Harper Conservatives Enable U.S. Steel’s Latest Blow to Canada

TORONTO - The United Steelworkers (USW) union is committed to defending the interests of its members and pensioners affected by U.S. Steel Canada's application for bankruptcy protection.

"We are extremely concerned about these developments and we intend to do everything we can to protect our retirees and our members," USW National Director Ken Neumann said following today's filing by U.S. Steel under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA).

"Once again U.S. Steel has left thousands of families and entire communities in limbo. They will have to endure a long and complex court process," Neumann said. "We will work together with other stakeholders to seek the best outcome for our members and retirees."

"I Always Knew Somebody Would Get Killed Inside That Place"

Early on the morning of September 3, 2009, Nicholas Adrian Revetta left the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, suburb of Pleasant Hills and drove 15 minutes to a job at US Steel's Clairton Plant, a soot-blackened industrial complex on the Monongahela River. He never returned home.

Revetta was working as a laborer for a US Steel contractor that had employed his father, at the same plant that employed his brother. Shortly before 11:30 a.m., gas leaking from a line in the plant's Chemicals and Energy Division found an ignition source and exploded, propelling him backward into a steel column and inflicting a fatal blow to his head. Thirty-two years old, he left behind a wife and two young children.

Nick Revetta's death did not make national headlines. No hearings were held into the accident that killed him. No one was fired or sent to jail.

The federal government has dropped its case against United States Steel Corp. (X-N25.85-1.63-5.93%) over the company’s broken promises to Ottawa to maintain jobs after its 2007 takeover of Hamilton-based Stelco.

Industry Minister Christian Paradis announced the move in the House of Commons Monday, saying that the company had agreed to “significant new and enhanced undertakings” in return for the government’s move, after what the minister described as “extensive negotiations.”

Under the deal, Mr. Paradis said, U.S. Steel pledges to keep producing steel in Canada, operate its Lake Erie and Hamilton plants until 2015 and invest at least $50-million in its Canadian facilities by December, 2015, over and above its original pledge of $200-million by October, 2012.

The company also pledged to give $3-million to “community and educational programs” in Hamilton and Nanticoke, with $1-million due by February, 2012.

“U.S. Steel’s new commitments, many of which run to 2015, will provide benefits that in all likelihood would not have been obtained through the court process,” Mr. Paradis said.

A lawyer for U.S. Steel declined to comment.

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