A Steelworker Speaks

Mike Fitzgerald lives in a two-flat dwelling, somewhere in Cicero, on the outskirts of Chicago. He is 37 years old, works in a steel mill. On occasion his wife, Carol, works as a waitress in a neighborhood restaurant; otherwise she’s at home, caring for their two small children, a girl and a boy. At the time of the first visit, a statuette of Mother and Child was on the floor, head severed from body. Fitzgerald laughed softly as he nodded toward his three-year-old daughter: “She Doctor Spock’d it.”

What sort of work do you do?

No trade. Laborer. Strictly muscle work… Pick it up, put it down, pick it up, put it down. We take things off the hook. We handle manually, I&#...