Chesterton Tribune reported that the number 14 blast furnace at US Steel Corporation's Gary Works could be back on line and gradually steelworkers temporarily laid off by the outage are being recalled.

Mr Jerry Littles, the just re elected president of United Steelworkers Local 1014, said that right now, two of the facility’s four blast furnaces are operational, number 4 and number 8. He added that "You could have been looking at a hydrogen bomb. You take standing water and add molten steel or iron and you have got an explosive situation, a home made hydrogen bomb."

He said that US Steel, which had previously seen no need to rush the repair on number 8, was suddenly down to a single blast furnace and the decision was made to expedite work on number 8 in place of number 6. On April 21st 2009, number 8 was successfully re started.

Mr Littles did take a moment to thank the membership of Local 1014 for re electing him to his second three year term as president. He said that "Thanks to the members for having enough trust and faith in me and my group. I am doing my best to get people back to work in an expedited manner."

(Sourced from Chesterton Tribune)