{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-brown-slam-us-steel-executives-for-corporate-greed-in-nippon-steel-deal", "Warren, Brown Slam U.S. Steel Executives for Corporate Greed in Nippon Steel Deal", "2024-10-03", "2024", "2024-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "MA", "Elizabeth Warren", "W000817", "www.warren.senate.gov", "warren", "https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "Warren, Brown Slam U.S. Steel Executives for Corporate Greed in Nippon Steel Deal\n\nSteel executives could make over $156 million from the deal, while selling out American steelworkers.\n\n\u201cIf these reports are accurate, they demonstrate a repulsive conflict of interest in which U.S. Steel executives can enrich themselves at the expense of U.S. Steel workers.\u201d\n\nText of Letter (PDF)\n\nBoston, MA \u2013 Today, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), backed the United Steelworkers (USW) and called out the executives of the United States Steel Corporation for selling out American steelworkers in order to get a fat payout if acquired by Nippon Steel.\n\nFor the past year, U.S. Steel, a storied American steel manufacturing company, has been subject to an increasingly controversial potential acquisition by Nippon Steel, a Japanese steel producer that has agreed to acquire U.S. Steel in an all-cash bid valued at $14.1 billion. Since then, the United Steelworkers (USW) union, along with President Biden and other elected officials have voiced opposition to the deal, arguing that the company should remain American operated.\n\nRecent reports indicate that U.S. Steel executives may be incentivized by personal profit \u2013 $72 million in additional cash and benefits \u2013 to complete the deal. Indeed, according to the Company\u2019s March 12, 2024 proxy statement, U.S. Steel\u2019s named executive officers would receive in connection with the merger, change in control payments totaling over $156 million \u2013 not including $40.8 million in payments to non-employee members of the Board of Directors for previously non-vested stock-based awards.\n\n\u201cIf these reports are accurate, they demonstrate a repulsive conflict of interest in which U.S. Steel executives can enrich themselves at the expense of U.S. Steel workers,\u201d wrote the senators.\n\n\u201cU.S. Steel was not in distress when it first received an unsolicited bid, and it is not in distress today,\u201d wrote the senators. \u201cBut if a merger is desired, there is no need for you to sell the company to a foreign-owned entity, as U.S. Steel has also received an alternative offer from a domestic steelmaker.\u201d\n\nHowever, just this month, U.S. Steel threatened to move the company\u2019s headquarters out of Pittsburgh and take thousands of jobs with it if the deal with Nippon fails.\n\n\u201cYou claimed that these would be \u201cunavoidable consequences\u201d if the deal is not completed,\u201d the senators continued. \u201cFar from being \u2018unavoidable\u2019, your threats are unjustified and unfair to U.S. Steel\u2019s workers who have strengthened the company\u2019s performance and helped mark U.S. Steel\u2019s \u2018second-best financial performance in the (c)ompany\u2019s history\u2019 only two years ago.\u201d\n\nUSW has raised concerns about the secretive nature of the transaction: U.S Steel did not consult USW about the deal, even though the union\u2019s members and retirees would be the population most at risk from the uncertainties caused by the merger of the company with a foreign steelmaker. Additionally, USW has raised concerns that Nippon will not commit to supporting steelmaking in the United States over the long term.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:55:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-brown-slam-us-steel-executives-for-corporate-greed-in-nippon-steel-deal"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7682829163968563, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}