Economy

SMU Community News: Pitching in During the Pandemic

May 21, 2020

Now more than ever the steel industry must come together to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic. Steel Market Update hopes to help by promoting a sense of community among producers, distributors, buyers, vendors and their customers. SMU’s Executive newsletter now includes this periodic community news roundup where we report on the human side of the pandemic.

Employees of ArcelorMittal Cleveland collected 847 pounds of food and donations of $355 in a single day to benefit the Greater Cleveland Food Bank in honor of Health & Safety Day and Workers Memorial Day on April 28.

“We could not go through with our original plans for the Health & Safety Day fair because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we still wanted to come together to honor Workers Memorial Day in a special way. There are a lot of people struggling right now. The food drive was a way to do something positive for the community in a difficult time,” said Tony Pasquale of USW Local 979.

A drive-up food drop-off was organized at the union hall with volunteers safely accepting donations from people’s cars. Many donors contributed food items packaged in steel cans, showing how steel plays an important role in feeding our communities, the union noted.

Nucor-Yamato Steel donated 10,000 N95 masks to the local hospital, nursing homes, county courthouse, Mississippi County Sheriff’s Department and Blytheville Police and Fire Departments earlier this month. Blytheville Police Chief Ross Thompson thanked Nucor-Yamato for replenishing their dwindling supply of masks. “You take care of us and we want to take care of you,” said NYS General Manager Thad Thompson.

Tenaris committed to a $150,000 donation to the city of Houston and Matagorda County in Texas to help with their respective emergency responses to the healthcare crisis. Tenaris’s North American headquarters is based in Houston, where it also has manufacturing facilities. Matagorda County is home to Tenaris’ seamless pipe mill in Bay City. Tenaris also delivered 3,000 surgical facemasks to a senior living facility in Houston, to Matagorda County and to the city of Bay City for frontline personnel, and also to a hospital in Blytheville, Ark., where Tenaris has welded pipe-manufacturing operations.

Editor’s note: We encourage you to send us a press release with any inspiring stories about how your company, or your employees, have pitched in to help during the virus crisis. Email your press release and photos to Sandy@SteelMarketUpdate.com and we will do our best to include them in a future issue. Submissions will be edited for length and clarity.