Vince Brugger
“It’s interesting the many times I was told about Bethlehem Steel, this big company has no or little consideration for the men out there working in the shop and so forth. Not true! Not true. My experience, not only what happened to many other people who came into the company and worked at various things, types of jobs and so forth. And if there were people with talents, there were great efforts to be made to utilize those talents, so that while, in summary, many people say they were not a peoples company. They didn’t care about the person. Not true! My experience is, lots of opportunity in most of the shops in the plant. I dealt with the top level as well as the workers. And the company, in my opinion, was always concerned with the person. The workers contributed greatly not only to the company, but to Bethlehem. That’s what I think Bethlehem is. People who contribute greatly to our community. We just had a great mix of immigrants and so forth that blended together beautifully to make Bethlehem a very special city. I think it still is. I think our youth have a responsibility to accept and improve relationships between nationalities. When men worked here, they were going back home to their families. Many of them worked many hours a week. Families made sacrifices. Bethlehem is family oriented, with multi nationalities that makes a beautiful mix that makes Bethlehem a very unique city, and I thank the Lord for that. I thank the lord I am alive to enjoy it!”