In the middle of the electoral campaign, Joe Biden expressed his opposition to the takeover of US Steel, the number one American steel company, by the Japanese Nippon Steel, for 14.9 billion dollars (13.6 billion euros). “US Steel has been an iconic American steel company for more than a century, and it is vital that it remains a nationally owned and operated American steel company”, declared the President of the United States on Thursday March 14. The issue is above all political, for a company based in Pennsylvania, the native region of Democrat Joe Biden and above all swing state (pivotal state) decisive for the presidential election on Tuesday, November 5, 2024.
Mr. Biden absolutely must obtain the support of unionized workers in the sector, as he received that of auto workers by going on a picket line in the fall of 2023. “It’s important to maintain strong American steel companies, powered by American workers. I told our steelworkers that I supported them, and I mean it.”added Mr. Biden on the social network
He also spoke on the phone with the head of the steel union, the White House said. “The President’s Statements Should End the Debate: US Steel Must Remain Domestically Owned and Operated”, declared this same union. His Republican opponent, Donald Trump, for his part, confirmed his constantly repeated position: “The fact that Japan could acquire US Steel is a horrible thing. I would block this instantly. »
Skepticism
US Steel is indeed a very political company, marked by a heavy past. She is the heir to the empire founded by Andrew Carnegie in the 19th century, whose number two, Henry Frick, did not hesitate to send the militia against striking workers in the suburbs of Pittsburgh in 1892. This event marked a bitter failure for trade unionism. The group was then sold to banker JP Morgan in 1901, who gave it its name, US Steel: its blast furnaces helped to forge 20th century America, with its skyscrapers, bridges and ships. war.
The firm prospered until the 1970s, before suffering the full brunt of the steel crisis. Its workforce then went from 120,000 to 20,000 employees. The company used federal subsidies, granted in the form of tax credits by Ronald Reagan and supposed to help it face Japanese competition. But the group used them to diversify into energy, to the point that it changed its name to just USX in 1986. In 2001, the energy and steel businesses separated again and the company regained its name of US Steel. But the glorious company shrank and was removed in 2014 from the S&P 500 index of the largest American stocks.
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