WASHINGTON, D.C. — “Only something akin to death counseling can help these workers.” This quote from a 1983 Time Magazine article expressed the feelings of a senior Bethlehem Steel industrial-relations coordinator describing steelworkers being laid off after its Lackawanna Steel Plant outside of Buffalo closed.
This quote rings in my head as I remember watching my hometown of Cleveland decaying while I was growing up. Fortunately, Cleveland has revived, but is nowhere near its greatness during the Millionaires’ Row era.
Yet, this quote will ring true today for the hardworking employees of the Mon Valley and Gary Works blast furnaces if politics and union stubbornness around the Nippon Steel-U.S. Steel merger upend their livelihoods.
The Mon Valley Works plants are the last U.S. Steel blast furnaces operated in Pennsylvania, while the Gary Works facility in Indiana is their largest mill in America. Thousands of jobs in Ohio and across the country depend on the steel produced at these sites. Nippon has the ability and assets to keep them running. If the deal collapses, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. becomes the likely buyer, an outcome that regulators could construe as creating a monopoly, leading it to be broken up, and returning to square one.
This argument isn’t about patriotism. I am as patriotic as any Cleveland native. I shipped for Marine Corps Boot Camp nine days after I graduated. I am a 100% disabled veteran from my service in Iraq, and, as an ethnic Pole, I write this on my eighth trip to Ukraine to resupply medical and surgical units less than two miles from the combat Zero Line. Japan as a U.S. ally helps counter Chinese expansion. This deal would not only assist this but also preserve our steel industry and prevent a monopoly from forming.
“While we would all enjoy larger pay checks and more fringe benefits, we must realize that without the necessary increase in productivity to support them, then we will not survive.” This was the parting shot to union leaders by the general manager of Bethlehem Steel’s Lebanon, Pennsylvania, plant in 1980 before he retired. Hundreds of workers lost their jobs overnight. This could be a very real possibility for steelworkers in Cleveland, Gary, and the Mons Valley, despite the alternatives being much brighter than what Bethlehem Steel was facing.
Nippon Steel would keep U.S. Steel in Pittsburgh, allow it to retain its name and storied brand, keep the Gary Works and Mon Valley Works open, and create new jobs at these facilities because of technology transfers. Nippon Steel has also stated that it will bolster American national security by not laying off or offshoring any jobs, and not interfering in any trade measures that U.S. Steel wants to pursue in response to unfair foreign trade practices as a subsidiary. Lastly, Nippon Steel has pledged to honor all existing union agreements.
If plants shutter, the impact would be catastrophic. Thousands of jobs in Ohio and across the supply chain could be lost, including direct job losses in Gary and the Mon Valley, which will only expand poverty in these areas. How is it “patriotic” to force our fellow Americans out of work?
We must always put America first. However, in the face of no other choice, the United Steelworkers, Congress, and the Biden administration need to face reality. Everything is at stake. I beg you, from all the way in Ukraine, under threat of drones, and with artillery firing in the background, approve the deal.
Jonathan Lubecky is a consultant in Washington, D.C., and native of Cleveland who wrote this while volunteering in Ukraine.
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