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.

A coalition of retired steelworkers hoping to expand a nationwide fight for pension and health care security launched an operation in Maryland yesterday, attracting nearly 1,000 Baltimore-area retirees to a union hall on Dundalk Avenue. ReUNION, an organization established in 2004 by the United Steelworkers of America and several U.S. steel companies, is eyeing retirees in industrial cities where factory life once dominated the local economy. The group has organized around health care, pension reform and trade policy issues affecting retirees of steel and other manufacturing industries.

Gordon E. "Buddy" Jackson, a steelworker and musician, died Monday at the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation and Extended Care Center. The lifelong Highlandtown resident was 85. Mr. Jackson left high school in the 1930s to work as a plumber's assistant but later earned his high school diploma by attending night classes at Polytechnic Institute. He married Naomi Rejzek in 1941 and, with the start of World War II, went to work at the American Hammer Division of Koppers United Co. making piston rings.

William T. Hackett, a retired Bethlehem Steel supervisor and former chairman of the Baltimore County Board of Appeals, died from complications of dementia Saturday at Bonnie Blink, the Maryland Masonic Home in Hunt Valley. The former Chase resident was 84. Mr. Hackett was born and raised in Chase, where his father was a farmer. After graduating from Kenwood High School in 1939, he worked as a machinist at Sparrows Point. During World War II, he served in the Navy as a machinist's mate in the Pacific.

James Joseph "Pop" Reynolds, a retired Bethlehem Steel worker and a 20-year volunteer at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church and schools, died of prostate cancer Thursday at his daughter's home in the Middle River area. He was 86. Most people at the East Baltimore church knew Mr. Reynolds as "Pops," from his work at the snack bar outside sporting events. He missed few volleyball, basketball, baseball or soccer games, and family members said he loved giving cookies away to children, telling them "they're free today" then slyly paying for them when the youngsters weren't looking.

Lulie Sprouse Myers, a former Pasadena homemaker who worked at Bethlehem Steel during World War II, died of respiratory failure Jan. 25 at Harrison House of Georgetown, a Delaware nursing home. She was 90. Lulie Sprouse was born in Boyce County, Ky. The eldest of 11 children, she was about 16 when she married Stirl T. Johnson. They lived in Ohio before moving to Baltimore during World War II. The couple worked at Bethlehem Steel, where Mrs. Myers was a burner. They divorced during the war. After the war, she married George W. Myers and moved to Pasadena, where she was a homemaker.

The United Steelworkers of America, instrumental in the history of Baltimore and other industrial cities but shrunken by the rise of technology and global competition, announced yesterday a plan to fortify itself by merging with another union. The Steelworkers will join the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE) to become what the two organizations describe as the dominant union in North America in metals and many other commodities. Symbolic of the merger, the new union will have a lengthy name - the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied-Industrial and Service Workers International Union.

The United Steelworkers union said yesterday that it will offer as early as February a prescription drug benefits plan to Bethlehem Steel Corp. retirees who lost their health-care benefits 20 months ago. The drug benefits plan will target about 48,000 retired hourly workers and their dependents at Bethlehem Steel, and 37,000 others at other bankrupt steelmakers whose assets were acquired by International Steel Group Inc. of Cleveland. "Any hourly retiree who lost their health care coverage in the Bethlehem bankruptcy is eligible for this benefit," said John Duray, a spokesman for the union, which represents 1.2 million working and retired steel workers in the United States and Canada.

Workers at the Baltimore Zoo, who have been down a bumpy road during the past year through layoffs and negotiation of their first collective bargaining contract, voted yesterday to keep their new union in place. Zoo workers voted 51 to 33 to continue being represented by the United Steelworkers of America. The vote over the future of the fledgling union at the 161-acre attraction in Druid Hill Park came a week after members voted overwhelmingly to accept a new contract. That 91-1 vote followed tentative approval of the pact by the union leadership and zoo management.

The union representing workers at the Baltimore Zoo said yesterday that negotiations are at a sticking point as the two sides try to hash out four outstanding issues to reach a contract. The zoo said it is hopeful that it will reach an agreement with the workers, who are being represented by the United Steelworkers of America. At issue for the union is that the zoo has asked workers to pay all future increases in medical insurance premiums and has not agreed to paid funeral leaves for workers.