Arbitrators Hand Victory to Nippon Steel

USW Still Refuses to Return to Bargaining Table; Hopes Biden Will Block Merger

As predicted, the arbitrators handed Nippon Steel a unanimous victory in the latter’s effort to buy US Steel (USS). It rejected all the allegations by the United Steelworkers union (USW) that the merger agreement violates the union’s contract with US Steel. Since the decision is binding, with no possible appeal in court, the union has only two choices: 1) hope that the Biden White House will block the merger on national security grounds; the deadline for a decision on this comes shortly after the November election; and 2) return to the bargaining table to work out an acceptable agreement with Nippon Steel; the latter has pledged to abide by the union contact but the USW claims there are too many loopholes.

The union has chosen the first path, having issued an angry denunciation of the arbitrators’ decision and rejecting Nippon Steel’s invitation to resume talks that were broken off in the spring. There are some rumbling among steelworkers in western Pennsylvania who will likely suffer job losses if the merger fails. However, these rumblings are not strong enough to change the minds of union leaders.

As for the Biden White House, its decision will depend on the outcome of the election rather than any real substance to the national security “problems” being used as a pretext. Nippon Steel’s strategy is to offer remedies to these alleged problems. For example, the The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States alleges that a Japanese-owned steel company might oppose anti-dumping efforts by the US against imports from certain countries, like China, even though Nippon Steel is advocating measures vis-a-vis Chinese steel in Japan. So, Nippon Steel has offered to set up a completely separate section on such trade issues staffed entirely by American citizens.