(Bloomberg) -- United Steelworkers President David McCall is making a final push ahead of November’s US election to stress to members why union leadership opposes a Japanese takeover of United States Steel Corp. as some rank-and-file members openly challenge his stance.
McCall said he has met with many members in recent weeks to underscore his concerns with Nippon Steel Corp.’s $14.1 billion offer and vows to spend the next 13 days reinforcing the message to steelworkers. He argues that there’s no clear guarantee the Japanese producer would keep union jobs years down the line and its promised investments may not be all they’re cracked up to be.
The USW, which has its headquarters in Pennsylvania and has backed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris to win on Nov. 5, is viewed as an influential voice in a key battleground state. McCall’s opposition to the Nippon Steel deal has become a defining issue for much of his 13-month tenure, and his last-minute push to convince members shows how contentious the debate has become.
In a sign of how the deal has gained more vocal support from some steel workers in Pennsylvania, a group of union members recently spoke to a Fox News morning show to publicly say they support Nippon Steel’s takeover of the iconic American company, even as McCall and the union leaders have been steadfast in their opposition since the deal was announced in December.
“I’ve met with them in the office and told them what the problems are,” McCall said in a phone interview. “I’m meeting with our members the next 13 days, a lot of our members.”
The deal has been at a standstill for more than a month, since the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or Cfius, granted the companies an extension. That pushed the fate of the politically contentious transaction past the election. Republican nominee Donald Trump has promised to kill the deal if elected, while Vice President Harris has stopped short of such a pledge, though she said US Steel should remain domestically owned.
McCall’s stumping for Harris is a sign of the Democrat’s enduring ties with the leadership of the union, even as Trump makes inroads with some workers. It’s a dynamic that led the Teamsters, for instance, to abstain from an endorsement. The support for Harris comes amid signs of dissent within USW’s membership over the leadership stance, such as when a group of US Steel workers joined Trump on stage at an Oct. 19 campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
“I want our members to know our support of Harris isn’t about politics — it’s about policy,” McCall said.
The steelworkers can’t block the deal themselves, but they hold a significant amount of political sway.
President Joe Biden had publicly vowed to kill Nippon Steel’s takeover when it lands on his desk, though the latest Cfius move keeps the proposed transaction alive.
Read: Biden Aide Downplays Nippon Steel Extension in Deal Review
McCall revealed he met Biden last month to discuss his concerns that included the future of US Steel’s blast furnace operations, Nippon Steel’s commitments and national defense concerns under Japanese ownership. Biden listened and understood, McCall said, calling it a “good informal dialog between him and me and a couple other people.”
McCall said he was dismayed by the Cfius extension, which came after his meeting with Biden.
“I was taken off guard by it and disappointed,” said McCall, who said he thought a decision should have been made at the time. “I was disappointed in the fact that they let them pull the application and refile and give them another 90 days.”
He said he hasn’t spoken to anyone in the Biden administration recently about the deal and he’s never spoken with Cfius.
Nippon Steel previously made a commitment to invest $1.4 billion in capital spending, an additional $1 billion at its Mon Valley facility near Pittsburgh and $300 million to revamp a blast furnace at Gary Works in Indiana. It also pledged no layoffs and no plant closures due to the transaction. McCall said there are no guarantees on future layoffs or plant closures if Nippon Steel’s board finds it convenient to do so.
Nippon Steel’s investments will build on the steelmaking legacy in Mon Valley and Gary for the benefit of all stakeholders and the American steel industry for generations, the company said in a Thursday email.
McCall’s next 13 days will be about convincing members why Harris is better for the Steelworkers than Trump, especially given that the Biden administration’s policies that have helped US labor.
Harris “has come out and said she’ll support these policies that are generational, transformational policies that have been put into place,” said McCall, who questions those steelworkers who show support Trump and his stand on tariffs. “Tariffs by themselves aren’t the answer.”
--With assistance from Josh Wingrove.
(Updates with McCall’s comments about having had no recent contact with the administration on the US Steel deal.)
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.