Washington, Dec 26, 2000 - Members of the local, county, state, and federal government in Northeast Ohio met today with business and labor leaders at U.S. Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich's (D-Ohio) District Office for a first meeting of a civic crusade to help LTV Steel through its current challenges exacerbated by the dumping of imported steel. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio), and Rep. Kucinich called together leaders from divergent sectors and all levels of government to devise a strategy for responding to unfair trade practices that put the domestic steel industry in jeopardy.


"This isn't just about saving local jobs," said Rep. Kucinich. "The floods of cheap foreign imports in the steel market are putting the entire domestic steel industry at risk. We need to respond locally and we need to put together a national strategy," he added.


In recent years, foreign steelmakers, with the support of governments, have sold steel in U.S. markets at prices below the cost of production. This is a predatory practice, is known as "dumping" and is illegal in the United States and other countries. The United States has been the target of two floods of dumped steel since 1998. Imports have taken 40% of the market and driven prices down by 35%. Illegal imports are threatening the entire U.S. steel industry, including LTV, according to LTV officials represented at the meeting.


"Today we brought together a coalition of all the right people in the Greater Cleveland area to respond both locally and nationally," said Kucinich. "We have Democrats and Republicans, labor and management, and government at all levels, uniting to respond to this crisis."
In response, participants at today's meeting agreed on a three-part strategy to help LTV recover from attacks on the domestic steel market. The strategy consists of:

Obtaining short-term help from government, including guaranteed loans and other means, to respond to the immediate crisis at LTV; 
Encouraging the federal government to file a Section 201 action under the Trade Act; and 
Addressing the need for cost restructuring at LTV to better respond to the global economy.


"We cannot continue to see our domestic steel industry suffer from a flood of illegally dumped foreign steel," said Kucinich. "We will ask the incoming Bush administration to address this formally through Section 201 trade cases and informally through negotiations. We also need to put together a new policy at the federal level to make our domestic steel, automotive, and aerospace industries part of our overall national defense strategy."


In addition to Reps. Kucinich and Tubbs Jones, other offices represented at the meeting included both of Ohio's U.S. Senators and other members of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Governor's office, the Ohio General Assembly, the Cuyahoga County Commissioners, the City of Cleveland's Administration and City Council, the City of Bedford, the steel industry, including producers and customers, and representatives of labor.


Members of the coalition will meet again on Friday, December 29, 2000, at Cleveland City Council, 601 Lakeside Avenue Room 216, to focus on various finance issues.