A closed Ohio steel mill is reopening after the equipment underwent an update and they will employ 60 steelworkers immediately and will add as they move along and the new equipment has been shaken down.
Steel jobs have been offshored under Bush Jr and Obama, practically wiping it out in the United States. Under President Trump, steel and aluminum manufacturing is seeing a resurgence.
The owners of the mill, Republic Steel say they hope to add to production quickly and to add more workers as they step up production.
The United Steelworkers union, which represents the steel mill’s laid off American steelworkers, said they are looking forward to working with Republic Steel to reopen the facility, but officials said they have to be officially informed by the company of the reopening.
“We have reached out to company representatives, and are waiting for their response,” the union’s executives told Cleveland.com. “At this time, none of our members have been recalled from lay-off. The USW is committed to work with Republic Steel to facilitate the startup and return our members to work as soon as possible.”
Lorain, Ohio, was devastated in 2016 when Republic Steel announced it was laying off about 200 American steelworkers and idling its steel mill due to free trade and foreign dumping of steel in the U.S.
The American steel jobs were subsequently offshored to South Korea, the Phillippines, and Taiwan, where domestic workers are paid much less than U.S. workers. Republic Steel, due to free trade, offshored close to 450 American steel jobs between 2012 and 2015 to countries like Spain and Canada.
In total, free trade has cost more than 275,000 American workers their manufacturing jobs in Ohio from 1994 to the present day. U.S. free trade with Mexico has cost Ohio nearly 35,000 jobs, leaving those American workers displaced. Likewise, about 106,400 U.S. jobs were eliminated due to free trade with China.