Cantr II Discussion Forum

I kknow alot of you are not from america and probally wont care, but..

I really notice how important steel is in Cantr. It is almost a economy, a form of money, like a hundred dollar bill. I think that steel today is just as valuable but people dont see that. It's everywhere, it built the world we know today.

What Im getting at is American steel buisness is in trouble. 36 Steel mills went under last year alone and many of those had been around for over a hundred years. these mills that through sweet, blood, and death, built our huge city's of today.

Steel used to be the backbone of our economy before the stockmarket crash. It was the number one traded stock in america, course Andrew Carnigie*not sure how to spell that*had a big role in that. But today people take it for grantet and dont know the serious trouble we are in.

Some of the major causes of this is to much foreign steel let into america.
These other countries can make steel much cheaper because their work force will work for nearly nothing. Now I know alot of you say "Oh Americans cry to much get paid to much" Well Piss on that, your forefathers wernt killed in union battles so I could earn those wages and benifit's that a job like that deserves. If you want to argue that then come with me for a day, and it's not even close to the way it used to be.
The worst part though is that American people and componies are buying this foreign steel. THAT NEEDS TO STOP.

Think about it, if all of Americas Steel mills close down then we have to rely on foreign steel. I think we then might be like a city in Cantr with no steel..in trouble.

Another problem is the cost of power and gas.We need releif, our gov. needs to step in here. We get power from only one co. and they charge us whatever they want, they have a monopoly, it should be illegal.

Im putting out this gripe cause im pissed about what my co. wants to do to us because of these things. $1.00 cut per hour, cancel a $.50 raise, raise medical to $285.00 for family per month, annual deduct of$1,000.00, annual out of pocket $2,500.00, there is more but that's the worst. What sucks form me is I cant except this and have to vote no but at the same time they are threatining to claim bankrupcty if we dont vote it in.

Thank's for readin this if you did and if you want to help write or call with your thoughts on any possible assistance to the steel industry to these people.
Governor Rod Blagojevich
207 State Capitol
Springfield, IL 62706..Phone (217)782-6830 Fax(217)782-2033

Senate Pres. Emil Jones Jr.
327 State Capitol
Springfield,IL 62707...Phone (217)782-2728 Fax(217)782-3242

Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson
309A State Capitol
Springfield, Il 62706...Phone (217)782-7830 fax(217)782-7818

House Speaker Michael Madigan
300State Capitol
Springfield,IL 62706...Phone(217)782-5350 Fax(217)524-1794

House Minority Leader Tom Cross
316 State Capitol
Sprinfield IL 62706...Phone(217)782-1331 Fax(217)782-7012

Thanks

Im sure I'll get plenty of arguments on this but I dont care and this is all Im going to say.....Maybe.

Yeah, that was inevetable. The US imposed a huge import tax on steel from out of the US, which was ruled as illegal by the WTO.
But there's no "unfair" competition really, sure, in a lot of steel manufacturing countries the wages are much lower, but somehow other developed countries cope with it. Steel companies in Europe did good business before the US taxing of foreign steel, and I think the salaries are even higher. The problem lies at the management. A lot of steel companies are simply outdated. They were just lazy and didn't (want) to see the danger coming.
I don't work in the steel business, but i have transported more then *thinks* abt 200.000 tonnes of steel, most of it coming from the "hoogoven" steel factory in holland. Infact, they even export steel to countries like spain where wages are a lot lower and they have a steel industrie of their own. Why? High quality, high tech steel.

I know that you're a steel worker and you guy's get hit hard, but the US tried to hit the rest of the world hard too with their taxes. The steel industries here in Europa suffered for that, and we do import steel from the rest of the world too. Same problem, yet the companies here learned how to deal with it.

Again, the steel industry in the US has been sleeping, they'll wake up eventually, but untill then they'll have to suffer a lot.

Although I'd prefer a wage cut to to losing my job entirely..

True, the American steel has become rather flabby and weak and noncompetitive, too. But someday we will rule again
*destroys foreign steel mills*
I mean, um, BYE!

Yes I forgot to say mis management but there is something wrong when thath many co. in the same buiss. go out. Is good to hear a point of veiw from over seas you never hear what they have to say over here. We are fairly high tech. upgraded alot in the past few years but because the cost of running went up and the price of steel went down we could not repay the loans.

I hope they wake up soon. If you live in a american city that makes steel call your gov. wake them up!!

The weight of pensions has an effect too. In other countries pensions are paid from goverment funds here it is the individal companies.

No raises for me this year partly do to private pension support.

Won't be a problem in the future. The pension progem for those before the cut off is next to nothing in total lump sum. They stopped pensions awhile back for anyone under 10 years of service.

So who is paying for the pension problems of the past in many companies. The people working now who will never see a pension, social securty, or medicare. And with the no raise thing makes it harder to save for yourself.

I'll be OK. I smoke cigarettes and eat poorly. So no big deal. I won't qualify for any heart treatment nor lung cancer repair. I'm taking the easy way out. If you eat well and excercise and don't save lots of money for when your old then you will be old and poor for a long time.

I can't say that the state I live in is a big steel producer (Maryland), but the state directly north of us is (or was): Pennsylvania.

I have to agree that something must be done with the situation, and I think part of it has to be funding research programs at universities to come up with better alloys (maybe the steel companies themselves should take the initiative to fund these programs).

I can't qoute line and verse, but I saw a documentary how some American researchers have come up with some sort of super trans alloy steel (maybe that is what it is called) that is not economical to produce yet, but is very superior to anything that is out on the market now (ligher weight, much stronger, hard to produce so far).

I believe a whole new method for steel production is being fielded by other researchers as well (or some sort of substitute alloy that may be made of other material).

Superior technology through research seems to me to be the only viable solution, along with better labor standards in SOME of the foreign countries (I'm sure some of the western importers have fine labor standards).

Unions have lost much of their influence in the U.S. Quidit, rightly or wrongly. I only wish the best for you and your fellow workers. Good luck.

Ah...Pennsylvania

Steel mills made Pittsburgh.

They made it filthy.

It's nice and clean now, but as recently as 1991 my dad had to move because the air was still too bad for him to breathe at night.

There's hardly any steel mills in Pittsburgh now. It's much nicer.

Admittedly, it's also broke, but that's more a fault of the Democratic city government.

I live in Upstate New York and there aren't very many steel mills around here but I know what you mean. A whole lot of factories around here have been closing as of late because the Corporations are moving overseas due to cheaper labor and less taxes. Also, less enviromental controls. The thing is that the WTO is supporting these moving Corporations which isn't making very many people around here happy.

Also, a lot of farms around here. Especially family ran farms are losing business due to the fact that big ranches or farms down south hire illegal migrant workers from Mexico. The big ranches or farms are then able to sell their products cheaper because they don't pay mininium wage to these illegal workers because they can get away with it. There has been a movement up here that has been picked by grocery stores and the such and they won't but products from ranches or farms that have been known to hire illegal workers. The problem is that a whole lot of the bigger corporate grocery stores haven't jumped on yet and probably won't.

The only corporation that seems willing to stick around here is the General Electric Company, which has been around for a long, long time. But they are slowly going out of business due the people suing them over their past enviromental mistakes and that they have to pay for the dredging of the Hudson River which is only going to make the problem worse for the enviroment and not make it better. A lot of jobs have been lost because of the suits and for the fact that they have to pay for the dredging. It is a huge impact when a community based their economy on the local factory and that local factory is closed because the company can't support it anymore because of something a company did almost 30 years ago and hasn't even been determined yet whether or not it was an accident.

I don't think the GE corporation is going out of business any time soon... they have the fingers in WAY too many pies to do that... maybe that branch office. Or wait is that GM or GE... ah... senior -50 moment.

We are known for our Crabs in Maryland

|west| wrote:Ah...Pennsylvania

Steel mills made Pittsburgh.

They made it filthy.

It's nice and clean now, but as recently as 1991 my dad had to move because the air was still too bad for him to breathe at night.

There's hardly any steel mills in Pittsburgh now. It's much nicer.

Admittedly, it's also broke, but that's more a fault of the Democratic city government.

What's wrong!? Don't you like Heavy Metal?

David wrote:I don't think the GE corporation is going out of business any time soon... they have the fingers in WAY too many pies to do that... maybe that branch office. Or wait is that GM or GE... ah... senior -50 moment.

We are known for our Crabs in Maryland

Well, GE and GM are too totally different companies. But I remember back when I was a kid that every household appliance was made by GE and nowadays that is no longer the case. Plus the factories and offices around here have been closing like no tomorrow in the past 10 years and has left a lot of people without jobs.

General Electric was the company that dumped the PCBs in the Hudson River in the 60's and 70's. People still aren't sure whether or not it was done by accident but the Federal Government is making them dredge the river 30 years later. The problem is that the PCBs have been washed away or buried under the soil of the riverbed so pretty much the river has cleaned itself for the most part. The dredging will actually make things worse in which will release the PCBs buried in the riverbed soil into the river again. That the effects of dredging will be about 40 years of erosion of the river which will harm the enviroment. In fact, I find it funny that most enviromentalist are siding with GE on not dredging the river. But it looks like that isn't going to help any. The Federal Government has already ordered the dredging and is making GE pay for every cent.

I never heard of that about G.E. RKL..See some of the goofy shit our Gov. does.
And shame on these American Co. that move there buis overseas, that needs to be stopped also. It is getting to the point if you want to buy a product made in america you almost cant or you got to go out of your way to find it, and forget WalMart you are deffinetly not gonna find it there. I hate that store,although they do employ alot of people. Or you buy foreign products made in america.

Is Walmart overseas yet? That place is gonna run the world someday

No they won't.

Umm.. *quickly hides something behind his back*

Yes, Walmart, "the company that ate America," is now munching on Mexico. There was an article in the New York Times not too long ago that said that Walmart had more than half of the food sales in Mexico or something. I'm really not sure about that statistic, but I recall there was a really shocking statistic like that. The funny thing is, being in the city I've never even seen a Walmart.

quidit wrote:I never heard of that about G.E. RKL..See some of the goofy shit our Gov. does.
And shame on these American Co. that move there buis overseas, that needs to be stopped also. It is getting to the point if you want to buy a product made in america you almost cant or you got to go out of your way to find it, and forget WalMart you are deffinetly not gonna find it there. I hate that store,although they do employ alot of people. Or you buy foreign products made in america.

Is Walmart overseas yet? That place is gonna run the world someday

Most American products are made in China today. I guess that is what you get when there is cheap labor, child labor, and no unions or laws to protect people from unethical business practices.

If I ever become president (which is never ) I would ban products made in China from America due to those reasons. But if I did that I wouldn't be president too long. But I guess people are willing to sacrifice morality for money these days. Such a shame.