Ashland is adjacent to the town of Mansfield, where 600 members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 169 have been locked out by AK Steel for nearly a year. The lockout is a daily fact of life for people living in the area. They have been subject to the influx of scores of armed guards and scabs hired by AK Steel and regular attacks on the union through court injunctions and full-page ads run by the company in the local paper accusing union members of acts of terrorism.

Buchanan's campaign organizers made an effort to attract locked-out Steelworkers to the event. The Mansfield News Journal published a letter to the editor and a news article announcing that "locked-out workers from AK Steel will be admitted free to the rally," which was held at Ashland University.

Supporters of the Buchanan campaign also went down to the union hall to encourage attendance at the rally. Only one member of the local attended the meeting.

At the campaign rally, an hour-long video was shown recounting Buchanan's life story and playing up his past Republican credentials, his close political relationship with and admiration for Richard Nixon, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan. The video details the ultrarightist's electoral successes, including excerpts from his "culture war" speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention. It shows pictures of industrial workers as Buchanan declares that "beneath the surface prosperity there is a quiet depression and deep economic insecurity. Real wages for the working class and rural people have declined." He invites supporters to sign up for the Buchanan brigades and join his supporters' efforts against a woman's right to choose abortion, affirmative action, and "free trade."

In his talk, Buchanan appealed to patriotic chauvinism and economic nationalism. Among other themes, he railed against the North American Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs, called for expanding the U.S. border patrol to prevent workers from immigrating to the United States from Mexico, and vowed that as president he would use the U.S. military to "take back" the Panama Canal.

The one locked-out Steelworker in attendance came with his strike T-shirt and buttons, and held up a union picket sign through the entire meeting. When Buchanan finally called on him during the question-and-answer period, the union member was barely able to speak the few words "Sir, I am locked out by AK Steel" before he was interrupted by the rightist politician, who launched into a tirade against the "dumping of foreign steel" on the U.S. market, arguing that this was the source of the "pressure they [the steel manufacturers] are under because of the competition."

The USWA member replied that, far from being on the verge of financial ruin due to competition, Armco, which was subsequently bought by AK Steel after the lockout began last September, "made a million dollars last year."

The company is trying to force unlimited mandatory overtime on the workers, which would also enable it to eliminate jobs.

Buchanan, whose presentation up to that point had been delivered with calm assurance, grew flustered. A few others in the audience confirmed in their comments that Armco had been very profitable and that the goal of the company in the lockout was to bust the union.

At that point, event organizer Virginia Brooks stood up and said to the unionist, "I invited all your people from that steel group to come free tonight. It's too bad you're the only one who came." Buchanan remarked that he was not "familiar with the situation" and quickly turned to address other questions.

After the meeting, the locked-out Steelworker told the Militant that he didn't like Buchanan's answer to him because he believes it is greed and not dumping that is behind the company's actions. He explained that he had attended the meeting to publicize the issues in their union fight.

The unionist pointed out that Buchanan was bragging about being in the White House during the Reagan administration, "which means he was part of firing all the air traffic controllers," a serious blow the government dealt the labor movement in 1981.