Steelworkers angry with Bush, nervous about future

Associated Press ^ | Friday, December 5, 2003 Posted: 1:55 PM EST (1855 GMT) | Who Cares?

[.cnI redruM]

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Calvin Croftcheck was faxing handwritten messages addressed to President Bush from union workers, their families and retirees when a worker at the U.S. Steel-owned Clairton Coke Works delivered the bad news: tariffs on foreign steel were being lifted.

[Blood of Tyrants]

If they are unable to compete, the answer is to lower your overhead and modernize your production methods, not to punsih those who have with tariffs/

[Xenalyte]

Ah, so what? They're all gay.

[Xenalyte]

I would add that I have a VERY hard time picturing a steelworker - gay or straight - characterizing a wasted effort as "all for naught."

[RightWhale]

the answer is to lower your overhead and modernize your production methods

This goes all the way back to WW II. We demolished the Japanese and German steel industry so they had to rebuild with the latest technology. Our own steel industry was of course intact but was old tech. For some reason our own steel industry had to continue with old tech, it being too expensive to update. It continued to be too expensive to update all along right up to now. Then environmental requirements made operations even more expensive and a lot of steel has gone into bankruptcy. They aren't even able to operate, not to mention modernizing. It's the story we were told in gradeschool in the 50s, it's the same story now. Looks like the only solution is to bomb our own steel industry to rubble.

[MrFreedom]

U.S tariffs, look at Nafta none, what will they use next time?

[SBprone]

It's the unions that should be putting out peace feelers to the GOP, not the other way around. Evidently they think that GOP control of Congress and the White House is a temporary thing.

If they're waiting for the Dems to take it all back they're going to be waiting for a very long time.

[q_an_a]

someone explain how the steel in holland, with no serious natural resouces, can be cheaper than in America?

[Agnes Heep]

Sigh.... it's tough to find a prez one agrees with on all the issues all the time.

In politics you never get 100 percent of what you want. It's always a mixed bag. But on the whole Bush has been good for this country, not least because he brought integrity back to the office of the Presidency.

[anniegetyourgun]

Agreed. I'm also glad to have someone in the office who is able to call evil what it is - and go after it.

[Cobra64]

This goes all the way back to WW II. We demolished the Japanese and German steel industry so they had to rebuild with the latest technology. Our own steel industry was of course intact but was old tech. For some reason our own steel industry had to continue with old tech, it being too expensive to update. It continued to be too expensive to update all along right up to now. Then environmental requirements made operations even more expensive and a lot of steel has gone into bankruptcy. They aren't even able to operate, not to mention modernizing. It's the story we were told in gradeschool in the 50s, it's the same story now. Looks like the only solution is to bomb our own steel industry to rubble.

I've been in the steel industry all of my adult life (I'm 55). Mgmt. and labor is what destroyed the domestic steel industry. Mgmt. squandered big bucks, and they also caved to labor.

[RKV]

Depends on how much capital they put into the production processes and what level of government subsidy they get. In all if a foreign government wants to subsidize their producers we should take advantage of them. It is a stupid and counterproductive thing to do, and it is morally and economically right for us to buy as much as they will subsidize. In the long run it hurts them more than it hurts us.

[RightWhale]

I was in the hospital in Pittsburgh for a couple days some years ago, and the guy sharing the room was a retired steelworker. He had already lost one leg to diabetes, but he was huge, very overweight and about to lose his other leg. He said that all the time he was working he was around the furnaces and he was big then but never overweight. Once he got away from the heat and exertion he couldn't control his weight or metabolism anymore. He wasn't so old, maybe 60.

Anyway, the gov't hasn't done much to address the basic problem of modernization, but those directly involved haven't done it either. It's like nobody has taken an interest in the long-term, just trying to get by year by year while the whole American steel industry fades into history, first one leg, then the other. Union and management have worked together in this way, fighting each other until there's nothing left to fight over.

[raybbr]

We demolished the Japanese and German steel industry so they had to rebuild with the latest technology.

The sad part was that we gave it to them. I remember my father had to give tours and show the Japanese how the caster at South Works worked. For the most part the big mills stayed stagnant technolically. The smaller newer mills are state of the art.

[RightWhale]

The sad part was that we gave it to them.

Same thing happened to the navies and merchant marine. We scuttled their fleets for them and then assisted in various ways with building new, state-of-the-art fleets. Granted the Japanese and Germans haven't been particularly interested in rebuilding the navies.

[RJayneJ]

From what I've heard on news networks (including but not limited to FNC), lifting the tariff will actually help a lot of small businesses who use steel in their manufacturing. They were, I guess, paying a lot more for steel while the tariffs were in place.

You're correct, plus there was a threatened retaliation of a trade war that would harm our budding recovery. Bush did the prudent thing. He gave the steel industry 22 months to get their act together.

My son works in a steel mill in Northern Kentucky, but lives in Ohio and is a carpenter by trade. I can't see him voting for a Democrat, ever.

[jagrmeister]

Liberal media bias alert.

[CHUCKfromCAL]

As a former Bethlehem Steel employee I can tell you what the problem with the US steel industry is. It is overly generous benefits and retirement programs that were negotiated in the 50's, 60's and 70's.

Our labor costs are in line and our productivity is high enough but the retirement programs have drained away the industries working capital. No money for modernization of plant and equipment.

[nightowl]

The Steel Union endorsed Dick Gephardt, so screw 'um! W did something for them (tariffs) that Clinton refused to do and they don't appreciate it. They show their liberal democrap hand by keeping it held out for more.

[aruanan]

Steelworkers angry with Bush, nervous about future

Alternate headline: Users of Steel Happy with Bush, Optimistic about Future

[CFC__VRWC]

>>>>>>>>>>"Our union will now work very hard to make sure George W. Bush joins the ranks of the unemployed next year,"

I just love how the media is desperately trying to spin the steel tariff roll back as a huge political problem for the President. Bush put a fair amount of political capital on the line to enact these tariffs, the union promised to support him in return, and then they promptly took the money and ran, going all out to deliver votes to the Democrats. He would have been better off not doing anything in the first place.