Saturday, September 25, 2004
Grateful for the tariffs the president imposed, they buck their unions.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- President Bush is getting support from unlikely people in battleground states: some steel workers who are grateful for temporary tariffs that helped the struggling steel industry begin rebounding.
While experts say steel unions as a whole will support Democrat John Kerry, some pockets of workers liked how Bush handled the tariffs -- a key campaign issue in such states as Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
The 201 tariffs were imposed in March 2002 to shield struggling U.S. steel producers from foreign competition. The tariffs were supposed to be in place for three years, but the Bush administration ended them in December, angering the unions.
But some steel workers were happy with the relief they got, including Bob Hoover, of New Cumberland, W.Va. He donned a black and gold "Steelworkers for Bush" T-shirt in August when he stood with about 20 others from West Virginia and Ohio at a rally in Wheeling.
"Mainly, it was to let him know that not all steel workers believe he's not doing a good job," Hoover said Friday. "The 201 tariffs did help."
Hoover is a member of the Kerry-endorsing Independent Steelworkers Union at ISG-Weirton in West Virginia. The United Steelworkers of America also endorsed Kerry.
Despite the endorsements, Bush has won over support from some laborers in steel-producing Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania that have a combined 46 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
Analysis
Peter Morici, a professor at the University of Maryland-College Park and steel industry consultant, said it makes sense even though steel unions typically support Democrats, who have harped on Bush for an overall loss of manufacturing jobs during his term.
That's because during Bush's presidency, steel workers have been called back to work in Ohio and Indiana, and their jobs have been saved in West Virginia, he said. "That has a powerful impact on people's psyche."
Forty-two U.S. steel producers have filed for bankruptcy since late 1997, when foreign-made steel began flooding the market at prices below the cost of production.
The tariffs helped steelmakers earn more money while the industry reinvented itself through consolidation and cutting labor and other costs. At the same time, the U.S. industry boomed because it's been able to charge higher prices for steel that's in high demand as a shortage of raw materials used to make steel has kept production costs up. China has been buying all the raw materials it can get for its rapidly growing steel industry.
The Bush administration ended the tariffs early under pressure from big steel buyers such as automakers in other battleground states like Michigan and to avoid a trade war with the European Union.
That reversal is a sticking point for most steel workers, said Wayne Ranick, USWA spokesman.
"We polled members in battleground states and 90 percent disapprove of the president's decisions to withdraw the tariffs," he said.
Kerry's stance
The Kerry campaign says its not worried by what they call sporadic steel support for Bush.
"The steel workers in Ohio are some of our most stalwart supporters. I will take 'John Kerry's Army of Steel' over the few workers the Bush campaign has managed to squeeze into their photo ops any day," said Jennifer Palmieri, a spokesman for the Kerry campaign in Ohio.
Bush's side points out that he was the first president to deliver on the tariffs, no matter how short-lived.
The tariffs "were intended to provide the industry the support it needed to restructure and that's what happened," said Bush spokesman Kevin Madden. "The industry has come back healthier because of that."
Morici said the threat of another flood of cheaper, foreign imports, known as dumping, is still a big deal for steel workers and companies. But now in the context of where the candidates stand on trade laws, not tariffs.