A rare look inside the Edgar Thomson steel plant
Rare access inside the plant was provided to KDKA-TV as part of tours that the families of steelworkers went on.
Andrew Carnegie first opened the plant, his first steel mill, in 1875. It helped launch the steelmaking industry in the U.S. and has survived the decline of steelmaking in the Pittsburgh region.
Working at the plant, part of the Mon Valley Works, brings a level of pride for steelworkers like Nate Schmidt, who led one of the tours.
"[It's] nothing but pride," he said, calling leading the tour very special. "It was really cool. I got to take my wife and my oldest son on a tour."
Inside the plant, KDKA-TV saw what looked to most like giant metal buckets, officially a ladle, filled with molten material.
"This is just the beginning," Schmidt shared.
The building is from the 1970s. It's not the oldest or the newest part of the plant, steelworkers shared.
Some parts of the steelmaking process are in structures from the 1930s, and the newest is from the 1990s, they said. Nippon promises that the plant will be modernized.
Steelworkers said they are constantly performing maintenance.
There are also safety precautions everywhere. Just for our KDKA-TV reporter to go inside, a hard hat, long pants, safety glasses, and a heat-resistant jacket were required.
The tour brought KDKA-TV to a steelworker whose job requires him to work in extreme heat, so much so that his shifts are only an hour long. The job is crucial; they identify issues and can immediately halt steel production at that location to prevent a major problem from occurring.
The pride that Schmidt felt is shared by other steelworkers like William Moutz.
"Not only is it pride for me, because I get to work in the same mill my dad worked in and provides for my family the way my dad did, but it's US Steel," Moutz said. "We make history every day. They're the last two blast furnaces in Pennsylvania, and at one time, there were 72 across the state."
Local union leaders spoke ahead of the tours, like Rob Hutchinson, the president of USW Local 1219.
"As we celebrate 150 years, let us not honor just what's been built, but what's been endured through industrial revolutions, world wars, global pandemics, the workers of this mill have never wavered," Hutchinson said, saying they won't waver in the future either.
He also brought up the recent sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel.
"Amid much controversy of what was best for our company, our workers showed up, and they did so without ever losing focus on their daily work," Hutchinson said.
"I think if Andrew Carnegie walked into our mill today, I think he would be impressed," Moutz said.
The same goes for the future after Nippon makes improvements.
Schmidt said bringing his oldest son on the tour was special because he'd always wanted to see the plant.
"Now, he finally got to see it, and at the end of the tour, he came up to me and told me that he'd love to one day work here with me," Schmidt said. "Makes me emotional, touches my heart. It's something special."
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