It's a wall that does what walls do: support the roof and foundation.

But to members of Local 1010 of the United Steelworkers union in East Chicago, it's a wall like no other, a wall hosting nine granite plaques framed in red oak, etched with the names of 387 fellow steelworkers who never returned home from work.

Above the plaques rest a granite headboard that reads: "In memory of all the steelworkers who have lost their lives on the job."

The wall commemorates the men and women who died between 1903 and 2008 at the Indiana Harbor Works plant of ArcelorMittal and its predecessor company, the former Inland Steel. More than half died before USW Local 1010 was formed in 1936.

On this Labor Day their names stand as testimony to the dangers of steel making and the efforts of Local 1010 to make the plant a safer place to work.

"The Wall," as it has come to be known, was publicly unveiled in a rededication ceremony this summer at the former Germano Hall. The Local 1010 office, rechristened as Memorial Hall, honors the 10 steelworkers -- four from Local 1010 -- who were shot and killed by Chicago police while demonstrating for a union in the Memorial Day Massacre at Republic Steel in 1937.

Many among the 150 attending the rededication ceremony seemed visibly moved by The Wall, rubbing their fingers over the names of friends, co-workers or loved ones.

"This is like our own Vietnam War Memorial," said Local 1010 President Tom Hargrove of Hammond. "It's one thing to know that all these men and women died on the job. It's another to see their names and the years of their deaths engraved in granite. It's like looking at a gravestone. It's very powerful. But I wonder, without our union, how many more victims there would have been."

Hargrove said the good news is that conditions have improved. Between 1903 and 1988 there were only three years without a worker fatality. But since 1989, ArcelorMittal Steel has recorded 12 of those 19 years without a steelworker death, he said. He attributed some of that improvement to the joint labor-management Inland Employees Safety Program launched that year.

He pointed out that this year the USW recently signed a global agreement with the more than 310,000 other steelworkers around the world employed by ArcelorMittal to establish minimum safety standards.

"We think this can save lives," he said.

Retired steelworker Don Lutes Jr., who, along with his late father, past 1010 President Don Lutes Sr., has spent 73 years with the union, said safety now ranks as the No. 1 issue both for ArcelorMittal management and Local 1010.

"For years it wasn't," Lutes recalled. "Production was. And many lives were lost because of unsafe conditions in the mill."

Lutes remembered when his father visited the wife of Inland Steel accident victim Johnny Gelon to break the news of her husband's death while she was in the hospital giving birth to their son.

"I'll never forget how sad he looked," Lutes said. Gelon's grandson, John Gelon, now serves on Local 1010's safety committee.

Dan Walters, 52, of Calumet Township, said creating the memorial was "a labor of love."

Walters, a maintenance electrician who serves on Local 1010's safety committee, framed and mounted the 52-pound granite panels, which were inscribed by former steelworker Brian Tennis of DOH Services in Blue Island, Ill.

"What I did was only a small token. These people went to work and never came home again. I was honored to do something for them," said Walters, who also completed much of the carpentry work on the remodeled Memorial Hall.

Javier Canchola, 71, of Merrillville, who recently celebrated his 50th year on the job, knew many of the steelworkers remembered on The Wall. They weren't just friends and co-workers, but family as well. Canchola's brother-in-law, Jesus Hurtado, died in a blast furnace accident in 1975 at age 33.

"He was so young. This is a beautiful thing the union did," Canchola said. "It's good to remember them."

Death didn't discriminate in the mill. The names inscribed in the gray stone reflect the ethnic diversity, both of the steel workers themselves and the region that was their home. Immigrants and native-born Americans alike share membership in the same elite fraternity. Northern and Southern Europeans, Asians, Latin Americans and blacks all belong.

Some shared the same surnames and, in an era when all a steelworker needed to get hired was a strong back and sometimes a relative already employed there, generations of fathers, sons and later, daughters, sought work with a company that offered good wages and benefits. Crane machinist Tony Bogdanich died in 1931, while crane machinist Joseph Bogdanich died in 1952. Blast furnace boiler washers Mike and George Mlacak were killed on Jan. 2, 1920.

While the overwhelming majority of the accident victims were men, at least a few women steelworkers died on the job, including Dolores Horvath, a materials transporter learner, who died in 1988.

"That wall represents everything this union has fought against," said Ed Sadlowski, a former District 31 USW director and son of an Inland steelworker. "When industry goes full out to raise production, safety often goes out the window. But we believe that safety doesn't interfere with production."

Jim Robinson, director of USW District 7, said his home local, 1010, has long held a reputation for fighting for safety, social justice and civil rights.

"I'm damned proud to be from this local," Robinson said. "We have an opportunity to leave a different culture behind, a culture of safety."

Jack Parton, former District 31 USW director, said, "I hope and pray nobody else's name is ever added to that list."