Sherrod Brown Fights For Ohio’s Steel Industry, Stands Up To Nippon Steel Deal

COLUMBUS, OH  – This week, Sherrod visited the Cleveland Cliffs’ Cleveland Works mill while continuing his fight to prevent Nippon Steel, a foreign company, from acquiring U.S. Steel. Sherrod will always fight to protect Ohio jobs and Ohio’s steel industry.

Sherrod Brown: “We can’t let a foreign company swoop in and ignore the voices of union workers.”

Read / watch what they’re saying below:

WKYC: Sherrod Fights for Ohio’s Steel Industry

WKYC: “Just a short time ago, Brown toured the Cleveland Cliffs steel mill and met with steelworkers there and he claims that Nippon would ignore the voices of the workers.”

Sherrod: “We can’t sell out workers and undermine U.S. trade enforcement by allowing the sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel. We will do everything we can to stop that.”

• Senator Sherrod Brown visited Cleveland-Cliffs’ steel mill Wednesday to meet with union leaders and workers on a campaign to halt the sale of U.S. Steel to Japanese-based Nippon Steel.
• Brown said he wants President Joe Biden to block the deal he said could potentially affect hundreds of local jobs.
• “We can’t let a foreign company swoop in and ignore — this is the most important point — ignore the voices of union workers and buy a major American steel manufacturer all behind closed doors,” Brown said.
• Nippon has treated workers as a “nuisance,” Brown said during the press conference. He is pushing the Biden administration to investigate national security concerns and other ways to block the merger.
• If the deal goes through, Nippon will likely reduce the company’s steelmaking capacity, citing the company’s closure of four blast furnaces across the country over the last four years that displaced 6,000 workers, said Donnie Blatt, the director of the local steelworkers’ union.

Crain’s Cleveland Business: Sherrod Brown lambastes Nippon bid for U.S. Steel
Dan Shingler – March 27, 2024

• U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown came out strongly against Nippon Steel’s bid to buy U.S. Steel Corp. at an event held at Cleveland-Cliffs’ big Cleveland Works mill and hosted by the United Steelworkers and Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves.
• Both Brown and Goncalves said a Nippon deal would be bad for the steelworkers at U.S. Steel, as well as bad for the U.S. economy and national security. Speaking in the historic mill with coils of flat-rolled steel being lifted and moved in the background, and United Steelworkers Local 979 members all around them, they both emphasized the potential impact a Nippon deal could have for workers.
• Brown said he met with representatives of Nippon after they proposed buying U.S. Steel in December for $15 billion in cash. He said it was clear to him from that meeting that Nippon didn’t intend to work with the union.
• Additionally, Brown said he’s asking the Biden administration to investigate and kill the Nippon deal, something he said the president is on board with.
• The Ohio senator added that he wants to ensure that any company that buys U.S. Steel will put the interest of its workers first.
• USW District 1 president Donnie Blatts said his union strongly opposes the Nippon bid and favors Cliffs because Cliffs and Goncalves have worked in close cooperation with the union. Nippon, on the other hand, violated its collective bargaining agreement with the USW by accepting the Nippon offer without consulting the union, he said.

WEWS: Cleveland-Cliffs CEO says he’s still interested in acquiring US Steel, but no bid is on the table
John Kosich – March 27, 2024

• [Sherrod] Brown, along with fellow Ohio Senator JD Vance, launched a bi-partisan effort to block the deal for a number of reasons, including national security concerns.
• “The president needs to block this deal. The potential sale of a major American steel company to Nippon Steel could jeopardize U.S. trade enforcement – enforcement that’s crucial to leveling the playing field for all Ohio steelworkers,” said Brown.

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