Fearing that their voices are being ignored on the matter, U.S. steelworkers from a key swing state have started sounding off over a looming company sale to Japan-based Nippon.
“I want the people who started a couple [of] weeks ago to retire 30 years from now. That’s my goal. That should be everybody’s goal,” David Morgan, a worker against the deal, told FOX Business’ Lydia Hu. “And I’m not sure the Nippon Deal will be guaranteeing that.”
On the other hand, some feel Nippon’s offer and pledges for investment in the company will protect their jobs now – and into the future.
“I think we look at it more as saving everything that we’ve worked for, for the last 27 years,” U.S. Steel employee Jack Maskil chimed in, next to three other colleagues who support the proposed plan.
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“I would say that it seems that most people that are in the middle, the guys and girls that are going to work every day, are mostly in favor of the deal,” steelworker Dan Rojtas also told Hu on Tuesday.
President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and 45th President Donald Trump share a rare alignment as they all have voiced opposition to the proposed takeover of U.S. Steel by Nippon.
Last week, multiple reports surfaced that Biden is planning to block the deal on national security grounds upon the conclusion of an investigation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
Other prominent politicians, like Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., have additionally raised concerns around rumors that Nippon has previously threatened to move their headquarters out of Pittsburgh if the sale were to be blocked.
“I know that in my department, the fire and safety department, there’s 48 of us. I polled our guys last night: 32 replied to the poll and 100% of them were in favor of the deal,” Rojtas said.
“I met a lady the other day that has a welding supply, but her biggest contract is with U.S. Steel. She has 28 employees. She said they would fold if the [shop] closed… here in West Mifflin. All 28 people will have to find jobs somewhere else. And that’s just one vendor,” the city’s mayor also explained to Hu.
The workers’ argument goes beyond their own livelihoods, as Maskil expanded that his peers are trying to salvage “everything that the folks who are being hired now want to work for, for 27 years and beyond. I think of it as representing all the folks out on that floor that I care about.”
A spokesperson for Nippon Steel told FOX Business in a statement last week: “Nippon Steel is aware of the rumors regarding our proposed transaction with U.S. Steel. We have not received any update related to the CFIUS process. Since the outset of the regulatory review process, we have been clear with the administration that we do not believe this transaction creates any national security concerns.”
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FOX Business’ Eric Revell and Charles Creitz contributed to this report.
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