The image is ingrained in the national conscience: a worker, silhouetted against a flame brighter than the sun, making that finest of American products, steel. But that picture is as dated as the technology that once produced steel. Now, the last blast furnace in the South is about to close. On Nov. 17, U.S. Steel will permanently shutter its blast furnace at its Fairfield Works plant. An estimated 1,100 workers will lose their jobs.
It is, by any measure, the latest signal of changing times. Folks in Fairfield know that.
“This was once the steel city,” said one resident. “Now, things are about to get rougher.”
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