OAN’s Brooke Mallory
11:13 AM – Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Senator John Fetterman declared on Monday that he will try to block the $14.9 billion sale of U.S. Steel Corp. to Nippon Steel, a Japanese steel manufacturer, calling the deal “outrageous.”
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The announcement of the purchase on Monday caused a 25% increase in U.S. Steel’s stock price. Fetterman (D-Pa.) expressed his disapproval of the transaction by writing that it was “wrong for workers and wrong for Pennsylvania” in a post on X, the website formerly known as Twitter.
“I’m gonna do everything I can to block it,” Fetterman wrote on X (Twitter).
“I live across the street from U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thompson plant in Braddock,” Fetterman said. “It’s absolutely outrageous that U.S. Steel has agreed to sell themselves to a foreign company. Steel is always about security—both our national security and the economic security of our steel communities. I am committed to doing anything I can do, using my platform and my position, to block this foreign sale.”
In Pennsylvania, U.S. Steel “supported an estimated 11,417 jobs,” including over 3,700 direct jobs, according to a press release from October. The October report said that U.S. Steel contributed approximately $3.6 billion to the state and local economies in the fiscal year 2022.
In addition to reposting a video of his home immediately across from the Braddock, Pennsylvania, steel factory on the social media platform, Fetterman used his message to reaffirm his support for the state’s steelworkers.
“This is yet another example of hard-working Americans being blindsided by greedy corporations willing to sell out their communities to serve their shareholders. I stand with the men and women of the steelworkers and their union way of life,” he asserted.
“We cannot allow them to be screwed over or left behind. I promise to them and to all forgotten communities across Pennsylvania that I will work with [Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.)] and the rest of the delegation to fight like hell to make this right,” Fetterman continued.
The press release from U.S. Steel stated that the headquarters will stay in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and that Nippon Steel will “honor all collective bargaining agreements with the United Steelworkers Union as part of its commitment to maintaining strong stakeholder relations.”
One of the contributing elements in the acquisition, according to Nippon Steel, was the increased demand for steel brought about by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
“Energy and manufacturing industries [will] return to the U.S. under changes in the world economy structure and cheap energy in the U.S. The infrastructure bill and spending is expected to drive steel demand uptick moving forward,” the company wrote in a statement.
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