An Illinois town celebrates as Trump's tariffs prompt U.S. Steel to bring jobs back Chicago Tribune, Mar 8, 2018, Samantha Bomkamp
There’s hope coming back to Granite City.
The small Illinois steel town outside St. Louis felt the bedrock shift in 2015 when one of its biggest and best-paying employers, U.S. Steel, said it would idle its Granite City plant and cut 2,000 jobs. On Wednesday, the company said it will restart one of two blast furnaces — where the steelmaking process begins — next month.
U.S. Steel announced the move, which will involve calling back about 500 employees, just a day before President Donald Trump’s Thursday action to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum from all foreign countries, with the exception of Mexico and Canada.
“Our Granite City Works facility and employees, as well as the surrounding community, have suffered too long from the unending waves of unfairly traded steel products that have flooded U.S. markets,†U.S. Steel President and Chief Executive Officer David B. Burritt said in a news release. The Pittsburgh-based company says restarting the furnace could take up to four months.
***
The return of 500 jobs means not just positions that can be filled, but also higher salaries that can support a family, he said.
“The people I know are very hopeful,†Hudson said.
More:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-us-steel-granite-city-jobs-20180309-story.html
