All eras come to an end. “The Simpsons” dominated Sunday night television for decades, for example. Now, the show is moving to Wednesday, and it may soon be off the air.
In one ancient episode of that show, a young worker from the early 20th century predicts the future of labor. “One day, we’ll form a union and get the fair and equitable treatment we deserve. Then we’ll go too far and get corrupt and shiftless, and the Japanese will eat us alive!” If the episode were updated for our times, that worker could have kept going: “Then the American economy will rebound, and the Japanese will be eager to invest in our bright future, even as their rising sun sets!”
This cartoon episode overlaps with a cartoonish episode led by another man whose sun is setting: outgoing President Joe Biden.
On his way out the door, Biden quashed an offer by Nippon Steel (of Japan) to purchase U.S. Steel for almost $15 billion. Biden claimed he did so because he is in favor of organized labor. “I promised to be the most pro-union president in history,” he told the AFL-CIO.
But if Biden wants to help workers, he missed an opportunity. The Nippon deal would be good for unionized American workers.
Talks have been going on for months, and Nippon has made many promises that would help American workers. It has committed that it will make no cuts in steel productions for a decade, and said that it would get agreement from the U.S. government before any cuts. It has vowed to give an immediate $5,000 bonus to all unionized U.S. Steel workers. It also promised not to lay off U.S. Steel employees.
Steelworkers want the deal.
“They were going to invest in the Valley,’’ a union leader who works for the company said about Nippon. “They committed to 10 years of no layoffs. We won’t have those commitments from anybody.’’
Meanwhile, “Local USW leaders at our Mon Valley Works facilities conceived of and are leading a grassroots letter writing effort to President Biden to demonstrate the strong support by union-represented employees for U. S. Steel’s transaction with Nippon Steel,” the company noted. “The local union leaders at the Mon Valley Works’ facilities asked for U. S. Steel’s support to share the grassroots effort with other facilities beyond those in Pennsylvania,”
Biden, a creature from another era, killed the deal because union leaders wanted him to. Union leaders are different from union members. For one thing, union leaders are very well paid. Recall that Harold Daggett, the head of the longshoreman’s union who is eager to shut down all east coast ports, earns $900,000 per year. His members don’t make that much.
It is clear that union members no longer support Democratic policies. Over the summer, “the Teamsters commissioned a national electronic poll of its 1.3 million members, overseen by an independent third party,” the union explained. In a move that surprised leaders but not workers, “During a voting window from July 24-Sept. 15, rank-and-file Teamsters voted 59.6 percent for the union to endorse Trump, compared to 34 percent for Harris.”
Faced with that information, Teamsters leaders, including the vice president at large, endorsed (wait for it) Kamala Harris. Apparently, issues affecting workers, such as how their union dues are spent, are too important to be left to workers to decide.
Joe Biden’s policies explain why workers abandoned him in the 2024 election: “Biden’s decision will cost [U.S. Steel] workers their livelihoods, just as his decision to mandate and subsidize electric vehicles has led to layoffs at GM, Ford, and Stellantis,” write experts from the Heritage Foundation.
This presents an opportunity for incoming President Donald Trump. He likes to preach a populist message; clearly union workers are ready to listen.
Trump has said he is against the Nippon deal. But in Trump’s world, nothing is final until it is finished. There is still time to move forward with the deal. He could reverse this decision, one of Biden’s many mistakes. Doing so would help American workers and improve the domestic steel industry.
Approving the Nippon Steel deal should be one of Trump’s first acts as president.
Rich Tucker is a writer and editor based in Richmond, Virginia. His work can be found at https://richardbriantucker.substack.com/.
Nippon Steel” height=”66″ src=”https://images.americanthinker.com/lp/lpzfwzb235ht92i2jwkx_640.jpg” width=”550″ />
Image: Nippon Steel
This article was originally published at www.americanthinker.com
