Steeled for meltdown

link: http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1342822003

Jacqui Goddard


AS A boy, Mark Glyptis would sit at the supper table of an evening listening to his father and grandfather swapping tales of life inside the steel mill, whose chimney stacks belch steam across the depressed town of Weirton in West Virginia.

He later followed in their footsteps, as most young men here did, clocking on each day as part of the 14,000-strong workforce at Weirton Steel Corp, a member of what was then one of America’s proudest and strongest industries.

Now, as President of the Independent Steelworkers Union, Glyptis - who has worked in the mill for 30 years - sits glumly in his office as the local television station cuts live to the White House for the announcement he has been dreading.

"I feel betrayed," he says when it is over. "We have just witnessed one of the darkest moments in the history of our nation’s steel industry."

President George W Bush’s declaration that he will abolish import duties on foreign steel 15 months earlier than promised will turn up the heat on a domestic industry already in meltdown.

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He can't possibly have gained any votes since the last election, and he's only losing among his base, as far as I can see. Barring election theft, he's a one-termer.

link: http://www.news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=260&id=1342832003

~snip~

JACQUI GODDARD


POLITICAL fall-out from President George W Bush’s decision to lift the import tariffs cushioning the US steel industry could have critical repercussions for his re-election hopes.

In a presidential election, each state is worth a certain number of votes in the "electoral college" system, making some more valuable than others.

The Rust Belt states of West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania together carry 46 of the 270 electoral college votes that a presidential candidate requires to win an election, meaning the states are seen as "heavy hitters".

Voters here are traditionally Democratic, yet by a slim margin Ohio and West Virginia fell to Bush in 2003, possibly because of disillusionment among steelworkers over what they perceived to be broken campaign promises by previous president, Bill Clinton, and his deputy, Al Gore, to help save their jobs.

Independent Steelworkers’ Union spokesman David Gossett said: "They came to Weirton and said: ‘We will protect the US steel industry. We will not let it be harmed by foreign imports,’ then did nothing to help us for eight years. So when Gore stood against Bush in 2000, there wasn’t a lot of love for Bush, but there was even less for Gore.

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to be discussing the evils of free trade.
The steel industry will be fine and oh so profitable as soon as the help understands that the new pay rate is 2 dollars a day (payable in co. script)

Every time you see Bush piss off a constuituency (vets, military, steelworkers), please remember he doesn't care who people vote for. He doesn't have to. He can steal another election if he wants.

What kind of voting system do you have in your state? If it's computerized, get busy.

Eloriel

If a Democratic candidate wants to exploit Bush's unpopularity among steel workers, he really ought to be able to promise steel workers something better. And he can't reinstate steel tariffs without running afoul of the World Trade Organization, right?

I'm no big fan of the WTO, but rules are rules, and we should either play fair or withdraw from the WTO.

My hunch is that steel workers are screwed either way (Republicans and Democrats both). Of course, Bush makes everything else worse. More than losing their jobs, they're losing jobs in a crappy economy with little evidence of a saftey net.

effect on our economy, our workers... their jobs, their families... the issue on the burner is the WTO... and it's effects on the populace, the people... we the labor... the corporations get rich and the people lose to what is most enriching to the corporations...

the people need to be informed.... public education is not going to give the ins and outs... everyone of us has to inform ourselves ...do a google search and find out the pros and cons... know the issue most fundamentally pressing the core of ourlives, international trade agreements...

the restructuring of the steel industry and the bush administration have allowed for old mills to be purchased without providing for the retirement benefits to retired workers from these companies.

thousands of these hard working men and women are now without any benefits except for social secuity, all the while the old companies and the corporate laywyers themselves garner millions in fees for the sales of these factories.

this is the tragedy of the steel industry, the workers get screwed.

Are there any Americans who aren't getting screwed nowadays? I spent sixteen years in public education, so I know what getting screwed is like. In fact, teachers have it worse, because they get screwed by Democrats as well as Republicans.

so what does he care?

The lifting of the steel tariffs are now being spun as a success - i.e. tariffs did their job and now it's time to end them

So schultzee, you hate all Republicans.
In my humble opinion, hate is a gift from God and so
it must be cherished and nurtured as something of great
value.
To cast your hate in a widespread and indiscriminate
manner cheapens and degrades this gift.
Also, is there anything sadder than unrequited hate?
These Republicans don't care about your opinion, and if
they did, they would only gain verification of their beliefs
from the strength of your vitrolic remarks.
Perhaps it would be better to save your hate for an
individual who truely deserves it and who can reply in
kind to give your hatred true meaning.