"We're a family," said Denetta Reddick of Ottawa, with eyes nearing tears as she spoke of her nearly 250 co-workers who are struggling in the aftermath of being laid off from Hennepin's shuttered ArcelorMittal rolled-steel mill earlier this year.

Reddick was one day short of her eight-month anniversary when she worked her last day at the plant in March. She knew since right before Christmas the life-changing day would be coming.

"It was still a shock to me, to all of us," she said.

Especially to her 64-year-old father, Dennis Anderson of Ottawa. He'd worked at the steel mill since 1969.

"I was one of the more fortunate ones," Anderson confessed. "I had enough time in to retire." But that fact does little to quell his anger about the mill's closing, which put his daughter and many friends out of work.

"It was a good job to have and a good place to work," he said, adding neither he nor his daughter minded the daily 60-plus mile round-trip commute. "You do what you have to do to make a living."

Anderson insisted foreign owners should not by allowed to buy U.S. companies, which are profitable, only to shut them down later to prevent future competition and import those jobs overseas.

"The federal government should pass a law to stop these companies from that (practice)," he said.

Anderson was further mystified by the closure because he knows ArcelorMittal invested more than $2 million in plant improvements during the past couple of years.

"Here we were running at only about 50 percent capacity and the company was still making money," he claims, noting the Hennepin plant reportedly made more than $48 million profit for the last year.

"Local people need to know that this is not just a Hennepin or Putnam County problem," he said. "This (shutdown) affects all of us here in the Illinois Valley. Not only have we lost jobs, good jobs, but we lose taxes, benefits, and think of the products and groceries that will not be bought."

Members of the affected United Steelworkers of America Local 7367 have staged many rallies, a prayer vigil and even journeyed to Chicago to peacefully protest at the company's Midwestern headquarters. With support from the local community, a daily informational picket line, not sanctioned by the union, is now manned by idle workers to keep attention to their cause.

Union members and officials are particularly incensed because they know ArcelorMittal rejected at least one solid offer to sell the huge facility. North American Trading Co. recently submitted a bid to buy the plant intact and suggested, if sold to them, the facility would be expanded and more workers, possibly hundreds, could be hired.

As of this time, according to Russ Kingston, president and chief executive, his company has not received a counter offer from ArcelorMittal.

In response to that news, Anderson, his wife, Glennie, and daughter bluntly call the foreign owners, "Financial terrorists."

Duane Calbow, Local 7367 vice president and Putnam County Board chairman, said the union is in constant contact with state Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley, and Sen. Gary Dahl, R-Granville, along with U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Peoria, to keep pressure on the multinational company to sell or reopen the plant.

At a recent rally, Mautino said, "We're trying to show ArcelorMittal you can't profit by destroying American jobs."

Calbow confirmed Putnam County is one of the smallest in Illinois, population 6,000, with one of the highest unemployment rate, now more than 14 percent. Losing that tax revenue for the county will be devastating, he said.

To protest the closure, the Granville Village Board passed a resolution in June asking Congress and the Illinois General Assembly to enact any special legislation that would enhance the prospects of selling the plant.

Both Calbow and local president David York agreed selling the facility "would be the best and the right thing for the company to do."

The mill, built by J&L Steel, was at one time a shining beacon for the future of manufacturing in central Illinois. State and federal officials were so excited about the plant's prospects in the late 1960s a connecting interstate highway (Interstate 180) was quickly constructed connecting I-80 basically to the mill's front door.

Reddick, 38, who worries about what will happen to her and her family once the unemployment checks run out, spends much of her time now on the picket line to keep public attention on the corporation and to discourage, in any legal way, the company from removing manufacturing equipment from the site.

Their efforts are working. Outside contractors, according to the picketers, have recently walked away without moving equipment once they learned about the local situation.

"We also hand out leaflets to drivers stopping by and we're very grateful for the overwhelming support and encouragement we get from the locals," Reddick said.

Concluding, Anderson warned, "If we don't get together and do something, we'll be a service country with no manufacturing in the U.S. at all."

Reddick, a mother of three with two grandchildren on the way in her family, pointed to her orange T-shirt and said, "Our goal is simple. We want them to run it or sell it. I want my job back. It was the best one I ever had."