Joseph Sabino Mistick: George Westinghouse knew how to take care of people

Westinghouse Air Brake was more than just another industrial plant in the Turtle Creek Valley east of Pittsburgh, and the recently announced plan to close the 134-year-old Wilmerding factory now known as Wabtec reminds us of an earlier corporate philosophy that we need today.

If you grew up in that valley — also known as Westinghouse Valley — George Westinghouse was everywhere. Many of the dads worked at Westinghouse Air Brake or Westinghouse Electric. We crossed the Westinghouse Bridge anytime we went anywhere. We all traveled streets and played in parks that bore his name.

If you lived in one of the small towns above or around Wilmerding — the model company town that George built in the valley for his workers at the Air Brake — you were in the Westinghouse Valley School District and probably went to Westinghouse Memorial High School, my alma mater.

George was one of the great industrial barons of all time. By the beginning of the 20th century, he employed 50,000 workers, and his companies were worth $120 million. He managed nine manufacturing companies in the United States, Canada and Europe. He held over 350 patents for everything from air brakes to alternating current technology to automobile shock absorbers.

Ten years after George’s 1914 death, Dr. Frank Taylor wrote that he “belongs to that select company of American pioneers who laid the foundation for the greatest commercial empire the world has yet seen.”

But George was not like the others — the “robber barons.” Frick and Carnegie saw workers as raw material to be obtained at the cheapest price. George saw them as mothers and fathers, good neighbors, future contributing citizens to their communities, the nation and the world.

In his book “George Westinghouse: Gentle Genius,” Quentin R. Skrabec Jr. writes that “the suffering of his fellow man always moved Westinghouse.”

Early in his career, he established a 5¹⁄₂-day work week, stopping production at noon on Saturdays. At that time, other industries worked 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, with a 24-hour swing shift every two weeks.

His factory in Wilmerding was clean, safe, bright and well ventilated. It had workers’ restrooms and lunchrooms. He provided safe drinking water from artesian wells. Company physicians and nurses were on duty at the plant to treat the employees.

He created a pension plan and a disability program 60 years before other companies. He offered free training and English lessons for his employees — many of them immigrants — and he rewarded their success with raises and promotions. When his workforce got too large for a company Thanksgiving dinner, he gave every employee a turkey.

The company-built houses in Wilmerding had front yards, trees and plumbing. Rent was affordable, and houses could be purchased at cost with payments adjusted for income. He provided insurance that protected homeowners in case of disability, unemployment or death.

He built ballfields and parks and sponsored chess and checkers clubs and sports teams. He established a YMCA, where some of us shot hoops, learned to swim and went to Saturday movies into the 1960s. And he planted a lot of flowers.

The precious lesson here is that it is possible to have a wonderfully efficient capitalist system without leaving the workers and their families and communities behind. We need government oversight and union advocacy now because George Westinghouses are hard to find.