The death of American steel

A few weeks ago, I got up at 5 a.m. to go to a local steel mill. Even though I live in the largest steel producing region in the country, I had never been inside a mill before. As I drove around the mill, I felt like I was on a movie set. It was foggy, dreary and lifeless until I entered the plants and saw the hundreds of workers who had spent their lives in the mill. Then it hit me. These men and women come from various backgrounds but have one thing in common: They are all working hard to provide for their families. They are the face of the American steel industry.\nBut this industry is dying a slow death. The industry, which has brought and continues to bring ethnic diversity and economic prosperity to Northwest Indiana and regions all over the country, is being smothered by often illegal and low quality steel imports from other countries.\nSadly, policy makers and economists are too often apt to sit idly by and consider the death of the steel industry as an economic adjustment. But, "adjustment" doesn't do justice to what is happening. According to the United Steel Workers of America, 330,000 quality, union jobs in the steel industry have been lost since 1980. Now the industry employs 170,000 people -- around a quarter of the old number. But, why have these jobs been lost, and frankly, why should you care?\nWhy have the jobs been lost? Many reasons. Technology is decreasing the need for labor and increased foreign competition has led to more choices for purchasers of steel. But, the most appalling (and most noteworthy) cause of the domestic steel industry's death is illegal foreign steel dumping -- when foreign companies sell their steel abroad at prices lower than the cost of production to take over markets. \nThere is no doubt that other countries are dumping their steel in America. The International Trade Commission ruled unanimously that steel has been illegally dumped on the United States.\nSadly, free trade advocates and big businesses have put pressure on politicians to sit back and let "the market" win out. People who wanted to stop imports were labeled "protectionists." But as the argument progressed, more quality, union jobs were lost. While hard-working Americans were laid off and forced to take lower paying jobs or go without work completely, idealistic free traders were advocating their policies from comfortable corporate board rooms, and winning. \nThen, this March, President Bush put forth a half-hearted effort to help domestic steel. He enacted tariffs reaching 30 percent that lasted for three years (decreasing each year).\nThese tariffs were not what many industry supporters had wished for, but they were better than nothing. Now, it appears they may, in fact, be nothing at all. That's because the administration is showing signs it may buckle to international pressure and grant massive exemptions, gutting the March tariffs -- undoing what little help it had offered. In doing this, the U.S. will have appeased free traders seeking to profit off the weakening of our domestic steel industry, but we will also undoubtedly lose tens of thousands of high paying, quality jobs.\nThis loss of jobs is the bottom line to the entire issue. The retirees who go without health care because companies are bankrupt are the issue. Kids in poverty because their parents were laid off are the issue. All of these reasons combined are why we should care about the death of American steel.