U.S. Steel is in the spotlight this week.
The company is headquartered in Pittsburgh and was founded in the early 1900s by Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and Charles Schwab. Their products built America’s first skyscrapers. Many of its schools, hospitals, and other buildings. Its roads, bridges, and railroads. For that reason, the company’s steel and workers have become embedded in American life.
Now U.S. Steel looks to be shifting to international ownership, as a press release shares that the company has agreed to be bought by Nippon Steel, Japan’s leading steel manufacturer.
Many aren’t happy with this decision, including Pennsylvania U.S. Senator John Fetterman, who called the sale “outrageous.”
He expressed his disappointment with the foreign sale, noting that he lives across the street from one of the company’s plants in Braddock, PA. As he’s been known to do during his time in office, he emphasized the effects this could have on the company’s workers.
“And I am committed to doing anything I can do, from using my platform or my position in order to block this. And I’m going to fight for the steelworkers and their union way of life here as well, too. And we cannot ever allow them to be screwed over or left behind.”
Senator Fetterman called this another example of greedy corporations focusing on their shareholders while selling out their communities and hard-working employees.
The sale was worth more than $14 billion and has been the biggest step in what’s been seen as the company’s gradual decline with it losing its title as the country’s biggest steelmaker years ago.
CEO David Burritt said this will benefit the company and the United States. The deal supposedly allows the name of the company to stay the same and for the headquarters to remain in Pittsburgh.
