The United Steelworkers of America is into international labor solidarity in a big way.
The thing you must remember is that what we do, sets the trend for the rest of the world. If we accept the elimination of the social costs of doing business; then the rest of the world will be forced to eliminate the social costs of doing business. No social insurances, no pollution control, no public education, no public health or job safety, you name it!
In my original post I mentioned "man hours per ton" , this is a guage of labor productivity. In the USA it takes fewer man hours to make a ton of steel than anywhere else in the world.
I would say more about our international labor solidarity efforts, but, I am concerned for the physical safety of those steelworkers who are involved in these efforts.
Sincerely, Tom Lehman
Andrew C Pollack wrote:
> 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
> >
> >