US Steel drops lawsuits against Cliffs, USW

The United States Steel Corp. business unit of Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp. (NSC) has ended legal actions it previously had pursued against the United Steelworkers (USW) union and rival steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.

The suits had pertained to the lengthy acquisition process NSC undertook to gain control of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel and the sometimes cooperative counter moves made by Cleveland-based Cliffs and the USW to back a competing bid.

NSC, U.S. Steel and the newly formed Nippon Steel North America Inc. (NSNA) have ended all litigation and other disputes between them related to the partnership between Nippon Steel and U. S. Steel, which was consummated June 18, U.S. Steel says in a statement.

This includes the dismissal of the lawsuit that NSC, NSNA and U.S. Steel filed against USW International President David McCall and the withdrawal of an unfair labor practice charge filed by the USW against U.S. Steel with the National Labor Relations Board.

NSC and its business units say the winding down of the legal actions did not involve any financial considerations.

The newly merged companies also say litigation related to the Nippon Steel-U.S. Steel partnership between NSC and Cleveland-Cliffs also has been ended or dismissed, including any actions against Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves.

“This outcome speaks for itself,” Goncalves says. “The case has been dismissed with prejudice, there was no financial consideration exchanged and all claims have been released. We remain fully focused on advancing our steelmaking leadership in North America.”

The merger that was 18 months in the making resulted in the U.S. government holding a golden share in NSNA designed to encourage investments in American steelmaking and protect U.S. jobs.

That condition may be coming into play already, based on a report concerning the future of the U.S. Steel campus Granite City, Illinois.

A report from AP News earlier this week refers to a U.S. Steel letter that indicates the Granite City location will stop processing steel slabs later this year. The location’s blast furnaces have been idle since late 2023.

In statements made before and after the merger, NSC has publicized intended investments at the Indiana and Pennsylvania blast furnace/basic oxygen furnace campuses of U.S. Steel, while not mentioning Granite City.

While the latest report indicates another reduction in activity in Granite City is looming, the letter cited also states U.S. Steel won’t lay off any of the approximately 800 workers there until this year or next, according to AP.

“They’ll keep their jobs at least until 2027, as a result of a national security agreement between Trump and Nippon Steel that allowed its buyout of U.S. Steel to go forward,” the report says.

Coverage of the announcement from Riverbender.com refers to a letter by Granite City Mayor Michael C. Parkinson to President Donald Trump expressing alarm at the latest U.S. Steel action.

“I cannot seem to get any answers concerning the current deal you have brokered with Nippon Steel and how that will benefit the laid off workers here in our city,” writes Parkinson, according to Dan Brannan of Riverbender.com.  

The AP report says federal government protections offered to U.S. Steel workers as part of the merger agreement last until 2035 for the mills in Indiana and Pennsylvania, but only through 2027 for the Granite City mill.