Leo Gerard Quotations

We're the dominant union in the petrochemical industry, and we're not at all saying, 'Put them out of business.' We're saying we want to keep a strong economy within America's control. We're saying, 'If China runs around and buys up most of the world's resources, what will we do? If the world starts demanding hybrids and Japan dominates that market, what will we do?'

Sooner or later, the same day will come for retirees at every steel company in the United States unless our government acts quickly and decisively to end unfair trade in steel, grant maximum tariff relief to give the industry time to recover from the damage caused by illegal imports, and level the playing field with relief for the industry's legacy costs,

The government is allowing DuPont and other companies to use the American public as guinea pigs by relying solely on voluntary compliance by DuPont which has repeatedly violated the public's trust. This is an example of putting corporate profits ahead of human life.

Now its crucial for the Bush Administration to implement the strongest remedies possible -- even stronger on slabs than those recommended by the ITC -- to prevent further damage from a crisis that has already sent 26 companies into bankruptcy and wiped out 13 million tons of American steelmaking capacity,

How many companies have to go under before Washington gets the message? How many American workers and communities will have to be devastated by the predatory practices of foreign governments before Washington realizes that the country's economic and national security is being totally undermined for the sake of protecting trade policies that have patently failed.

We had a fight 40-something years ago. There's still people who would like to relive that fight.

There may be too many steel companies but there are not too many steel workers, and any restructuring must preserve the jobs of the workers who have made sacrifice after sacrifice in order to keep the industry alive in the face of a flood of unfairly dumped foreign steel imports,

We urge the administration to file its Section 201 action immediately, to make it comprehensive, and to seek emergency interim relief,