By KEVIN NEVERS

Local 6787 of the United Steelworkers is going into the banquet business in a big way with Duneland Falls: a 24,000-square foot banquet facility available to members and non-members alike for wedding receptions, anniversary parties, birthday dinners, and other special events.

Yet to hear U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-1st, and Local 6787 President Paul Gipson talk at the grand opening of that facility on Wednesday, Duneland Falls is more than just a smart investment opportunity or an extra revenue stream. Call it a haven for steelworkers and the friends of steelworkers in an increasingly turbulent and perilous world, a place where celebration and activism should and will meet.

In a brief speech Visclosky scored his usual points about the “predatory trade activity” of China and other countries, yet in the context of the banquet facility—where people will mark life’s passages—his message acquired a particular resonance. “While the industry today is profitable,” he began, “we also know from hard experience going back to 1972 this is a cyclical business. And while things are good now, they may not be tomorrow.”

Thus Visclosky ran down the list: China’s disruption of the domestic pipe and tube industry, its manipulation of currency, the outsourcing of good jobs to China and points east, NAFTA and this nation’s trade deficit. In West Virginia a dozen lost their lives in a mine disaster, he observed. In China 6,000 people perish every year underground. “That’s just the cost of doing business” there.

All the while, Visclosky said, the Bush Administration has ignored one opportunity after another to do the right thing by working folks who only want a “living wage, a pension, healthcare.”

“My first responsibility is not to protect those who want to slit our economic throat,” Visclosky declared.

In short, for Visclosky the fundamental promise of the American Dream is in jeopardy and the day may come when parents will no longer have confidence in their children’s prospects to find better jobs and lead better lives than they themselves did. “Use this union hall and this very room,” he urged, “to renew your efforts to make sure Americans and voters know that we are at an economic crossroads.”

The theme of Gipson’s speech, on the other hand, was friendship. “Making friends is important,” he said, and Gipson noted that, even in the bad old days, he made friends and kept friends in management.

Steel is nothing like it used to be, though, “when in 1967 you could whistle Dixie and get a job in the industry,” when Porter County was “mostly cornfield country.” Thirty years later the number of bargaining unit members has plummeted, Porter County is one of the fastest growing in the state, and the time has come for labor “to reach out to the community and show the value of steelworkers,” he said. “We need to get to know one another.”

Hence Duneland Falls. “This facility was not just built for the steelworkers of Porter County,” Gipson said. “It’s for anyone who lives, eats, plays, gets into the political arena of Porter County. Anyone who wants to be our friend. . . . We hope that it gains a personality. We hope that it attracts people to use it. . . . Those who benefit from this facility will learn the value of a steelworker, a teacher, a politician, a judge, the value of participating, the value of community.”

Should he ever retire and leave Porter County, Gipson added, he would like to return on a visit “and find a very young workforce who’ve made a lot of friends and are using Duneland Falls.”

Portage Mayor Doug Olson was scheduled to join Visclosky and Gipson at the podium but his wife fell ill and he was unable to attend. Porter County Democratic Party Chair Leon West spoke in Olson’s place and conveyed the mayor’s enthusiasm. “He likes to come to all of the new businesses that open in Portage,” West said. “And this is a business. . . . It gives people a choice. . . . We’ll do everything we can to promote it.”

Among those in attendance at the ceremony were Porter County Chief Deputy David Lain, Porter Superior Court Judge Julia Jent, Portage Township Trustee Jack Jent, and Chesterton Town Council President Sharon Darnell, D-4th.

Posted 3/23/2006