
Zanesville, OH: A press conference held yesterday in Zanesville brought together representatives from Cleveland-Cliffs, UAW workers, local leaders, and U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) to discuss the successful reversal of a proposed Department of Energy regulation. This regulation had posed a threat to hundreds of jobs at the Cleveland-Cliffs plant, which produces grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES).
The proposed rule would have mandated the use of foreign-produced steel in transformer manufacturing, jeopardizing domestic production of grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES), critical for power transformers. Cleveland-Cliffs produces this specialized steel at its Zanesville facility and other locations in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
“This was a bipartisan effort with the mayor, UAW, Cleveland-Cliffs, and other Ohioans. Together we got the Biden Administration to back down, saving union jobs in Zanesville,” stated Brown during a conference in Cleveland-Cliffs' Zanesville plant.
Lourenco Goncalves, Chairman and CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs, remarked, "Because of Senator Brown’s successful advocacy, Cleveland-Cliffs is now making investments in the production of electrical steel and preserving good-paying, UAW jobs at Zanesville Works."
Mayor Don Mason praised the outcome, explaining that local jobs were secured and reliable domestic sources for materials and supplies for the power grid were preserved. "Without those efforts, materials and supplies would have shifted from reliable domestic sources to unreliable offshore sources," he stated.
Source: brown.senate.gov; whiznews.com