It did not take long for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senators and a western Pennsylvania Congressman to react to the news that U.S. Steel would be sold to Japan’s Nippon Steel Company.
Nippon agreed to a sale price of $14.9 billion to purchase one of America’s most iconic companies which has its headquarters in Pittsburgh.
The $55 per share offer represents around a 40% premium to where U.S. Steel shares ended trading on Friday.
The deal will require regulatory approvals.
The acquisition of @U_S_Steel by a foreign company is wrong for workers and wrong for Pennsylvania. I’m gonna do everything I can to block it. pic.twitter.com/9EqohwRhRJ
— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) December 18, 2023
The U.S. Steel sale raises concern for Steelworker jobs, long-term investment in PA, and American industrial leadership.
Read my full statement below. pic.twitter.com/Rs1yczrfID
— Senator Bob Casey (@SenBobCasey) December 18, 2023
“U.S. Steel’s history is a part of so many Western Pennsylvania families—generations built a solid life working hard for the iconic America steel company,” said Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-17). “I am honored to represent the people who made the steel that built America.
“Our region knows all too well what it’s like to get screwed over, to see our hard work tossed aside and our good union jobs shipped overseas by corporate executives and Wall Street chasing cheap labor and fatter profits. Today’s announced sale to a foreign company feels like déjà vu all over again.
“This deal sounds an awful lot like a betrayal: of my community, of Steelworker jobs, and of American industrial leadership. Folks sent me to Washington to fight for us, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”
A Republican from neighboring Ohio also said he would oppose the deal, as Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) says he will “interrogate the long-term implications for the American people.”
🚨NEW: @JDVance1 on the foreign acquisition of US Steel
“A critical piece of America’s defense industrial base was auctioned off to foreigners for cash. I warned of this outcome months ago..rest assured that I will interrogate the long-term implications for the American people.” pic.twitter.com/F9jbL1Lew7
— William Martin (@wsmartin218) December 18, 2023
Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Dave McCormick also stood up for American workers, while taking a shot at Democratic leadership.
Bob Casey & Joe Biden have weakened America’s national security and economic standing in the world. We need to be a manufacturing country, with Americans working for American companies. https://t.co/UoD4CrFQlj
— Dave McCormick (@DaveMcCormickPA) December 18, 2023
“But the painful truth is that U.S. Steel, long the dominant local player in the industry, has never had anywhere near the commitment to Pittsburgh as Pittsburgh had to the corporation, writes Chris Briem, a regional economist with the Urban & Regional Analysis program at the University of Pittsburgh’s University Center for Social and Urban Research.
“And now a company that became moribund in strategic direction and management practices will be acquired by one from a country — Japan — that had no modern steelmaking when Andrew Carnegie first built the Edgar Thomson Works at Braddock, but continued to innovate long after U.S. Steel stopped doing so.
“That U.S. Steel’s future was far from Western Pennsylvania has been clear for years. Not only has the company canceled major investments in its regional plants – investments that were vital to their future – but recent investments have been concentrated in locations such as Alabama and Arkansas.
Though it has been decades since any steel has been produced within the limits of the City of Pittsburgh proper, nostalgia for what steel production means, and in particular what U.S. Steel means, has long exceeded its reality in southwestern Pennsylvania.”
2 Responses
I worked for US Steel for 45 years at the Lorain, Ohio plant. Since my retirement in 2015,that plant is now closed throwing hundreds of my fellow steelworkers out to the street. Also, I believe both the Baytown TX works and the Great Lakes MI works has been idled out,thus laying off more steelworkers. Of course the Corporate Elites are Covered by their “Golden Parachutes”
Vance is only concerned about losing USS because that steel is needed for the Trump Wehrmacht.