31COURTESY
TPA
guyssitina carrollinga jointduringa shiftbreak.
Overbytheport,stacksofaluminumdestined
forcarmanufacturerscoveranarearoughlythe
sizeoftwocityblocks.Tradepointisspending
about$50milliononupgradestothefacility,soit
canaccommodatehighertonnagevessels.
ExecutivesatHilcoandTradepointsayinitially
therewasapprehensioninthelocalcommunity
aboutwhetherthejobsbeingcreatedwouldbeas
goodastheonestheywerereplacing.Theshort
answeris:notquite.Themedianwageforanorder
fillerata warehouseis $15.35anhour,compared
with$19.34fora metalfurnaceoperator,accord-
ingtotheU.S.BureauofLaborStatistics.
“Ifall17,000jobswereofthecaliber,salary,and
benefitsofthesteelplant,I thinkanylocaljuris-
dictionorstateorcountrywouldbedoingback
flips,”saysJohnnyOlszewskiJr.,theexecutiveof
BaltimoreCounty,whogrewupintheshadowof
theBethlehemSteelmill.“ButI thinkinmanyways
theeconomyhasshifted.”
Andnotjusthere.Nationwide,warehousejobs
havemorethandoubledinthespaceofa decade,
toreachalmost1.4million in 2018. Automation will
eventually start eating into those numbers, the way
it has in the steel industry. Consider that the U.S.
produces about as much steel today as it did in
1990 while payrolls have dropped from more than
180,000 to less than 85,000 today, according to data
from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the World
Steel Association.
“If you’re lazy, it’s not for you,” says Ameera
Toyer, whose job at Amazon’s warehouse in
Sparrows Point consists of putting items on different
machines and pushing a button that labels and packs
boxes. Her quota is 700 per hour. “I hit 900 an hour
once,” says the 20-year-old. “It’s all in the hands.”
Toyer says the work is boring, but the $15-an-hourpaybeatswhatshewasmakingpreviouslyasa
manager at a fast-casual restaurant. Most days she
works more than her 10-hour shift to get overtime.
Plus, in October she’ll have been with Amazon
a year, which means she can go back to school to
become a social worker and have the company pay
her back for 95% of the cost. “It’s good for now,”
she says. “There’s a lot of benefits to working here.”
Locals have other reasons to be thankful for the
changes taking place at Sparrows Point. With the
mill’s closure, a perennial source of toxins has been
removed. “This is the best thing that could have hap-
pened to the site,” says Paul Smail of the Chesapeake
Bay Foundation, which sued Bethlehem Steel in the
1980s over discharges of pollutants into the sur-
rounding waterways. Remediation work at the site
is about halfway done, according to Tradepoint.
In a development that underscores how
SparrowsPointisstakingitsfutureonthenew
economy,TradepointannouncedinJulythatit
wasleasing 50 acrestoOrstedA/S,a Danishcom-
panythat’sbuildinganoffshorewindfarmsome
20 miles off Maryland’s coast. Orsted will ship com-
ponents to Sparrows Point so the turbines can be
assembled there.
Officials at Tradepoint are also looking to reha-
bilitate the shipyard on the premises, which has
been little used since the turn of the century. The
massive dry dock can still accommodate ships,
and they’re hoping to bring in a tenant who’ll
use it to repair and refit navy boats. “We’d love to
have a big manufacturer here,” says Tomarchio,
the spokesman, but “we have to be realistic about
what kind of industry is going to be coming here.”
�TomMaloneyandHeatherPerlberg▲ Under Armour’s
distribution facilityTHE BOTTOM LINE Seven years after the closure of a steel mill
at Maryland’s Sparrows Point, the area has been transformed into a
logistics center for companies including Amazon and FedEx.