From Mr. Freeman

I have not received the check yet but I am sure it will come. Mail between parts of the U.S. and Canada seem to be still carried by pony express riders. 

 

I know that there are many Mexican nationals in your part of the world, but it has only been very recently that Mexicans have settled in Canada. However, the question of “ethnic workers” as Canadians would express it, during the 1946 Stelco strike is interesting.

 

There were many Italians, Ukranians, Poles and others of southern or eastern European origin working at Stelco in ‘46. Almost to a man the ethnic workers were strong union supporters. The reason for this was that Stelco management openly discriminated against non-Anglo Saxon workers. They got the worst jobs, were paid less and were never promoted. That was one of the major reasons for the strike.

 

I often wondered whether there would have been a strike at all, if it was not for the union solidarity of the ethnic workers. The scabs at Stelco in ‘46 tended to be workers with a British origin. That is because they were given preferential treatment.

 

Ethnicity and class have played important roles in Canadian, as well as American and Mexican history.

Steel Mill Workers

The term steel mill worker can encompass a number of the positions at a mill including pourer, caster, furnace operator, inspector, machine setter, steel lather, millwright and welder. Unfortunately, many of these steel mill workers have suffered workplace exposure to asbestos, which can cause deadly mesothelioma cancer. Asbestos has a unique resistance to heat that led to its usage throughout the high temperature environments of steel mills. When inhaled, asbestos fibers can lead to a number of health problems including asbestosis and numerous cancers like mesothelioma, lung, esophageal, gastrointestinal, laryngeal, and pharyngeal. Steel mill workers employed from about 1940 to 1980 are at the highest risk for possible asbestos exposure because their day-to-day brought them in contact with a number of asbestos-containing products and materials. Unfortunately for steel mill workers, it was often the clothing designed to protect them from heat and fire that ultimately put them at risk for asbestos exposure.

Cast & Crew of GLORY DAYS

1.  All parts are not set in stone. We may shift parts around if understudies become better than actors, or if our needs change.
2. Memorize pages 1-20 by Sunday, January 6 at 2PM - down to the ensemble chant

This was a difficult decision.  Accents need to be perfected - no NY or Brooklyn accents.  Listen to You Tube accent lessons.  We will have Polish accent tapes arriving after the new year.  I have Italian CD's now.
Marie and Louis need to be Italian.   Nate is Polish.  We need to ask Mr. Freeman about other nationalities.

I need pictures of steel mills and what we might build for the mill itself.  Things to attach to pylons and ladders.

1.    Billy, a  young single worker	Young, spontaneous, passionate, does not think before he speaks or acts. (18 or 19)	Hayden
2.    Nate, a STELCO worker	A hard worker who loves Rose – has several children.  He has a drinking problem and often neglects his family to strike for the union. (mid thirties) Polish	Tucker Understudy - Reagan
3.    Rose, Nate’s wife	She cleans houses and has been both mother and father during the strike. She resents the time Nate has spent away from home. (mid thirties)	Allison Understudy - Lindsey
4.    Marie, Louis’s girlfriend and later his wife	Self centered at first.  Good natured.  She supports Louis. She is a little bit of a flirt. (late 20’s)Italian	Savannah Understudy - Avery
5.    Alice, Reg’s wife	She is the woman behind the man.  She has already been involved in unions.  She is really the driving force behind Reg.  early thirties	Hannah Understudy - Amber
6.    Reg	early thirties  He organizes the union with Alice’s help.  He is torn between his wife and his brother, Frank.  He is level headed.	Jared
7.    Louis, Marie’s husband	(late 20’s) Italian He supports Reg.  He looks after Billy as does Nate.  Louis is more level headed than Nate and Billy.	Graham
8.    Frank, brother of Reg/ Striker	Late 30’s – he is loyal to the company even though he realizes that the company is not acting in the best interest of the workers.  He is smart. He is the father figure to Reg and Alice. He is a scab.	Ty
9.    A Relief Worker /striker May be a woman or man	No nonsense person Must be expressive – body and face.	Paige Understudy - Mara
10. Man Applying for Relief (shoe)/striker	Later a striker Must be expressive – body and face.	Mac
11. Hugh Hilton, President of STELCO / Striker	Hard headed – 40’s-50’s   He only cares about profit – nothing else.   He has no sympathy for the workers.  He must be strong.	Carson
12. Olive Kelly, STELCO’s Public Relation Assistant	She is a charmer, intelligent, chic, and can see both sides of the picture – company and workers.	Michelle Understudy - Cheyanne
13. Photographer/striker	Quirky	Nathan
14. Striker	Must be expressive – body and face.	Cody
15.  Nora Francis Henderson	Stodgy, older, tough – may eliminate this part.	Lindsey – but part may be cut (we still need 15 bodies)

Lights Stage Lights	Parker Devon Kayla Cole
Sound	Parker Cris
Makeup	Madison
Prop master	Isaac
Stage Manager	Alyssa
Assistant Stage Mgrs.	Kayla, Abbey

Auditions

Auditions are Thursday evening at 7PM in the auditorium.  We have moved it from 7:30 because Jayce Moore is having surgery.  With this play, the chemistry between actors is paramount, and we need for Jared to read for several men and we need women to read with him.

This year we will not put Jared opposite his relatives.  Savannah, you may  breathe a sigh of relief.

Be familiar with the play.  You will be reading at least twice.  You may not get the part you want. We have 30 people vying for 15 acting positions and five crew positions.  We will have understudies.  The understudy role will be important this year. Once you receive a part or position, it may not be yours to keep.

I care deeply about each one of you. Some of you I have had since you were running around with swords in Alice and Wonderland. With the rest of you, it seems I have had you that long as well.  But, as in all teamwork, not everyone gets a starting role.  I will judge what I see the day of auditions.  Mrs. Giffis, and perhaps Mark and Zach will help me.  Greg may help as well.  It is a tough decision.

We will have a rubric that we will use during auditions.  I do NOT want to hear TEXAS accents.  Do not memorize anything, but be familiar enough with the dialogue that you do not stumble over words.

Character

Projection

Clarity

Stage Presence

Overall knowledge of script

More Comments on the Play from the Packets

From Alyssa -Billy was naive, but I think by the end, he learned what it meant to be a man and what it meant to be part of a community.

From Hannah - On the non-speaking role of a striker -The small things are some of the biggest parts that add to a play and make a performance stand out more than others.

From Carson - all of his character descriptions were good - however, his description of Mr. Hilton was great -Hilton is the antagonist who shows the spirit of the top tier in the Guilded Age: Profits rule his decisions.

From Allison -I love the satisfaction of seeing a simple idea become a script and then seeing that become a performance.  It's art.

Foreigner

EVERYONE	DICTION – SLOWER STEP ON LINES Don’t just say the lines – give the audience the meaning through your emotions. Look over lines Always be involved in what is happening. Don’t lose your character. The dialogue and emotions are one level: they should be varied. Watch who is sitting and standing or sitting on different levels. Adjust yourself. Quiet backstage. Hayden is the only one with energy. Everyone needs to be at his level. What is going on when the KKK runs away? LOUDER QUIET BACKSTAGE If you are supposed to be scared, be scared. LEVELS Look interested in who is speaking.  Focus on them. Energy level is down. Stay in character. During the furniture move, speak – be anxious. You are trying to keep the KKK out. LISTEN TO MAC while he is getting sent off.  Some be amused, some are mad at him. REACT TO EXPLOSION. Intermission – On page 21. After Charlie says, “Frankenstein, yes…” Keys – Amber Everyone’s entrances – they should be wet – except for Lindsey and Avery.  I WANT WATER!!!! Rifle bags – Cody and Nelsons Wheelbarrow - Hannah
REAGAN	React to what is happening with facial expressions. More reactions
GRAHAM	Diction.  After Betty knows it is you, take the mask off.
COLE	LOUDER
SAVANNAH	Learn your lines
HANNAH	Learn your lines
MAC	Be sure to take Catherine’s reaction more to heart.  Are you angry, frustrated, sad?
TUCKER
CODY	Be sure that we can see you.  Angle bench out if someone is beside you. Be a creepy KKK guy.
MUSIC	Music should go through transitions Be careful that we can hear actors over the sound. If you can’t hear them, no one can Music is too loud.
Lights	Be on time – know that is hard when we haven’t gone through the play.

Jared Moore, Allison Simpson, & Paige Williams

"It's not about getting roles, it's about being with the ensemble and creating the show. " Jared

"A non speaking role of a striker would be important because this shows that there were a lot more people and a lot more stories that are untold.  The non-speaking strikers represents all those untold stories of all the other people who were affected by the strike.  We need to make the audience realize that there were more people impacted by the strike than just the families that we follow during the course of the play." Paige

"In Glory Days, every striker counted.  It was one more person to stand up for what he/she believed in.  It's very important to portray that in the play.  T he more the people, the better the impact strikers had. "  Allison 

I believe it's important to realize the other side of the situation also. Mr. Hilton and the 'scabs' are the antagonists in the play and even in the actual history of the Stelco Strike. But before you conclude that they are evil, cruel people, realize this; they were only doing what was best for themselves, just like the strikers were. Mr. Hilton seems to be a very tough man. He didn't prefer weakness. And he was strictly business. All this mushy gooshy union stuff seemed like a horrible idea to this business man. Hilton could not see any growth in his business from a union. He didn't have thick, black, arched eyebrows and steam did not come from his ears. He simply could not see the postive aspect in having a union. And of course some of the 'scabs' wouldn't join the strike. Most already had good pay, hours and they certainly weren't treated unfairly due to thier ethnicity. It is so much easier for us to look back and see the immoral treatment of ethnic workers and conclude on The Hamilton Spectator - an article about the 1946 Strike  From Allison

The Hamilton Spectator - an article about the 1946 Strike

THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR

It was supposed to be a new beginning. Six years of bitter war had finally ended. Soldiers were returning home. Hamiltonians were optimistic about the future and a baby boom was brewing.

The year was 1946. It was the city's Centennial and "the show of a century" was planned for the first week of July to mark "100 years of progress."

But there were disconcerting rumblings that threatened to spoil the party. Tensions were escalating between unionists and Stelco management through the early months of the year.

Then on March 16, a grisly discovery was made on the side of the Mountain.

The Spectator reported: "Clothed only in an undershirt and shorts, the torso of an unidentified man with the head, legs and arms missing, was found . . . one-half mile from Albion Falls, about 10 o'clock this morning.

"The gruesome find was made by a group of children who were out in the country for a Saturday morning hike ..."

It was the first of countless news accounts, over the weeks and months ahead, about the infamous John Dick murder case. And if there was a "show of the century" in 1946, it turned out to be the Evelyn Dick murder trial -- not the city's Centennial.

Margaret Houghton, a local history author and archivist at Hamilton Public Library Special Collections, says 1946 was a pivotal year for the city. In the gathering storm of labour turmoil and macabre murder revelations, the city lost its innocence and matured at the same time.

"Hamilton had become a completely different city (by 1946)," she says. "Before the war, Hamilton was a very parochial community. But by the end of the war, the city had become a world-class steelmaker and manufacturer ... and attitudes were changing."

Especially changed were young men who had gone off to war and were returning to their families and jobs.

"When they came back to Hamilton they were unwilling to accept the working conditions they previously tolerated," says Houghton.

Labour historian Craig Heron says the war raised "a kind of rhetoric of democracy that was quite remarkable. People who worked in factories would ask 'why did we fight for democracy overseas when we don't have it on the job?'

"In some ways the war was a kind of catalyst for the union movement. It gave a lot of legitimacy to the idea of industrial democracy."

For many veterans, who were returning to their steelmaking jobs after being overseas, it was a case of coming back from one war to fight another.

Steelworkers' union members at Stelco pressed for higher wages, a 40-hour work week and a requirement by the company to regularly deduct dues on behalf of the union.

On July 15, the steelworkers officially walked off the job to launch a bitter 81-day feud that is seen by historians to be one of the most important labour-management battles in Canadian history. The strike severely divided the community between those who supported the strikers -- including then Mayor Sam Lawrence -- and those who did not.

Replacement workers camped out at Stelco, while many had their homes spray-painted with the words "scab" and other taunts.

And while the Stelco strike got most of the attention, union members from Westinghouse, Firestone and The Spectator also took to the streets.

By mid-July nearly 20 per cent of the city's industrial workforce was on strike with thousands more laid off because of plant shutdowns.

"Everybody knew someone who was on strike that summer," says Heron. "They were prolonged events that drew a lot of community participation. On the picket lines people came out and donated their time and their food. There were dances. There was even a wedding on the Stelco picket line. Pete Seeger showed up and sang at one point."

While Lawrence supported the strikers because he said he was "a union man first and chief magistrate second," other members of city council were vehemently opposed to the union. Controller Nora Frances Henderson was so incensed that she made a public display of walking through a picket line to show her indignation. The picketers stepped slowly aside and let her pass without incident.

"I will not bow to mob rule," she said. To which, strikers later said: "We'll hang Nora Frances from the sour apple tree." Luckily, it was just a threat.

Heron says, "The whole community was mobilized and politicized in 1946." And animosities between strikers and "scabs" continue to this day.

McMaster University's John Weaver, a local history expert, says: "1946 was a hopping year. That's for sure.

"The year must have begun with a fair bit of optimism with it being the first full year after the war. It was the end of a protracted period of war and the Depression that was pretty dismal."

But with the labour upheaval and the economic adjustment of the city moving to peacetime production, he said, it would take Hamilton a couple more years to enjoy postwar prosperity.

Retired McMaster University history professor Chuck Johnston was 20 years old in 1946. He was a McMaster student who marvelled at the events that were going on around him.

"I remember the Centennial parade down the main street and the mayor was in an open car. They had bands and things ... I was one of several hundred who gathered in the East End to watch it. People gathered all over the city."

He doesn't recall labour turmoil affecting the Centennial festivities that took place from July 1 to 7. Every day saw a full slate of events that included everything from softball tournaments to marching bands and fireworks.

City Hall was decked out with a huge billboard that contrasted views of the city from the Mountain from 1846 and 1946 under the "100 years of progress" slogan.

Unions - from Bill Freeman's book -1005: Political Life in a Local Union

"'The strength of Local 1005 is that for years there have been stubborn and bullheaded men who have devoted their time and risked their jobs for their fellow workers.  That's what makes a union.  You know you've got to give it to the old-timers.  They fought for us all.  They made it happen.  They know that we stand for something in the trade union movement--- that we've got a history behind us, and that's important. From a 1005 activist.'

It was in 1945 that Local 1005 of the United Steelworkers of America became the official bargaining agent for the hourly rated employees at the Hamilton Works of the Steel Company of Canada, but this union local did not emerge on the scene fully grown, ready to defend the rights of the company's employees.  In part it was the result of the conscious struggles of the workers int he plant going back at least 35 years.  It was also the result of a broader class struggle that emerged in Canada as the country rapidly industrialized int he latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries. 

After it's creation in 1901, U.S. Steel controlled 3/5ths of the whole American industry and was the world's first billion dollar corporation.  Union organization in the Hamilton Steel and Iron Company prior to the Stelco merger of 1910 was slow and strongly resisted by management.  Years later, Tom McClure, a one-time president of Local 1005 wrote:

'As far as can be learned, organization in the early days of the plant was more or less of a spontaneous nature.... The rolling men and puddlers were paid on a sliding scale based on the average of the production over the previous sixty day period.  Sometimes a steep increase in the selling price of steel was not reflected int he pay envelope.  Tongs were banged, the whistle blown, the mill stopped rolling, the men marched to the office, and as a general rule, the appropriate changes were made in the rates of pay.  An exception to the rule occurred in 1906 when a short strike resulted in the upward adjustment of rates of pay called for by a sharp rise in the selling price.  the strikers were told that it was not necessary for them to organize into a union to be certain of getting their just due.'  

This description shows a type of direct rank-and-file militancy.  Whenever there was a grievance, "the tongs were banged, the whistle blown, the mill stopped rolling, the men marched tot he office."  Its success depended on a shop floor solidarity among the workers that could not be ignored by the company, rather than on an established relationship between the two parties. After the Stelco merger of 1910 - see Glory Days history - the company was in an excellent position to control its markets.

The year 1919 was a time of radical union activity in Canada.  As Stuart Jamieson points out, "One of the most important factors underlying the mounting unrest of the late war (World War I) and immediate post war years was the inflationary price spiral.  The cost of living jumped by 8% in 1916 and escalated to 13 1/2 % in 1918."  But wages had inflated very slowly. On September 22, 1919, 365,000 American steelworkers went on strike in fifty cities across America. Mills were kept open by black and Mexican strikebreakers.  David Brody commented, "Nothing weakened the resolve of weary strikers more than the sight of smoke rising from the mills, and the sound of whistles announcing the change of the shift."  Men drifted back to work,and finally, in January,t he union admitted defeat. It was during this bitter struggle that unionization finally began at Stelco. 
Working conditions in Stelco's Hamilton mills remained grim.  Ten and twelve hour days were the rule, heavy labour was a common feature of many of the jobs, the heat in some of the mills was difficult to bear, and safety features were almost non existence. 

With the beginning of the Depression in 1929 and 1930, the Amalgamated Association began to lose support.  As the price of steel became lower, the sliding scale of wages sank with it, and the Western Sheet and Tin Producers forced the AA to accept even lower rates.  Stelco allowed wages to sink in the sheet mill to the lowest level in years.   As a result of the Depression and low wages, lost jobs, the Stelco sheet mill workers allowed their charter to lapse on October 4, 1932. 

Wages for Stelco workers sank even further.  No one in the sheet mill was now a member of the union, so they did not receive the AA journal to check their wages against the scale.  It was some time before the news reached them that the rate of pay Stelco was giving them was lower than the scale.  

The Local 1005 was started again in 1934, but initially very little was accomplished.  Meetings were poorly attended, and the company ignored the new union.  Following the 1935 strike, Stelco announced the Employee Representation Plan.  The plan called for the establishment of a works council made up of ten employees elected by secret ballot from each of the plant's divisions and of ten company appointees. The chairman and secretary were provided by the company.  The council would meet monthly, and any issue could be discussed that was brought forward by the representatives.  Appeals could be referred to the president of the company, whose decision would be final."