Nippon Steel Releases Communications with United Steelworkers
In an effort to gain approval from the U.S. administration for its acquisition of U.S. Steel, Nippon Steel Corp. publicly released communications with the United Steelworkers, a trade union opposed to the deal. The communications, which were published on a website jointly operated with U.S. Steel, included emails and other correspondence exchanged between Nippon Steel and the union's leadership since the purchase was announced in December.
The release of these materials comes amid reports that the Biden administration plans to block the acquisition due to national security concerns. In a statement, Nippon Steel said it had kept the correspondence confidential until now to create the "best possible environment for good-faith negotiations." However, the company decided to share the communications "in light of the public mischaracterizations of our communications with the USW and the commitments we have offered."
Nippon Steel hopes that the disclosure of these materials will help U.S. Steel's employees and other stakeholders understand the full set of facts about the company's engagements with the USW. The statement did not provide details about the alleged mischaracterizations.