Tuesday June 5 6:34 PM ET
Steel Community Applauds Bush
By VICKI SMITH, Associated Press Writer
Cheers rippled through steel communities across the country Tuesday as President Bush called for an investigation of the import crisis that has devastated the domestic steel industry.
The International Trade Commission's work eventually could lead to restrictions on imports and relief measures for battered companies, but the investigation could take months to complete. ``I hope it isn't too little too late,'' said John Correnti, chairman and CEO of Alabama's Birmingham Steel Corp. (NYSE:BIR - news) Still, it's more hope than the steel industry has had in more than two years of pleading its case to the White House.
``We're happy to hear the news because we were getting just stonewalled,'' said Andrew ``Lefty'' Palm, Pennsylvania director for the United Steelworkers of America, which was planning to stage a rally at the capitol in Harrisburg on Tuesday. ``We didn't support him; I don't know if we'll support him in four years,'' he said of Bush. ``But I'll tell you right now ... I'm probably more comfortable with Bush on this issue than I was with Bill Clinton.'' The decision also resonated in West Virginia, where Vice President Dick Cheney campaigned last fall and pledged that a Republican administration would ``respond swiftly and firmly'' to violations of international trade law.
Bush ultimately carried the overwhelmingly Democratic state's five electoral votes and won one of the closest presidential elections in history. ``This does show that the administration is listening to our concerns. It shows us the administration can be trusted,'' said Mark Glyptis, president of the 3,500-member Independent Steelworkers Union at Weirton Steel Corp. (NYSE:WS - news), based in Weirton, W. Va.
Thousand of steel workers have lost their jobs since imports began flooding the market in 1998, and about 18 producers have filed for bankruptcy since 1997. ``I spent nine years in the Pennsylvania coal industry and saw my job disappear due to automation. Now I'm in the steel industry and I'm watching my job disappear,'' said Don Cortese, a steel worker from Washington, Pa. Cortese said those years, plus his 13 years in the steel industry, will ``be for nothing pretty soon.'' In Pittsburgh, USX Corp.'s U.S. Steel Group acting president Thomas J. Usher called the investigation ``a bold and responsive move'' but added that 20,000 jobs have been eliminated already and some 36,000 remain at risk.
``It sends a message to our trading partners that the United States will no longer be a dumping ground for the world's excess steel - that it's time for them to solve their overcapacity problems and end their market-distorting practices,'' he said. The International Trade Commission must make an initial determination of whether the industry has been hurt within 120 days. It submits a report and recommendations to the president, who then has 60 days to decide which course of action he will take.
Steelmaker LTV Corp., based in Cleveland, has blamed low-priced imports in part for its Dec. 29 bankruptcy declaration. As part of its restructuring, the company is closing a mill at its Cleveland Works and eliminating 900 jobs. ``We recognize that these actions could take many months before they have any effect,'' said spokesman Mark Tomasch. ``LTV must continue its efforts to restructure its business as a lower-cost steel maker.''
He, like others throughout the industry, is confident the investigation will find that U.S. producers have been hurt. ``I don't believe there should be any question about dumping,'' he said. |
