Steelworkers

It's a story about friendship, family values and self-confidence. A group of average Joes tries to make ends meet after being laid off, and they are truly tested to see how far they will go to keep their lives, and their families, together. The story is, of course, The Full Monty, which will be performed by the Cockpit in Court Summer Theatre tomorrow through July 2. Although a touring production played at the Mechanic Theatre in 2003, this is the first time the comedy has been produced by a Baltimore theater.

It was a different labor, a different use of their hands. But the steelworkers from Baltimore took to the curious work. Indeed, they found the new labor addictive, maddening, cathartic, liberating. The pay was no good, but that wasn't the idea. Their stories, that was the idea. These new writers, like old writers, tried to find one true thing to put into words - words that, as usual, fall short of the real thing. But you write anyway. Write about the company town that was Sparrows Point, write about the meanest bosses, the meanest co-workers, the meanest of work, the best of paychecks, the best of friends, the best of times.

In places, it's five stories high. Its key section is four football fields long. And the whole project will cost about $80 million more than the Baltimore Ravens' football stadium.The project's most important objective is to rejuvenate Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s long-moribund Sparrows Point Division -- virtually ensuring that steelmaking will remain a major part of metropolitan Baltimore's economy well into the next century.The project is Bethlehem's new cold-sheet mill, a $300 million plant under construction on the northwest corner of the 2,500-acre Sparrows Point complex.

Tom Bolton recalls his older Boston Red Sox teammates ordering him to attend union meetings during spring training. Leo Gomez recalls Puerto Rican veterans like Juan Beniquez and Jose Cruz educating younger players during winter ball.The indoctrination starts right away, be it at a hotel in Florida or a stadium in Puerto Rico. The average major-leaguer might be more familiar with Reggie Miller than Marvin Miller, but he knows enough to support his union.It's part of the clubhouse culture -- the older players fought for you, now you do your part.

Another Thing to Fall By Laura Lippman William Morrow/HarperCollins / 326 pages / $24.95 Laura Lippman knows Charm City, inside and out. Her mysteries are as much about the complexities of Baltimore as they are about crime, who commits it and why. Another Thing to Fall, the former Sun reporter's 10th novel featuring P.I. Tess Monaghan, reveals yet another side to Charm City. And perhaps its seamiest yet. Monaghan usually takes on complicated crimes and inevitably ends up working with the Baltimore P.D., either overtly or covertly.

William Edward Stokes, a retired steelworker and World War II veteran, died Monday of complications from Alzheimer's disease at Good Samaritan Hospital. He was 90. Mr. Stokes was born and raised in Green Bay, Va., where he graduated from high school. He moved to Baltimore in 1935 and went to work for Bethlehem Steel Corp. at Sparrows Point. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942 and served in the Pacific. He was discharged with the rank of corporal in 1946. The longtime East Lafayette Avenue resident returned to Bethlehem Steel, where he worked until retiring in 1983.

Robert Lee Kramer, a retired Bethlehem Steel Corp. worker and former Bel Air resident, died June 26 of complications from diabetes at his home in The Villages, Fla. He was 73. Mr. Kramer was born in Allentown, Pa., and later moved with his family to a home near Patterson Park. After graduating from Kenwood High School in 1954, he enlisted in the Air Force, where he was a radio and radar specialist. He was discharged in 1959. He worked for 36 years as a quality control clerk at Sparrows Point until retiring in 1999.

Talks between the United Steelworkers of America and potential buyer of Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s bar, rod and wire division broke down yesterday, jeopardizing the reopening of the rod mill at Sparrows Point in Baltimore County.The talks between the union and Ispat Mexicana S.A. de C.V. in Pittsburgh ended after the Indian-owned steel company rejected union counterproposal, according to the steelworkers."We've gone as far as we could possibly go," said Andrew V. Palm, director of USWA District 15. "We're willing to listen to anything reasonable the company has to say. The ball is in their court.

Labor negotiations crucial to reopening the closed rod mill at the Sparrows Point steel mill are coming to a head with the two sides apparently far apart on key issues.Officials of the United Steelworkers of America were scheduled to meet in Pittsburgh Thursday to consider a labor contract that would cover workers at Bethlehem Steel's closed bar, rod and wire division, which includes the Sparrows Point rod mill. The mill had a work force of 350 when it closed Aug. 14.The contract offer is being made by Ispat Mexicana S.A. de C.V., part of the Ispat Group of Calcutta, India, which signed a letter of intent in November to buy the Bethlehem division.