Source: PHOTO: Ingram Publishing/Thinkstock
STATEWIDE — The potential sale of US Steel is concerning for several reasons, including how it will affect parts of Indiana that it helped build.
“US Steel founded Gary when it located it’s big Gary works operation up there many, many years ago. One hundred years ago plus, on the shores of Lake Michigan,” says Gerry Dick with Inside Indiana Business.
US Steel has operated in northwest Indiana for over 120 years, employing thousands of Hoosiers to this day. The company is looking to sell and has so far turned down two multi-billion-dollar cash offers – one of which came from Cleveland-Cliffs.
Dick tells WIBC’s Tony Katz US Steel’s sale is causing potential monopoly concerns. The company produces 20-percent of the nation’s steel out of its northwest Indiana operation. Dick believes there’s concern about having one, single domestic steel operator running the show.
US Steel workers can take a breath though, says Dick, “there is succession wording in the union contract for the next several years that protects them in the event of a sale.”
Dick says the sale comes at an odd time for the northwest portion of Indiana, which is seeing somewhat of an economic comeback in his eyes. The South Shore Rail Line project is pushing forward, along with several other ‘quality-of-life’ investments in the Hoosier State.
You can listen to Gerry Dick’s full interview with WIBC’s Tony Katz here.