It started with a threat, a coalition and an
eventual victory.
But the fight against the dumping of foreign
steel imports that began the spring of 1998 with the Ohio Valley versus South Korea
campaign was only a prelude to a much larger and potentially devastating fight for
survival.
As 1998 neared its final days, many steel
analysts publicly wondered if the end may be near for the domestic steel industry, or at
least the weaker players in a global game of economics.
The hint of what was to come began in April
1998 when Weirton Steel Corporate spokesmen Gregg Warren asked to speak to the Independent
Steelworkers Union Executive Committee about the threat from a South Korean Steel company
called Hanbo Steel.
The I.S.U. and Weirton Steel quickly
organized what would become a national campaign.
"The South Korean government has
subsidized Hanbo with $5.8 billion since 1993. This could have an enormous impact on
employment levels at Weirton Steel. Right now the threat is silent but deadly. If nothing
is done, Weirton Steel could see the impact later this year or early next year,"
I.S.U. President Mark Glyptis stated in a May 21, 1998 article in The Wheeling
Intelligencer.
Company spokesman Gregg Warren cited the
threat of cheap foreign steel in the same article.
"They (Hanbo) sell steel at low prices
and companies that use it can make their products cheaper."
"The downstream companies are flooding
our market and threatening the U.S. Pipe and Tube producers. If the pipe and tube
producers are harmed, that means less steel they will buy," declared Warren.
The Ohio Valley versus South Korea campaign
kicked into high gear with a petition drive and a public letter from the I.S.U. to
President Clinton.
The letter appeared in the front page of the
Union monthly newsletter, The I.S.U. Update and reminded President Clinton and Vice
President Gore of a 1992 campaign pledge made during a stop in Weirton.
Then Presidential candidate Bill Clinton
promised to watch out for the domestic steel industry and to enforce fair trade laws.
"It’s time to Stand Up For Steel
In America," the May edition of the union publication urged the President.
That open letter to President Clinton caught
the attention of the editors at the Steubenville Herald Star who published an
editorial on May 9, 1998 urging the Clinton Administration to turn up the heat on foreign
steel dumping practices.
"We join the men and women at Weirton
Steel who have taken the initiative to go to the top level of our government for help.
We can only hope that Clinton’s staff
will realize the importance of the letter from Weirton and see that the President gives
the report his full attention," the Herald Star editorial declared.
The Ohio Valley versus South Korea campaign
culminated in the delivery of some 12,000 signed petitions in June to a Congressional
delegation rally to forward the message to the White House.
And in a eerie prophetic message, John
Saunders, President of Local 1238, USA at Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation’s
Martins Ferry plant warned of a more serious threat.
"If trade regulations are not enforced,
we could see more import problems develop from countries like Russia and the Ukrania which
are also of concern to us," Saunders noted.
The fight ended in victory in early July
when the South Korean government announced the closing of the Hanbo Steel company. The
government subsidized steel giant would be sold, the South Koreans said in an attempt to
keep billions of dollars from the International Monetary Fund to continue flowing into
that country.
A July 12 editorial in the Steubenville
Herald-Star cited the victory but also warned of future problems.
"With the Asia economic slump, there is
a glut of available steel and steel making capacity that continue to flood the U.S.
Marketplace.
"Hanbo is gone for now, but the issue
lives on."
The satisfying victory in the Ohio Valley
versus South Korea turned into a brief respite for what was quietly shaping up to be a
major war for survival.
In September, 1998, Weirton Steel Chief
Executive Officer Richard K. Riederer met with steel industry leaders to plan a massive
counter-offensive against recent steel imports.
"There is ample evidence that illegal
imports are already taking their toll on the U.S. Steel Industry’s profit abilities
and on our employees’ jobs. We are seeing the beginning of a crisis situation. Our
industry is being harmed and the trade issues must soon be resolved before the situation
worsens," Riederer said on November 10, 1998.
Riederer blamed the faltering Asia economy
as well as countries looking for a place to dump steel in order to make cash as the reason
for the growing crisis.
Earlier on September 30, 1998, the I.S.U.
and Weirton Steel had joined the United Steelworkers of America and 12 other steel
companies in filing trade cases against steel imports from Brazil, Japan, and Russia.
The filings were aimed at countering a surge
in imports to the U.S. which the domestic producers claimed harmed their businesses.
According to I.S.U. President Mark Glyptis,
"give us a level playing field and we can compete with anyone. But the import crisis
has tilted the field and we’re running uphill. It’s time to put "fair"
back in fair trade."
The latest campaign to fight foreign steel
imports quickly gathered momentum on a national level when the United Steelworkers of
America International offices in Pittsburgh called for a "Stand Up For Steel"
campaign.
Locally, a "Stand Up For Steel"
pledge drive kicked off in high gear with scores of volunteers manning tables in local
malls and businesses, sporting events, craft shows and churches to prove the Ohio Valley
was united in the fight to stop the illegal dumping of foreign steel.
The first local rally came at the U.S.W.A.
Local 1190 Headquarters in Steubenville, Ohio where several hundred steelworkers,
families, and supporters gathered to protest the lack of action by the Clinton
administration in dealing with the steel crisis.
The Steubenville rally came just days before
Weirton Steel was set to layoff the first round of union employees in what would
eventually total 342 union members.
"What a shame and a disgrace in this
country when people have to call and beg their government to do the right thing,"
Ohio Congressman Bob Ney told the crowd.
And it was at the Steubenville rally when
I.S.U. Chief Mark Glyptis started calling publicly for a caravan to Washington, D.C.
"I think the only way we’re going
to get this done is to caravan to Washington, D.C. We have to take it out of this valley
and make it a national or even international issue," Glyptis told the crowd.
The next rally to "Stand Up For
Steel" came on November 12, 1998 in downtown Weirton when 5,000 plus people gathered
at the I.S.U. Union Hall to march down Main Street to the Cove Field Baseball Field behind
the Millsop Community Center.
Arm in arm, Mark Glyptis and David
Robertson, Corporate Vice-President of Legal Affairs and Human Resources were joined by
Ohio Congressman Bob Ney and Jim Traficant and West Virginia Congressman Alan Mollohan.
At the ball field they were joined by
hundreds more including West Virginia Governor Cecil Underwood.
The flag-waving, horn-blowing crowd heard
speaker after speaker call for action by President Clinton.
Traficant called it the most aggressive
labor rally he has seen in more than 20 years.
"You will come to Washington.... and
when you do you’ll have the support of Democratics and Republicans alike,"
Traficant urged the crowd.
He also began the political slant the
campaign would also take in an attempt to bring pressure on the Clinton administration.
Traficant urged the faithful to begin to
send the message nationally to President Clinton but also to Vice-President Al Gore.
And that was the message union leaders
delivered December 12, 1998 to Congressman Ney.
Ney, who as a member of Congress was still
undecided on the issue of impeachment, was urged by I.S.U. officials to use the
opportunity to get their message to the Clinton-Gore team.
"You will probably be receiving phone
calls from the President and we’d hope you use the opportunity to express our issues
and our concerns," Union officer Dave Gossett said.
Earlier in the week Ney used a White House
Christmas Party as a chance to personally deliver letters from steel industry and labor
leaders to the President.
"I know I broke the White House
protocol but I had letters from the I.S.U., U.S.W.A., Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, Weirton
Steel as well as a letter from a concerned wife of a steelworker in Weirton. The president
took the letters and indicated he was well aware of the problem", Ney related in his
conversation with the I.S.U. officials.
But the problem was continuing to grow.
Weirton Steel has announced the temporary
idling of its No. 4 Blast Furnace, a move that will only leave one blast furnace in
operation.
A Company spokesman has said the furnace was
originally scheduled to be shut down for repairs in the spring of 1999, but was done now
because of poor business conditions.
He also indicated the blast furnace will be
put back into operation at the end of January unless business conditions continue to
deteriorate.
The shutdown of the blast furnace placed 440
union employees on layoff status bringing the total to nearly 900 union workers.
And as the steel industry in general and the
I.S.U. in particular wait for some sign of relief from the Clinton Administration, a new
threat now appears to be lurking.
President Clinton recently signed the Kyoto
Treaty which will require developed nations, such as the U.S., to greatly reduce air
emissions.
However, the treaty excuses developing
nations from similar regulations, an exception Weirton Steel and other domestic steel
makers claim gives developing nations an unfair advantage.
