Contact: Jess Kamm Broomell, (412) 562-2444, jkamm@usw.org
(PITTSBURGH) – The United Steelworkers union (USW) today sent a letter to the Department of Commerce and International Trade Commission strongly supporting antidumping and countervailing duty petitions the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee filed earlier this year.
“Our energy security must be rooted in American jobs,” said USW International President David McCall. “That is the only way we are truly secure. If we’re serious about meeting our energy needs and addressing the threat of climate change, we cannot allow unfairly traded solar products to choke out our domestic industry.”
The petitions, primarily against Chinese-owned companies operating in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, identify a number of entities that were previously found to engage in unfair and illegal trade practices.
“This case is a perfect example of the kind of tactics that Chinese firms repeatedly use,” said McCall. “They target our market, they are found guilty and then they use other countries to flood our market with their unfairly and illegally priced products. Fair trade requires constant vigilance.”
USW members currently produce many of the inputs that go into solar products. The USW also reached an agreement this summer with Convalt Energy, a firm seeking to produce solar products in the United States, where the company will respect the rights of workers to form a union.
McCall noted the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to grow the domestic renewable energy sector.
“The investments we’re seeing are truly historic and will transform our energy landscape,” McCall said. “But we can’t allow China’s cheating to undermine this progress. This case is a critical part of securing our future.”
Read the USW’s letter here.
The USW represents 850,000 workers in metals, mining, pulp and paper, rubber, chemicals, glass, auto supply and the energy-producing industries, along with a growing number of workers in health care, public sector, higher education, tech and service occupations.
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