Our nation is at the cusp of a historic opportunity: Finally rebuilding the domestic steel industry, growing jobs, and nurturing stronger communities after decades of neglecting our critical supply chains.
As the president of the United Steelworkers, North America’s largest industrial union, I see that possibility embodied in the hard work and dedication of our members at U.S. Steel. They work every day to support our nation’s infrastructure, bolster national security, and keep us safe at home and abroad.
But instead of embracing this promise, U.S. Steel last year revealed plans to sell out to Japanese-owned Nippon Steel, and it was immediately clear who would benefit: not the American people, not workers, but executives and shareholders. That’s it.
This proposed deal isn’t about pursuing the promise of America—it’s about pursuing a quick buck. In fact, U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt stands to lock down a $70 million payout if the deal is approved.
It’s clear that executives at Nippon and U.S. Steel view the union members who actually create U.S. Steel’s wealth as expendable pawns, just as corporate steelmakers did workers during the 1980s downturn that wiped out thousands of jobs and nearly obliterated the industry.
Back then, I volunteered at a union food bank, supplying groceries to laid-off steelworkers. I also helped to put together programs for saving retiree pensions that companies abandoned during that period. I refuse to see USW members face those kinds of hardships all over again.
I lived through those awful days. Many of my union siblings still bear the scars as well. And let me be clear: We’re never going back.
It’s taken decades of painstaking effort to rebuild America’s profitable steel industry, beat back unfair trade practices by countries like China and Japan, and position domestic steelmaking as a linchpin of U.S. national security.
My union has spent just as long rebuilding steelmaking’s middle-class workforce. Our contracts at U.S. Steel, Cleveland-Cliffs, and other companies require family-sustaining wages, safe conditions, job security, and innovative benefits like domestic violence leave. They also require the system-wide capital investments essential to ensuring America’s steel industry remains competitive.
In recent months, U.S. Steel and Nippon have made a lot of noise pitching their deal and trying to confuse the public. But they’ve never shown how a Japanese company’s acquisition of a key U.S. steelmaker could result in anything other than a country that’s less prosperous and less safe.
They’ve never provided the enforceable and unconditional guarantees that are vital to protecting jobs, honoring pension obligations, maintaining robust production levels, or ensuring continued American access to steel made right here.
There’s nothing to stop Nippon from shutting down union plants and cutting union jobs in a few years while they build up low-wage, non-union facilities in the South.
U.S. Steel and Nippon continue to make promises that aren’t worth the paper they’re written on, especially in light of U.S. Steel’s record of shortchanging workers, slashing jobs, and abandoning commitments.
For instance, when USW and Cleveland-Cliffs together fought tooth and nail last year on a trade case aimed at saving the nation’s tin mill facilities, U.S. Steel refused to join us and at the same time idled tin facilities.
U.S. Steel vowed several years ago to build a new headquarters in Pittsburgh and make important investments in the nearby Mon Valley Works. It broke both of those promises.
Instead of working with us to grow the industry, U.S. Steel has battled us at every turn. It gutted the Great Lakes Works in Michigan and Granite City Works in Illinois. It closed East Chicago Tin in Indiana, UPI tin operations in California, Lorain Tubular in Ohio, and Lone Star Tubular in Texas.
So when U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt declares how good the Nippon deal will be for workers, I’m not going to take him at his word.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris understand what’s at stake. USW members know they’ll continue to oppose the sale, and we call on other elected officials, at all levels of government, to show that they also stand with us.
Sadly, U.S. Steel refuses to quit while it’s behind. With the Nippon deal circling the drain, despite all of the money squandered to promote it, the company has threatened to slash more jobs and move out of Pittsburgh unless it gets its way.
This is old-style union-busting and corporate thuggery—hardly a game plan for taking a vital industry to the next level.
U.S. Steel can be a leader in harnessing the possibility of American steel to build a better future for its workers and all of our communities. But that means partnering with union workers, not Nippon Steel.
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