretary does and says he thinks that Walsh, a middle-aged and generally incompetent organizer from the AFL’s Pittsburgh office, will do much of the work at first. Walsh wields near-total control over the lodge’s affairs. Other union officers, such as Burke, the president, and Steve Gralji, the treasurer, yield to Walsh’s authority before they become aware of his shortcomings.

Despite efforts to keep union membership a secret, word of Dobie’s election to secretary spreads through the mill. The news reaches McLaughlin, who accuses Dobie of “getting pretty cocky,” and soon Todd, the Maintenance Department boss, summons Dobie to his office to ask him if he likes his job. Dobie is somewhat shaken, but many of the men provide support. “Don’t let them scare you, Dobie,” they say under their breath. When he tells Julie about the incident later, she worries about Dobie’s job. “You can bet your boots they have a pretty good idea of how many men we got in the union,” he assures her, “and they'll think twice before they start anything.” He complains to her about Walsh’s uselessness to the lodge, and they listen as Kracha pumps water for his hillside garden while arguing with their Irish neighbor, Old Peg-Leg Cassidy.