U.S. Steel “Partnership” Announcements: More Questions than Answers

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Following uncertainty on the shop floors about recent public statements regarding a “planned partnership” between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel, we want to provide some clarity on what is known — and more importantly, what remains unknown to everyone who isn’t involved in the closed-door discussions, in which the USW has not been included.

Over the last several days, we have received calls and messages from many of our members and local union leaders who do not support the merger asking what the rumored “partnership” means. At this time, we cannot say whether the “planned partnership” described in Friday’s message on Truth Social or news reports since then represents any meaningful change from the merger proposed in 2023, under which Nippon Steel would acquire U.S. Steel and make it a wholly owned subsidiary.

Throughout recent months, as the public conversation has turned to Nippon “investing” in U.S. Steel or “partnering with” U.S. Steel, Nippon has maintained consistently that it would only invest in U.S. Steel’s facilities if it owned the company outright.  We’ve seen nothing in the reporting over the past few days suggesting that Nippon has walked back from this position.

We also cannot confirm how much of the publicly claimed $14 billion in proposed investment would be directed to our union-represented plants, or how much of that sum would go toward genuinely new capital improvements as opposed to routine repair and maintenance.

Further, Nippon has not disputed reports that suggest up to $4 billion of the $14 billion would be earmarked for greenfield operations — and our members already know that our plants are not “greenfields,” and generally that means non-union.

And no details have been provided about how or when this money would be spent over the next 14 months, a claim made in Friday’s Truth Social message — a timeframe that aligns closely with the expiration of the Basic Labor Agreement (BLA) in 15 months.

Our core concerns about Nippon Steel — a foreign-owned corporation with a documented history of violating U.S. trade laws — remain as strong and valid today as ever, and that is so whether U.S. Steel and Nippon adhere to the same deal that they have pursued since December 2023 or whether they tweak the terms to satisfy concerns in Washington. We will continue to demand transparency, fairness and respect for the rights of our members and enforce our Basic Labor Agreement. As always, your solidarity is our greatest strength.