Listen to the workers. Hire more in Gary.

Ephrin "EJ" Jenkins is the number-two caster at U.S. Steel Gary Works, with 26 years of service. He grew up watching his uncles trade their freedom for a paycheck in the same mill. "Your life became theirs," he says, referring to what the swing shifts cost. 

He founded Black Labor Week in 2012, though it took a couple of failures and hard years to pay off. Fourteen years later, it's a week-long conference that channels resources into Gary's Black community and pulls volunteers in from across the country.

"I want to be part of the solution, not the problem," he says, a standard he holds the companies to as well: "Listen to the workers. Hire more in Gary. That plant should be reflecting the city that it resides in."

Photos: Tyrell Anderson / Decay Devils