PA steelworker rep predicts 'common sense' will drive her coworkers to support Harris
In Pennsylvania, both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are vying for the votes of unionized steelworkers in the must-win battleground state. But Harris may have an advantage over Trump among that key voting bloc.
According to a Saturday report in the Guardian, the issue of U.S. Steel's potential sale to Japan-based Nippon Steel Corp. has loomed large over the 2024 election among Western Pennsylvania's steelworkers. United Steelworkers International (USI) has come out against the deal, and both Harris and Trump are taking the union's side as negotiations continue over Nippon's proposed $14.1 billion offer.
While Trump won the Keystone State in 2016, President Joe Biden recaptured it in 2020. Keli Vereb, who is a USI rep, told the Guardian that it's unlikely her fellow steelworkers will support the Republican ticket this year.
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“I’ve learned not to be comfortable with any election because we didn’t think Trump could win in 16... but I think people are going to vote more common sense this year," Vereb said.
U.S. Steel — which employed approximately 340,000 people at its post-World War II peak — now has just around 4,000 workers, though it claims its operations support roughly 11,000 jobs in the region and is responsible for $3.6 billion in annual economic activity. The company's representatives claim the sale to Nippon would bolster the area's economy and that the new Japanese owner would protect workers' jobs.
Vereb cautions that it would be "foolish" to take the company at its word. Because the USI's contract is up for renewal in just under two years, the union fears Nippon would make cutbacks at the Pittsburgh-area plant and move jobs to non-union states. Workers also say Nippon's history of "dumping" Japanese steel into American markets — which has led to rapid price drops and eliminated jobs — would continue unabated if the sale went through. But the company's messaging that workers have no choice but to support the deal is starting to break through with USI-affiliated steelworkers at U.S. Steel's Clairton Mill Works.
“They say: ‘If you don’t support us, then we’re gonna shut this place down, and if that happens you can thank your union leadership,’” Rob Hutchison, president of USI's Local 1219, told the Guardian. “When [rank and file] have that threat in their face eight to 12 hours per day, then it starts to become something they think about.”
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The Guardian reports that nearly one in four Pennsylvania voters are union workers, giving organized labor significant weight in deciding the 2024 election in the battleground state. However, the publication also reported that there's not much confidence in either Harris or Trump to save steelworkers' jobs among some members.
"They lie all the time, and I don’t trust either one of them," a USI retiree named "Jack" told the outlet.
Whether the sale is approved rests in the hands of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which is staffed with Biden administration appointees. While CFIUS was scheduled to make a final decision about the U.S. Steel-Nippon deal this month, it has announced it will postpone its ruling until after the November election.
Click here to read the Guardian's report in full.
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