President Donald Trump’s unusual power over U.S. Steel may have set a political trap of his own making just weeks before the crucial midterm elections.
United Steelworkers and U.S. Steel have until Sept. 30 to reach a new contract agreement. Health care costs remain a major sticking point, according to The New Republic’s Timothy Noah, who argued in a Friday analysis that Trump could pay a political price if he refuses to use his power to protect workers.
“Should the Trump administration remain on the sidelines, Democrats will have a powerful issue on which to campaign for working-class midterm votes,” Noah wrote. “This president said he’d protect American workers, they can say, but look how he’s selling steelworkers out! Or: Trump gave U.S. Steel to a foreign corporation and we got nothing in return! Or simply: What a phony!”
The trap stems from the “golden share” Trump demanded when he approved Nippon Steel’s takeover of U.S. Steel. It gives his administration the power to block certain company decisions, including salary cuts, plant closures and moving jobs overseas.
But United Steelworkers negotiator Bernie Hall told Noah that nobody from the Trump administration had contacted him about the contract talks.
“From our perspective,” Hall said, “while it’s a nice shiny thing, it doesn’t provide the kind of commitments that these workers need and that we’re demanding.… It’s too open-ended.”
The timing presents a “very awkward” situation for Trump, Noah told readers Friday.
Staying out of the fight could expose the president to accusations that he abandoned steelworkers, while abandoning the agreement amid a strike or lockout “would definitely help Democrats win elections to the House and Senate,” he wrote.
“Trump’s been saying he hates socialism while practicing it,” Noah concluded. “Now he may start to hate practicing socialism too.”