The steel industry in Michigan has a fascinating history. This page is dedicated to presenting periods of that history.
From Victory To The Moon: The GLFEA, 1945-70
The ordeal of the Great Depression and the glory as well as the tragedy of World War II profoundly changed America. Our country lost its innocence but gained maturity and wisdom. The men who returned from Europe and the Pacific marched back into a society with altered expectations, an increasingly diverse workforce, and a greatly expanded government.
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Rising To The Challenge
The incorporation of the forerunner of the Great Lakes Fabricators & Erectors Association - the Sheet & Metal Erectors Association - on April 7, 1938, occurred at a time of rapid change and confrontation. Despite the best diplomatic efforts, another horrendous world war was under preparation, due to the egomania of Adolph Hitler and the over-reaching zeal of the militaristic clique then ruling Japan. A "back bencher" member of the British Parliament, Winston Churchill, was doing his best to warn Europe of the approaching onslaught. In America, people generally preferred isolationism. While realists such as President Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed with Churchill, in 1938 only a small minority supported those advocating a call to arms. People still remembered the tragedies of World War I. By and large they were trigger shy. They were also still preoccupied about a depressed economy that had dragged too many families into poverty.
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The Birth Of The GLFEA
The origins of the Great Lakes Fabricators & Erectors Association can be directly traced to April 7, 1938. That's when a group calling itself the Sheet & Metal Erectors Association was incorporated. Before then, however, there was an indirect ancestor operating in Detroit. Commonly known as "the Steel Club," it was broken up in the aftermath of a successful federal prosecution on the charge of price fixing.
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