President Trump’s tariffs on imported aluminum and steel are securing massive wage hikes for American steelworkers with the United States Steel Corporation.
An exclusive report by Reuters reveals the details of the wage hikes for the approximately 16,000 U.S. Steel Corp union workers who have had their wages frozen for two years. Before that, between 2012 and 2015, the steelworkers only saw a six percent wage hike.
The newest contract between the union and U.S. Steel certifies that the U.S. steelworkers will see a 14 percent wage hike over the next four years, marking the largest pay increase for steelworkers in six years.
Weeks ago, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross — a staunch economic nationalist — predicted that Trump’s tariffs on imported steel and aluminum would lead to wage increases for U.S. steelworkers.
“In many ways the current negotiations between the steel companies and the [United Steelworkers] probably will be a bellwether,” Ross told Reuters. “It wouldn’t be surprising if there are some wage increases coming from that.”
The wage hikes for 16,000 U.S. Steel Corp. workers comes after nearly 2,000 United Steelworkers (USW) in Michigan and Minnesota were gifted wage increases as well, thanks to the tariffs, as Breitbart News reported.
The 1,850 American steelworkers who are set to see wage increases are based in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan’s Tilden and Empire mines and the United Taconite and Hibbing Taconite mines in Iron Range, Minnesota.
Iron Range, Minnesota — which was devastated by multinational free trade deals — has been revitalized by the Trump tariffs. A local report this month noted how small businesses in Iron Range are seeing employment booms and a growing economy thanks to the strong production of the iron mines in the region.
As Breitbart News most recently reported, Trump’s tariffs on imported goods are not costing U.S. jobs, as free trade advocates had claimed for the last year. In fact, the Trump tariffs have created more than 11,000 American jobs in the economy in the last six months, according to research by the Coalition for a Prosperous America.