Fiddling as Pittsburgh Burns
Today’s newsletter was going to be a round-up of all the noteworthy Pittsburgh citizens who passed away last year. Instead, it’s about trying to forestall a much more historic and devastating obituary – the death of US Steel in Pittsburgh.
For the past six months, Pittsburgh’s “leaders” – civic, corporate, and governmental — have been silent and submissive, either asleep at the switch or afraid to back the sale of US Steel to Nippon Steel, a deal which anyone with open eyes can see is far and away the best outcome for the Pittsburgh region.
The deal has been blocked by political aspirants during the election season, pandering to xenophobia with the false argument that keeping US Steel away from the Japanese is a matter of national security. Nonsense. Japan is one of our closest allies and lives under the wing of our military protection.
The main industrial opponent is Cleveland Cliffs, the Cleveland steelmaker, which also wants to buy US Steel – at a bargain basement price – and move US Steel’s headquarters to Cleveland and close the Mon Valley plants. Cleveland Cliffs and its Cleveland-based union boss David McCall don’t care a whit about Pittsburgh and the thousands of Mon Valley steelworkers who will lose their jobs. And they don’t care about all the Mon Valley communities which will be devastated by these job losses. And make no mistake – if the Nippon deal fails and Cleveland Cliffs buys US Steel, Pittsburgh will lose some 1,200 headquarters jobs plus thousands more steelmaking jobs in the Mon Valley.
Where are Pittsburgh’s leaders? Is there anyone around here in the civic, political or business landscape willing to take a public stand to support the Nippon-US Steel deal and keep this region’s most famous company here? The answer, it appears, is no.
So how about if the rest of us take action while there’s still time? President Biden is weighing the latest offer from Nippon and is expected to decide within days. President Biden is supposed to be a big friend of Pittsburgh, so let’s take advantage of this opportunity.
Below is a list of politicians and their office numbers. I left messages at all these numbers yesterday and can vouch that they work. Please tell them who you are and say something like: “I want to keep thousands of blue collar and white collar steel jobs in Western Pa. Please publicly support the US Steel/Nippon deal and let President Biden know TODAY that you support the deal and want to keep steelmaking jobs in Pittsburgh and the Mon Valley.”
Mayor Ed Gainey: 412-255-2626
Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato: 412-350-3711 (Abigail Gardner, Director of Communications).
Governor Josh Shapiro (People say he wants to be President; let’s ask him to show leadership that will help this area): Call 717-787-2500, text 717-788-8990, or email Governor.pa.gov/contact
U.S. Senator John Fetterman: 412-803-3501 or 202-224-4254
U.S. Senator David McCormick: doesn’t take office until Jan. 3., contact info is not public at time of this article’s publication
U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio: 412-344-5583
U.S. Rep Summer Lee: 412-214-5000
U.S. Rep Guy Reschenthaler: 724-206-4800
U.S. Rep Mike Kelly: 724-282-2557
And just for good measure, call the headquarters of the United Steelworkers, which at least in theory, is still located on the Boulevard of the Allies in Downtown Pittsburgh: 412-562-2400
Finally, if you’re the leader of an influential agency or company or a prominent citizen – and many of our readers are – how about considering how to use your influence ASAP to save thousands of Pittsburgh-area jobs before it’s too late?
A journalistic innovator, Heuck has been writing about Pittsburgh for 37 years, as an investigative reporter and business editor at The Pittsburgh Press and Post-Gazette and as the founder of Pittsburgh Quarterly. His newspaper projects ranged from living on the streets disguised as a homeless man to penning the only comprehensive profile in the latter years of polio pioneer Dr. Jonas Salk to creating a statistical means of judging regional progress that has led to similar projects across the country. Heuck's work has won numerous national, state and local writing awards. His work has been cited in the landmark media law case "Food Lion vs. ABC news."
