GRANITE CITY – United States Steel, a publicly traded company, announced on Sunday it has launched a strategic review to consider selling all or part of the company.
News of the potential sale comes just after U.S. Steel announced it would partner with Google Cloud to use artificial intelligence technology at iron ore facilities in Minnesota. United States Steel operates a plant in Granite City and three plants in southwestern Pennsylvania and has its corporate offices there.
David Burritt, the president and CEO of U.S. Steel, said recently the company was “extremely well positioned for what we believe will be the best American steel market in a generation.” U.S. Steel reported second-quarter earnings of $477 million.
Granite City Mayor Mike Parkinson said he still needed to review the U.S. Steel message and would make a statement on Tuesday.
Dan Simmons, USW Local Union 1899 president, released the following statement about the U.S. Steel announcement:
“We at the office of USW Local 1899 are just as surprised as you all are upon hearing the announcement made by U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt yesterday.
“By the time we at Local 1899 got wind of the announcement to sell all or parts of U.S. Steel, contact was made to USW-U.S. Steel lead negotiator District 7 Director Mike Mills, as he was heading to his office to prepare a statement to send to the leadership of locals representing U.S. Steel, without even knowing who or what companies were potentially acquiring U.S. Steel at that time. Within the hour, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. publicly announced they submitted a bid to purchase all or part of U.S. Steel, who in turn rejected their original offer.
“While we don’t know what the future holds for U.S. Steel, we do know the United Steelworker’s Labor Agreement with USS contains strong successorship language which protects worker’s rights. USS is obligated to provide USW with notice before a purchase can be made. USS cannot do anything without the USW involvement.”
