Union wants updates from steel company

The United Steelworkers union is frustrated that it has not been kept updated about United States Steel Corp.’s strategic review even though it represents a large percentage of the company’s workforce, the labor group’s new president said. U.S. Steel has been conducting a process to sell all or part of itself since August, when it rejected an offer from rival ClevelandCliffs Inc. Final bids in the U.S. Steel review are due soon, Bloomberg reported earlier this month, with potential buyers in the final round including Cliffs, ArcelorMittal and Stelco Holdings Inc. U.S. Steel doesn’t have an obligation to keep updating the union, and relations between the two parties have been tense after the union came out strongly in support of the Cliffs bid. However, the terms of its labor agreement gives the union a right to make a counter bid if U.S. Steel is presented with a “bona fide” offer — a right that the union has said it would transfer to Cliffs. “You would think based on the long history with U.S. Steel they would be talking to us,” United Steelworkers President Dave McCall said in a phone interview. “We get no communication from U.S. Steel about the process.” The union has said previously it will not support foreign buyers. U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.