Steel Mills
USW says opposing USS/Nippon deal is First Amendment right, seeks lawsuit dismissal
Written by Laura Miller
February 5, 2025
The leader of the United Steelworkers (USW) wants the lawsuit filed by U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel against him to be thrown out.
USW International President David McCall filed a motion to dismiss the litigation in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, according to a statement from the Pittsburgh-based union.
Recall that USS and Nippon filed two lawsuits after former President Joe Biden blocked the companies’ merger. Biden’s move came after a Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) review highlighting the deal’s alleged threat to national security.
This week, opening briefs were filed in the first lawsuit against the US government.
The second lawsuit targets McCall and Cleveland-Cliffs’ Lourenco Goncalves claiming they illegally coordinated to undermine the USS/Nippon deal. This is the suit McCall is seeking to have dismissed.
USS and Nippon allege that, by speaking out strongly against the merger, McCall and the USW, by extension, violated federal antitrust laws and Pennsylvania tort laws.
However, the union sees this differently: The suit is “a frivolous and unsubstantiated attack on our union simply for exercising our First Amendment rights,” it said on Wednesday.
“It is both our right and our responsibility to speak out against the kinds of mergers that U.S. Steel and Nippon were proposing – a sale that would have hurt both our members and our national security. This includes lobbying our elected officials at all level of government and is a fundamental protection for all Americans,” USW added.
Laura Miller
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