USW International President Leo W. Gerard joined U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and U.S. Steel CEO Mario Longhi on Thursday, May 15, for a tour of U.S. Steel’s Irvin Plant in West Mifflin, Pa., southeast of Pittsburgh.
The group used the event to emphasize the need for job skills training as a tool to promote competitiveness and fuel economic growth. That goal led the Obama administration last month to announce $600 million in competitive grants to spur the creation of training and apprenticeship programs targeted at specific skills, to help American workers land good jobs.
Promoting such training programs, as well as nurturing American manufacturing, are top priorities for the Commerce Department, Pritzker said. “Skills training is a huge passion of mine,” she said.
Her goal, Pritzker said, is to “break down the silos” of industry, labor, politics and education so everyone is working together toward one goal. After the tour of the mill on Thursday, she, Gerard and Longhi held a lunch meeting with two dozen Pittsburgh-area politicians and business, labor and university leaders aimed at furthering such cooperation.
The USW already has a close working relationship with U.S. Steel when it comes to training and education, Gerard said.
“This has been our priority for years,” Gerard said, pointing to the Institute for Career Development (ICD), a joint labor-management training and education program for USW members created in 1989 that has about 70 local programs throughout the United States.
It was the first visit to a steel mill for the secretary, who said she has visited with more than 1,000 business leaders during her first 11 months in office.
“Every business leader talks about the need for a skilled workforce,” Pritzker said. “What we want is training that is leading to jobs, so we’re not just training and praying.”
Plant manager Amy Smith-Yoder led Gerard, Pritzker and Longhi through the hot strip mill and cold rolling areas of the Irvin plant. There, USW members rolled and treated massive steel slabs produced at the nearby Edgar Thomson plant to create thin coils of steel used in the appliance, automotive and home construction industries, among others.
Though Pritzker’s visit was aimed at promoting job training, the conversation eventually turned to the issue of unfair trade and its effect on the steel industry and USW members’ jobs. U.S. Steel and the USW are participating in a series of events, planned by the Alliance for American Manufacturing, aimed at getting the Commerce Department to impose duties on tubular steel from South Korea.
All three leaders said they shared the goal of making sure that American workers and companies compete on a level playing field with their overseas counterparts.
“We’re not asking for anything special,” Longhi said. “We’re asking for a fair playing field. If that is the case, we can compete with anybody.”
Gerard said that the USW would never stop fighting against unfair trade practices by South Korea, China and others that threaten members’ jobs.
“It’s unacceptable,” Gerard said. “We have the best workforce, the best labor standards, and the best environmental standards. We’re just going to insist that they play by the rules.”
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