John H. and Harvey K. Flagler established the National Tube Works Company in East Boston, Massachusetts in 1868. In 1872, the Flaglers opened a mill in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, in order to be closer to the Pennsylvania oil fields which used their piping. A few months after the mill opened, it was destroyed by a fire. It was rapidly rebuilt, and, by 1890, the plant employed approximately 3,000. In 1891, the company purchased the Monongahela Furnace Company, allowing them to control the production of their pipes from ore to finished product. Subsequently, they built a steel mill so that they could use steel for tubing. In 1899, the National Tube Company was formed as a consolidation of the majority of pipe and tube mills in the United States. The company became a subsidiary of U.S. Steel in 1900, allowing the McKeesport plant to expand to over 150 acres. In 1937, production and maintenance workers won union recognition and bargaining rights as Local 1408 of the Steelworkers Organizing Committee (later United Steelworkers of America). Salaried workers formed a separate USWA local as did other categories of employees. In the early 1940s, the works became part of the National Tube Division of U.S. Steel in a realignment designed to help rationalize war-related production. In the late 1960s, as demand for their products declined, U.S. Steel merged the National Tube Works with the Duquesne Works to form the National-Duquesne Works. Both plants were downsized in the early 1980s, and the Duquesne plant closed in 1985. National Works was then merged with the U.S. Steel Mon-Valley Works and continued to produce tubing until the plant closed its doors for good in 1987.
From the description of Records of United States Steel Corporation National-Duquesne Works, 1890-1995. (University of Pittsburgh). WorldCat record id: 31366373
