BUSINESS/TARIFFS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Thirteen United Steelworkers locals representing about 15,000 workers authorized a strike against Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, the USW announced Tuesday [9-18-18]. Members last week authorized a strike against U.S. Steel, arguing that the two companies (which together account for 40 percent of all flat-rolled steel production in the U.S.) weren’t passing through to workers their substantial profit gains from President Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign metals…A strike authorization isn’t a strike, but it can lead quickly to a strike if progress isn’t made at the bargaining table. The USW is in contract negotiations with three companies: ArcelorMittal, U.S. Steel, and Cleveland Cliffs. The ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel contracts expired Sept. 1; the Cleveland Cliffs contract expires Oct. 1. As of Tuesday, negotiations with Cleveland Cliffs weren’t going well. The USW delivered a proposal to the Ohio-based company Friday [9-14-18] that addressed, it said, ‘real hourly wage increases, forced overtime, active health care coverage, and retiree health care coverage.’ Although Cleveland Cliffs’ counter-proposal ‘included some modest wage increases and bonuses,’ the USW bargaining committee said in an update on negotiations Tuesday, the company’s proposed health care premiums and other changes to health care coverage were ‘totally unnecessary and insulting.’”
–Rebecca Rainey, “Will Trump’s tariffs prompt a steel strike?,” Politico, September 18, 2018 10:00 am