This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------2A64C558EDA76C122FF48420 Dear Pen-L, Here is a press release concerning steel dumping. Last week in testimony before congress our international president George Becker said, "10,000 steelworkers have already lost their jobs because of steel dumping and another 100,000 steelworkers are on the edge of losing theirs." This is not idle chit-chat on George's part---it's the facts! Compounding this problem is the world wide weakness in demand. For example, in the oil and gas industry the domestic rig count is the lowest it has been since around 1900 when drilling rig counts were first kept. Your email pal, Tom L. 440-282-6015 phone 440-282-3704 fax http://www.uswa.org/press/press012899.html --------------2A64C558EDA76C122FF48420 name="press012899.html" filename="press012899.html" html" html" <html> <head> <meta NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Microsoft FrontPage 3.0"> <meta NAME="Template" CONTENT="C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT OFFICE\OFFICE\html.dot"> <title>USWA President Says December Import Data Portends Disaster for American Steel Industry</title> </head> <body LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#800080" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"> <font FACE="Arial Black" SIZE="5"><u> <p align="center">USWA NEWS RELEASE</p> </u></font><font FACE="Arial Black" SIZE="4"> <p>For Distribution, Thursday, January 28, 1999 </p> </font><font FACE="Arial Black"> <p>Contact: Gary Hubbard (USWA/Wasington) 202/778-4384 <dir> <dir> <p>Marco Trbovich (USWA/Pittsburgh) 412/562-2442</p> </dir> </dir> </font><font FACE="Arial Black" SIZE="5"> <p align="center">USWA President Says December Import Data<br> Portends Disaster for American Steel Industry</p> </font><font FACE="Arial"> <p></font><font face="Times New Roman">Washington, D.C. (Jan. 28) – George Becker, President of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), said today that release of the U.S. Commerce Department’s report on steel imports "offers clear evidence that jawboning and trade case filings simply will not prevent the collapse of the American steel industry."</font></p> <p><font face="Times New Roman">While acknowledging a modest decline in the December level of imports, Becker said that if dumping continues at last month’s levels, "it will wipe out a basic industry that employs 150,000 American workers. Because major exporters like Japan haven’t agreed to a thing, there’s nothing to stop them from dumping more in the future."</font></p> <p><font face="Times New Roman">Becker said the December import figures dramatize the need for immediate passage of legislation imposing temporary quotas on steel imports at pre-crisis levels, coupled with a comprehensive policy to prevent U.S. markets from continuing to be used as the dumping ground for the worldwide glut of steel.</font></p> <p><font face="Times New Roman">The politically powerful 750,000-member USWA is pressuring for quota legislation that will be introduced in Congress in the near future by U.S. Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-IN) and U.S. Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-WV).</font></p> <p><font face="Times New Roman">Such a bill, if enacted, would curtail dumping by requiring our trading partners to limit steel shipments into the U.S. to pre-crisis levels. The USWA cites the December figures released by the Commerce Department as still astronomically higher than pre-crisis levels.</font></p> <p><font face="Times New Roman">"If you only compare December with November," Becker said, "it’s like missing the forest by looking at a tree." He said December’s numbers reveal that historically high steel imports from Japan and Russia are still sky high.</font></p> <p><font face="Times New Roman">"By annualizing the December number, you come up with foreign dumping that’s eating up almost 30 percent of the market – a lot more than before the crisis." He added that while there had been a slight reduction in imports from Russia and Japan, other countries are "joining the parade of nations illegally dumping steel."</font></p> <p><font face="Times New Roman">Becker pointed out that the December numbers reveal Japan is still dumping at a rate 170 percent higher than it was two years ago.</font></p> <p><font face="Times New Roman">"Those who celebrate these unprecedented levels of lawlessness," he said, "won’t be fooling anybody but themselves."</font></p> <p align="center"><font face="Times New Roman"># # #</font></p> <hr> <p><a href="http://www.fairtradewatch.org/Standup.html">Return to Stand Up for Steel Index</a></p> <p>Return to <a href="index.html">Press Release Directory</a></p> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="../default2.htm" target="_top">HOME</a> | <a href="../frameset_organize.html" target="_top">ORGANIZE</a> | <a href="../frameset_news.html" target="_top">NEWS</a> | <a href="../frameset_Services.html" target="_top">SERVICES</a> | <a href="../frameset_map.html" target="_top">MAP</a> | <a href="../frameset_rapid.html" target="_top">RAPID RESPONSE</a> | <a href="../frameset_help.html" target="_top">HELP</a> | <a href="../frameset_feedback.html" target="_top">FEEDBACK</a></font></p> </body> </html> --------------2A64C558EDA76C122FF48420--
