By Bill Raack, KWMU
St. Louis, Mo. – National Steel Corporation will ask a bankruptcy court judge in Chicago today to approve the sale of its assets to U.S. Steel Corporation.
U.S. Steel won an auction for the assets, which include Granite City Steel, last week. Employees at the Granite City plant, who are represented by the United Steelworkers of America, support the sale to U.S. Steel. District 7 Director Jim Robinson says the deal would guarantee the continued operation of Granite City Steel, one of the Metro-East's biggest employers.
"It also in a larger sense represents another step in the humane consolidation of the steel industry and when we say humane we mean a consolidation which takes into consideration the needs of the people that are affected by it," said Robinson.
AK Steel Holding Corporation also bid for National's assets, but the union opposed it because AK wanted to break its contract with the steelworkers.
Robinson says union members will travel to today's hearing to support the bid from US Steel. "We will have National steelworkers from Granite City, the Midwest division in northern Indiana and the Great Lakes division in Detroit will all be in Chicago."
A judge could rule on the sale of National's assets as soon as today or he could take weeks to decide.