I live close to Bethleham Pa. and what was Bethleham Steel. They took all they could from the profits and never gave a thought to keeping the plant up with the times.
i saw a good show on bethleham steel on the history channel a while back.. they basicaLLY said that the union had the company by the balls and took advantage of that at contract time . but the company never put any profits (which there were pleanty of at the time) into updates like you said along with the higher ups expensing some crazy trips and things like that... but the union ends up getting the bad wrap .. but there was blame everywhere and weather it was right or not they got everything they could while they still could.... if they settled for less would the company still be in buisness?? i doubt it. it would have just been more profits that didn't go back into the company....