US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator for Ohio Sherrod Brown
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) backed the United Steelworkers (USW) and called out the executives of the United States Steel Corporation for selling out American steelworkers in exchange for a large payout if acquired by Nippon Steel.
U.S. Steel executives will receive significant financial compensation if the merger of Nippon and U.S. Steel is completed. According to the March 12 proxy asking investors to approve U.S. Steel’s current and former top executives would receive payments totaling over $156 million – not including $40.8 million in payments to non-employee board members.
“If these reports are accurate, they demonstrate a repulsive conflict of interest in which U.S. Steel executives can enrich themselves at the expense of U.S. Steel workers,” wrote the senators.
“U.S. Steel was not in distress when it first received an unsolicited bid, and it is not in distress today,” wrote the senators. “But if a merger is desired, there is no need for you to sell the company to a foreign-owned entity, as U.S. Steel has also received an alternative offer from a domestic steelmaker.”
However, just this month, U.S. Steel threatened to move the company’s headquarters out of Pittsburgh and take thousands of jobs with it if the deal with Nippon fails.
“You claimed that these would be ‘unavoidable consequences’ if the deal is not completed,” the senators continued. “Far from being ‘unavoidable’, your threats are unjustified and unfair to U.S. Steel’s workers who have strengthened the company’s performance and helped mark U.S. Steel’s ‘second-best financial performance in the (c)ompany’s history’ only two years ago.”
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) joined Brown on the letter.
Sen. Brown has warned against the sale since its announcement. He pushed the Administration to examine the relationship between Nippon Steel and the Chinese steel industry and the threat it posed to domestic steel production. He sounded the alarm that Nippon’s purchase of U.S. Steel would jeopardize the United States’ ability to enforce trade laws, seriously harming America’s capability to level the playing field. He joined Steelworkers in Cleveland to keep the pressure on the Administration to block the deal.
Last month, Brown called out the Administration’s delay in blocking Nippon Steel’s purchase of U.S. Steel.
The full letter is HERE.