At a rally in Pennsylvania this past week, Donald Trump pledged to double foreign steel tariffs to 50%. He argues this action is the key to saving the weakened US steel industry. The previous president launched his aerospace proposal amid intense negotiations over a $14 billion government-backed hostile takeover of US Steel. Nippon Steel of Japan is behind the bid, something that Trump initially opposed but has now taken a 180 degree turn on. US Steel, America’s second-biggest maker of steel, is now reeling from the triple-whammy impact of unfair foreign imports. Workers are understandably spooked by encroaching job loss and whether the industry—and their jobs—will even be around in the long-term.
At the rally, Trump asserted that the increased tariffs would create tens of thousands of jobs, reigniting hope among some steelworkers. Skepticism looms large in the community. Doug May, a retired steelworker, disputed Trump’s claims regarding the reopening of Granite City, asserting that it was due to cyclical market conditions rather than Trump’s policies. “Granite City was going to start back up anyway,” May stated. He warned that the supposedly “partnership” that was being cheered at the rally could soon become a curse.
Just this past spring, a notable flashpoint occurred when President Biden nixed Nippon Steel’s takeover attempt of US Steel. He accomplished this by citing national security concerns. Even though Trump was originally against the deal earlier this year, he’s celebrating it now as a key step towards revitalizing the steel industry. “We are once again pouring American steel into the spine of our country,” Trump remarked, framing the revival of the industry as part of his broader agenda to restore American manufacturing.
Yet, despite these lofty promises, workers are still rightly skeptical. Mikayla Prescott, a worker at the Irvin site, questioned the specifics of the proposed deal, asking, “Are we still going to be employed when this whole thing goes through, and are there going to be improvements to our plant?” Her concerns are common among employees who worry that political posturing will not lead to deliverable action.
The American region of the United Steel Workers (USW) union has weighed in on the decision. President David McCall highlighted the importance of written commitments from management, stating, “There is a vast difference between public relations and putting commitments in writing.” He cautioned the rosy narrative shared at the rally could be misleading. Workers require tangible, ironclad guarantees before they will believe anything their new labor-friendly overlords may promise in return for their loyalty.
For her part, May was particularly brutal in condemning Trump’s corrosive policy legacy on labor issues. He noted that if Trump actually cared about steelworkers, he wouldn’t be making anti-union appointments to leadership positions in labor organizations. “If Trump really had steel workers’ backs, he wouldn’t be making anti-union appointments to the National Labor Relations Board,” May asserted. He expressed concerns about Nippon Steel’s track record, stating, “The devil is always in the details, and that is especially true with a bad actor like Nippon Steel that has again and again violated our trade laws.”
Debates over tariffs and foreign ownership of US Steel have begun to intensify. Meanwhile, workers are left to wonder what will happen to them. Given the cyclical nature of the industry, the prospect is positive but caution would be prudent in these rosy times. “The ‘partnership’ that those at the rally are celebrating could become your very nemesis in a short period of time,” May warned.