Managing the Mills

Managing the Mills reconstructs the management culture of this industry and shows how it interacted with the economics of steelmaking to shape particular labor policies like the twelve-hour day, welfare capitalism and the use of spies in the workplace.

The period Rees (history, Colorado State U.-Pueblo) examines is from the middle 1880's, when the strong union in the steel industry began to evaporate, to the revived organizing that led to the 1937 strike. He analyzes management labor policy in the industry to provide insights into the more general history of industrial relations in the US. Many other industries looked to the steel industry for guidance in labor issues during the period. The study was his doctoral dissertation for the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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