What Can Be Done

What Can Be Done

Here are a few ways to correct the unfair practices that have hurt steel employees and threaten to damage the long-term viability of the industry. Hopefully, workers, activists, local communities, and union organizations will start “raising hell” and demanding better treatment. Remember: confronted by even greater odds, rank-and-file Americans formed industrial unions and supported progressive policies and politicians during the 1930s Depression.

Demand that Congress change bankruptcy laws to give employees the same rights granted to banks and other secured creditors in reorganization proceedings.
Fight for the return of the medical benefits that were taken from steel retirees. This includes getting back a share of the profits wrung out of the steel sector by Wilbur Ross at the expense of senior citizens.
Organize class-action suits against directors and officers of the former steel companies who failed in their fiduciary duty to protect employee property. (Similar suits have won cash settlements from individual directors, banks, and others involved in WorldCom, Enron, and other corporate scandals.)
Call for a federal health-benefits insurance program along the lines of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) and require companies to provide long-term financing for benefits coverage, so that benefits will continue even if the companies fail.
Hold Lakshmi Mittal legally and politically accountable for failures in corporate behavior at Mittal Steel USA. Publicize evidence of underinvestment or unsafe labor practices.