WASHINGTON — The head of the nation's largest steel union said he does not expect President Bush to use this weekend's visit to a steelworkers' picnic to endorse legislation penalizing countries that subsidize steel shipped to the United States.
"I would be surprised (if he endorsed the measure) but would be pleased if we got anything more than platitudes," United Steelworkers of America President Leo Gerard said Friday.
On Sunday afternoon, Bush is scheduled to speak at the union's picnic at the Irvin Works of USX Corp. in West Mifflin, Pa., near Pittsburgh.
The Bush administration has not taken a position on the bill. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush plans to talk about the contributions of American workers to the economy and would not discuss the bill during his remarks on Sunday.
Gerard said the Bush administration's request for an investigation of the impact of steel imports on the American industry "started a process but is not enough to solve the industry's problems. Half a solution will still allow the industry to die."
The Pittsburgh-based union represents 700,000 workers, including 130,000 who work in steel and iron-producing facilities.
Gerard said during a conference call with reporters that he supports a bill pending in Congress that would limit steel imports for the next five years and return them to their mid-1990s levels. The bill would also put a 1.5 percent surcharge on steel to pay for health insurance of retired steel workers.
In a subsequent interview, the chairman of a coalition of manufacturing companies that use steel said the bill would hurt more people than it helps.
"It is a cure that is much worse than the disease. It would cost nine times as many jobs as it would save. It amounts to a bailout of the steel industry on the backs of taxpayers and consumers," said Jon Jenson, chairman of the Consuming Industry Trade Action Coalition.
Jenson said the financial difficulties faced by American steel companies were caused by their own inefficiencies and "foreign imports are not the root cause of these problems."
Gerard said the request for additional help is "not a case of crying wolf but is a reaction against a 30-year concerted effort by foreign countries to destroy the American steel industry."
In June, the administration asked the U.S. International Trade Commission, an independent government agency, to begin a four-month investigation to determine if domestic producers are being seriously harmed.
If the ITC finds serious injury, it could make recommendations to Bush on what types of punitive tariffs or quotas should be imposed to restrict imports.
The administration would have the freedom to accept the recommendations or come up with its own set of trade barriers, which it could put into place for three years.