Trying to set the record straight about steel tariffs

Trying to set the recordstraight about steel tariffs
EDITOR:
I read with interest the anti-steel tariff letter printed in your Oct. 5 paper. As a Steelworker with 27 years' experience, I must take exception to the many mistaken claims contained in it. The writer would like to see the steel tariffs "ended, effective immediately" because 1. "overpriced union labor", 2. outdated factories", and 3. "outright mismanagement" have led to "an inefficient industry ... grossly unable to compete in the global market".
Inefficient? By what standard? The last year that I have statistics for (1999), shows that when comparing countries by man hours needed to produce one ton of steel, Japan was first at 4.0, the United States was second at 4.1, and Canada at 4.6. China, the poster child for inefficiency, needed nearly 25 hours to produce a ton of steel. That's SIX times longer than an American needed.
The factories that were outdated and the companies that were inefficient are gone. They are out of business. As for mismanagement, yes, this industry was once guilty as charged. But what industry doesn't have its loose cannons? Like the outdated factories, those that persisted in bad management no longer exist.
As for "overpriced union labor," I'll be damned if I'm going to apologize to anyone for working a dirty, dangerous job that supports my wife and children in a middle class lifestyle. Until I got a raise last spring, my kids qualified for reduced price lunches in the Youngstown school system. I guess that we are now living high on the hog and don't know it.
Of course in China, the average steel worker earned $1.25 an hour in 1999. Maybe I should volunteer to work for $1.25 an hour so I wouldn't qualify as "overpriced union labor." Then the letter writer could volunteer to pay more taxes to support my family because I would no longer be able to provide food, shelter, clothes, you know, the luxuries of life.
The writer states that steel tariffs have caused "consumers [to] pay more" and contributed to "job losses at companies who use steel." I can only suggest that he read the U.S. International Trade Commissions report of Sept. 19, 2003. He would read that 1. steel consumers "had difficulty distinguishing between the effects of the (tariff) safeguard measures and other changes in market conditions", (i.e. any price increases were not related to the tariffs) and 2. steel distributors and product producers (i.e. companies who use steel) "generally reported that they expected no change or positive results from the continuation of the safeguards and no change or negative results from termination of the safeguard measures."
Steel tariffs have not led to an increase in consumer prices or contributed to job losses in the wider steel markets. They have allowed the best factories with the best management to make steel with the fewest number of workers.
JEFFREY L. POWELL
Youngstown
Participants in peace racedeserve public's support
EDITOR:
Oct. 5, my wife and I attended the 29th annual peace race. We were clueless where the route was so we drove through Mill Creek Park until we found the roads blocked near Lake Glacier, where a park policeman advised us that the race was to be passing right by there. We parked there and were among approximately six to eight spectators watching the race from there.
The runners were very appreciative for the spectators. At least one runner from each group thanked us for coming out to watch them. However watching The Vindicator for the previous week, there was no map or route description (that I could find). I think in the future it would attract more spectators if people knew where the race was being held.
The runners work hard and deserve to be cheered on by more people from the Valley.
JIM IGNAZIO
Austintown