United Steelworkers who backed Donald Trump are facing down a bleak future as the clock ticks down on Joe Biden‘s presidency. Trump’s tariff wars are on track to tank the economy, according to the country’s top economists, and one of the first industries hit looks like it will be Pittsburgh’s steel industry.
Union workers in the battleground state are now coming to terms with a reality where their jobs will be moved out of state — that is, if they manage to keep them at all.
Apparently there isn’t a problem president-elect Donald Trump thinks he can’t fix with tariffs, and the failing U.S. Steel is just another example. The company has been an American industrial staple for more than 120 years, but its glory days are far behind it. As of 2024, U.S. Steel ranks 24th in the world — a whopping 16 places behind its 2008 rank as number eight. The publicly traded company quickly became a political symbol, one that both sides flocked to around the failing U.S. manufacturing sector.
It seems crazy that in the land of capitalism, a privately owned business doing business with another privately owned business — Nippon Steel, from the allied nation of Japan, no less — has become a political matter. Yet here we are. Both sides of the aisle view the merger as a negative, and President Biden has been blocking the deal for months — despite U.S. Steel’s insistence that without the 14.1 billion dollar merger, the company will fail.
Though Nippon Steel has said it’s “determined to protect and grow US Steel in a manner that reinforces American industry, domestic supply-chain resiliency, and US national security,” President Biden has already promised to kill the acquisition. Despite the fact that the decision will likely never fall to Trump, he felt the need to weigh in, and his stark veto of the merger in lieu of tariffs and taxes has left many steelworkers feeling betrayed.
“I told him, ‘I need one thing from you. I need you not to say you’re going to kill the deal on national television and in front of a couple thousand steelworkers you’re here for’,” one local USW vice president told Yahoo News.
Even as U.S. Steel flounders, there are plenty of Pittsburgh workers who are against the merger, though their only other option for a buyout is the Cleveland-Cliffs company. Should it succeed in acquiring U.S. Steel, it guarantees a monopoly. As Biden’s administration eyes the national security threat of the merger, one has to wonder if his team is also considering how yet another monopoly could affect workers and everyday Americans.
The U.S. government is no stranger to sticking its fingers into the world of corporate acquisitions, but it’s surprising coming from a man like Trump. He’s a loud proponent of small government, and is more than familiar with bowing to the whims of a board of shareholders. It’s led to speculation online that the only reason Trump doesn’t approve comes from a lack of incentivization from Nippon.
Trump’s Rube Goldberg-esque plan of tariffs and tax increases will do little to aid the company, average Americans, and unions — especially those steel workers who are already feeling the squeeze of a dying company. But hey, at least he gets to project a tough guy persona online, right?
Published: Dec 4, 2024 03:42 pm