The eight-month long lockout at AK Steel's Middletown Works isn't just a battle between a company and its union workers. The effects of the lockout, which already has resulted in the loss of hundreds of jobs, are spreading across the community, home to steelmaking for more than a century. Small businesses are feeling the crunch, and the city government faces cutbacks in police and firefighters.
See "AK Steel Lockout Has Impact on Ohio Town", Associated Press, The New York Times, October 2, 2006