over capacity/over built

[Andrew C Pollack]

I sure hope someone replies to this, given the flurry of advertising by
the USWA -- cosponsored with the steel bosses -- against imports. At the
same time some on the left are heralding the steelworkers' union for a
lawsuit against NAFTA (the details of which I admit I don't know),
they're also dredging up the same old protectionist crap. This at a time
when the need for and possibility of international solidarity should be
clearer than ever.

By the way, although I don't have the figures, I thought U.S. steel
productivity had gone back up in the last decade, especially because of
the minimill craze, layoffs, and wage and benefit concessions? And what
about the steel companies' diversification into oil, real estate, etc.?

Andy Pollack

On Mon, 05 Oct 1998 08:47:05 -0400 Tom Lehman <uswa12 at lorainccc.edu>
writes:
>Dear Doug and the LBOers,
>
>To illustrate the example of worldwide industrial over capacity 
>consider
>this little example.  Flat rolled steel(sheet metal) currently is 
>being
>dumped into our domestic market for 11 cents a pound,on the other 
>hand,
>cabbage or bananas costs at least 25 cents a pound at the 
>supermarket.
>
>Steel imports are trending toward a 30% increase over last year in 
>all
>product catagories.  If this trend continues the American steel 
>industry
>will be out of business, companies will go bankrupt, people and
>communities will be destroyed.  This in a steel industry that has the
>lowest man hours per ton production efficiency in the world.
>
>Just a little somthing to think about on a Monday morning---IMF
>policies?
>
>Sincerely,
>Tom Lehman
>
>