LTV Situation

["Vic Thorpe" <just.solutions@pandora.be>]

Forwarded communication from Lynn Williams, former President of the United
Steel Workers of America:


I am obviously not an entirely objective respondent to your question
concerning the value, or lack thereof, in saving ailing steel companies.
You
have received some very good and appropriate comments from Mike Locker and
DanBell, both of whom are experienced practitioners in the art of saving
threatened steel companies.  I guess the key question from my perspective
might be "compared to what?"

At one time we had 20 or so ESOPs in the  Steelworkers.  Most succeeded to
some degree, almost without exception surviving until the present crisis,
sometimes
in radically changed formats over time, as in the case of Republic
Engineered
Steels.  The result, as has been mentioned, was that thousands of people
preserved good steel jobs for a much longer time than otherwise would have
been the case, continued to accrue pension entitlements and maintain
benefits.  All of this in a framework, as well, in which the union and the
industry were pursuing a 201 petition, which ultimately resulted in the
voluntary restraint agreements which, in turn, provided some breathing room
and time for the industry to restructure, and, more broadly, for our society
to continue to struggle with the creation of a much fairer trade regimen
than
an unfettered market system seems able to create.

Is all of this worth the difficulties and complexities that are involved, as
compared to the tidiness of the massive loss of industry shutdowns entail
(tidy, but destructive of thousands of peoples' lives)?  I think so.  Deep
and unresolved questions concerning the preservation of the industrial base
in an economy such as that of the US, continue to need to be addressed.  In
one way of thinking about it, it isn't that there is overcapacity in the
production of steel in the world, it is that there is a shortage of
customers
- there is much yet to be done that uses steel but there are such
overwhelming numbers of countries too poor to meet their needs.  It's
certainly not clear to me that destroying the good jobs there are, and the
customer base they represent, and encouraging the coexisting race to the
bottom will, in the end, provide much of a solution.  The steelworkers and
their Union have decided on much more direct action as appropriate.

Another facet of dealing with these crises, which also interests me a great
deal, is that, as a result of the struggles, the stock deals, the ESOPs,
the
participative processes, etc.  the workers union representatives are well
informed and skilled participants in dealing with the kind of challenges
these situations entail.  What the ultimate result will be nobody knows,
but,
whatever it is, it won't be the result of a process in which the Union was
not a full, informed and competent participant. And certainly, thus far in
the union's history, saving as many jobs and facilities as possible, has
been
very much in the best interests of the workers and communities involved,
and,
I would argue, also of the related national economies, and, indeed, of the
world economy itself over the longer run.


Lynn Williams