As a Kentucky mill shutters, steelworkers see the limits of Trump’s intervention
Although tariffs imposed on steel and aluminum imports provided a temporary boost, the industry is seeing another decline
By Jeff Stein
Oct. 25, 2019 at 7:55 a.m. EDT
ASHLAND, Ky. — Brenda Deborde cried throughout her 16-hour shift at the steel plant here when she received official notice this August that her job was being cut.
Deborde had hoped President Trump’s tariffs could revive this once-mighty mill on a bank of the Ohio River, which for much of the 20th century formed the center of economic life in this part of Eastern Kentucky.
She and her husband, Matt, had traveled to welcome the president as he went to a rally in nearby Huntington, W.Va., waving their Trump flag and “Make America Great Again” hat to the motorcade from the side of the road.
“We really thought the tariffs were going to turn us around — that things would go back to being the way it was. We thought it could be a kind of saving grace,” said Deborde, 58.
It wasn’t. By the end of this year, she and Matt will lose their jobs at the plant after almost two decades. They aren’t sure what they will do next.
Last year, Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to try to boost domestic production. It appeared to work, briefly, sending company stock prices higher and leading to more hiring and production.
But that boost now appears short-lived. The industry faces strong head winds threatening to undermine one of the president’s central economic promises ahead of his 2020 reelection campaign.
Steel prices — which soared as the tariffs were introduced — have since fallen below where they were at the outset of the trade war, dropping by more than 40 percent since last summer, according to one key metric.
The stocks of the biggest steel companies — which also rose dramatically when the tariffs first came on — have similarly tumbled over the past year, in some cases by more than 50 percent.
They have been hurt by tepid domestic demand for steel production amid a U.S. manufacturing recession and a global slowdown in economic growth, among other things.
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But the slowdown continues and its impact has spread beyond just steelworkers. Greg Miller opened Alma’s restaurant a few blocks from the AK Steel mill after Miller and his husband moved back to their hometown to serve “what Appalachians think Italian food is,” Miller said with a grin.
But on Oct. 12, a Wednesday, Miller was rummaging through the restaurant’s remaining cutlery, pans, plates, trays and other kitchenware. With cuts at the steel mill reducing his customer base, Miller shuttered Alma’s permanently that Saturday. The couple is not sure where they will end up next.
“When you go from earning $100,000 a year, or $70,000 a year, to making $10 an hour — well, it’s obvious,” Miller said. “You can’t afford spaghetti and meat sauce for $19.”
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/as-a-kentucky-mill-shutters-steelworkers-see-the-limits-of-trumps-intervention/2019/10/25/a27d3bb2-f02f-11e9-89eb-ec56cd414732_story.html?wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1
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