BRADDOCK, Pa. — Sitting in a union hall across from the Edgar Thomson steel plant, John Mazzoni said tariffs announced by President Bush on Tuesday may not be all that steelworkers wanted, but they might be just enough, according to a wire service report.
He and many steelworkers hoping for lengthier and more protective measures believe the tariffs may provide breathing room for the slumping industry.
Mazzoni is the president of United Steelworkers Local 1219, which represents employees at U.S. Steel’s Thomson plant, where iron ore is converted into steel slab.
“We’re grateful that Bush implemented something, anything,” Mazzoni said. “It’s a start.”
Industry leaders were seeking a 40 percent tariff across the board for at least four years. The administration announced a mixed bag of tariffs ranging from 8 percent to 30 percent for select steel products that will likely remain in place for three years.
“I think we’re going to make it,” said Joe Chiodo, 48, a steelworker for 25 years. “I think there’s enough commitment at the top and bottom, and we’ll take our 30 percent and do the best we can.”
Chiodo works the blast furnace at the Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock, a plant located outside Pittsburgh where industrialist Andrew Carnegie began making steel in 1875. It was named for the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which was to be a major customer.
Once lively, downtown Braddock is now mostly shuttered and abandoned save for a pawn shop, several bars and the United Steelworkers union hall, which sits directly across from the plant.
Frank Giarratani, the director of the Center for Industry Studies at University of Pittsburgh, said the three-year window will give the steel industry enough breathing room to regroup, but will force inefficient plants to close.
“You’re not going to see the dramatic geographic reorganization of the industry you saw in the 1980s,” he said. “I don’t want to minimize the impact this could have on communities where changes are going to have to be made, but the fact remains that the industry will be healthier and it is important that these tariffs are temporary.”
Giarratani said some of the older, oil-based producers of slab steel in the Midwest will face the most serious challenge.
Steelworker Tony Plomaritis, 58, of Merrillville, Ind., worked as a pipefitter at LTV Corp. for nearly 30 years before being laid off when the company filed for bankruptcy on Dec. 7. He has been looking for a job ever since.
“I’ve been applying for jobs that aren’t there,” he said. “I’ve been trying to keep myself from getting depressed.”
But Plomaritis, like other steelworkers, believes the tariffs will give the industry enough time to get back on its feet.