Bishops call for legislation to aid Iron Range steel industry

Saying a crisis in the steel industry is devastating Iron Range communities, leaders of the Minnesota Catholic Conference called on Congress and the Bush administration to approve restrictions on steel “dumping” and provide aid to workers and their families.

Harry Flynn, archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and Dennis Schnurr, bishop of the Diocese of Duluth, were joined by members of the United Steelworkers of America, including International Vice President Leon Lynch, at a news conference Thursday on the issue.

Schnurr and Flynn said the church could not stand by while workers and communities lose their jobs, homes, retirement security and health care.

“Since 1997, 29 steel companies have filed for bankruptcy and nearly 28,000 steelworker jobs have been lost, including over 1,400 on Minnesota’s Iron Range,” said Schnurr, reading a statement on behalf of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy voice of the church in Minnesota.

“With the closure and subsequent bankruptcies of each plant, more workers are displaced, more retirees are without benefits and more families are in critical need . . . As pastors, we see the human and social consequences of these actions on individuals, their families and our local communities.”

The Steel Revitalization Act
Specifically, the Catholic Conference urges passage of The Steel Revitalization Act, HR 808. The legislation would restrict imports of foreign steel, create a Steelworker Retiree Health Care Trust Fund to protect health care benefits, expand the existing Steel Loan Guarantee Fund and provide incentives for responsible consolidation of the industry. Much of the cost would be covered by a 1.5 percent excise tax on all steel sold in America. Steelworker union representatives said the tax, if passed on to consumers, would amount to about $4 on a new car and 75 cents on a refrigerator.

“For too long, our country has been the dumping ground for dirty, unsafe and subsidized steel,” Lynch said. “We don’t want any more ghost towns where steel towns used to exist.”

The union maintains that much of the foreign steel imported into the United States is illegally dumped at below the cost of production. Some also is produced by child and prison labor, the union said.

The Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives currently has H.R. 808 bottled up in committee, but the legislation would pass if it reached the floor, said Steelworker Kevin Fahey, coordinator of the “Stand Up for Steel” campaign in Minnesota. “We appreciate the Minnesota Catholic Conference taking this bold step.”

Schnurr said the Catholic Conference will write Congress and the White House and will work with its counterparts in other states to promote the legislation.

Schnurr was named bishop in Duluth one year ago, shortly after the closure of the LTV taconite plant was announced. “I very quickly got on board with this issue,” he said.

For more information

Minnesota Catholic Conference website, http://www.mncc.org

United Steelworkers of America website, http://www.uswa.org

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