00:00 - The following program is sponsored in part by customers

00:04 - bank.

00:13 - Roxann Brown,

00:15 - international president of United Steelworkers.

00:18 - Tell us about your membership.

00:20 - They're not all steelworkers, right?

00:24 - They're not. Larry.

00:25 - And thank you for that question.

00:26 - You know, I like to say that our union

00:29 - and our membership is quite literally cradle to grave.

00:33 - We represent about 50,000 members in health care,

00:36 - which includes nurses who deliver babies all the way to, you know, folks

00:41 - who make Baskerville coffins and dig graves and everything in between.

00:48 - We represent every single, basic industry that you can possibly think of.

00:52 - Obviously, steel, as our name suggests, but we're also the largest union.

00:57 - And the pulp and paper sector refining,

01:00 - tire and rubber mining.

01:03 - You know, critical minerals, mining,

01:07 - mining and metals, not coal and so many other sectors.

01:12 - So, Roxane, given this wide range of occupations,

01:15 - represented by United Steelworkers, what binds them all together?

01:20 - Solidarity.

01:22 - You know, all of our members, whether they're here in the United States

01:26 - or in Canada, are connected to this union because they wanted a voice on the job.

01:33 - Right?

01:33 - And they want to earn a good living

01:37 - and be safe at work and retire in dignity, you know?

01:42 - So it's really kind of a values proposition that

01:45 - that connects our members, but also just the overarching notion

01:49 - of solidarity, that workers are stronger together.

01:53 - And all of the work that they all do is, is connected, ultimately.

01:58 - Roxann, you're still relatively new to this position.

02:01 - When you were elected president in October of 2025.

02:05 - What did you see as your immediate priority?

02:11 - You know, there's so much noise

02:14 - and, division right now and in the United States.

02:20 - And so my vision then remains my vision now,

02:24 - which is to really kind of pull us in as the steelworkers and unite us again

02:29 - around those values that we all hold true, and do deep education

02:34 - on how we build power around

02:37 - stronger wages for our membership,

02:41 - how we make our workplaces safer in a time where, unfortunately,

02:46 - you know, we we've experienced cuts across a lot of our,

02:51 - our, our safety and health programs and the federal government.

02:54 - And how do we make our workplaces safer?

02:56 - How do we at a time of economic insecurity,

03:00 - still get those wages right, that our members deserve,

03:04 - our members help these corporations, make lots of profits.

03:08 - And so they deserve, to to earn a good living themselves

03:11 - and so really come together around these things that we fight for and,

03:16 - and to be more connected, better connected on the fights that truly matter

03:21 - and, and a bit more disconnected from the noise that exists right now.

03:25 - Roxanne, your relationship with us predates your being elected president.

03:30 - So fill us in on your history.

03:32 - What were you doing there before briefly.

03:35 - I started, 27 years ago,

03:37 - almost 28 years ago, with the steelworkers and our policy shop in Washington, DC.

03:43 - So I really cut my teeth, kind of in the belly of the beast

03:48 - being in Washington, DC and, in the nuts and bolts of our union.

03:54 - So all of the core issues that we work on

03:57 - as a labor organization, that's how I cut my teeth.

04:01 - You know, labor law reform, manufacturing a defense policy.

04:06 - Trade policy.

04:07 - That's really how I got my start in the union.

04:11 - And and really, developed just a deep understanding of

04:16 - not just our members, but the industries that they that

04:20 - they work in, again, in our two countries, the United States and Canada.

04:24 - And how incredibly instrumental

04:28 - our members are and the work they do are to their local economies,

04:31 - but also the broader economies of the United States and Canada.

04:36 - Well, let's consider what your predecessor, Tom Conway,

04:39 - had to say about you.

04:40 - He said that you are ready to navigate an unprecedented

04:45 - era of unchecked corporate greed.

04:48 - So, in your opinion, just what are the forces

04:51 - that are making corporate greed worse now than they were?

04:57 - You know, I,

04:58 - I think corporations feel of that unchecked.

05:02 - And, and this environment that is really pro-business,

05:07 - you know, and anti-worker where we're in an environment

05:11 - where policymakers really orient more importance

05:15 - on, on businesses and the bottom line, over the worker.

05:20 - And, I mean, I harken to this earlier, but we're seeing it

05:25 - and the way that policies are being changed.

05:29 - Right.

05:29 - The fact that workers today, you know, are less safe than they were two years ago

05:35 - because of rollbacks at, OSHA and,

05:39 - Shaw and Nash and all of these agencies.

05:43 - The fact that, you know, a million workers were,

05:47 - you know, we're told your collective bargaining agreement is null and void.

05:51 - You know, shortly at the beginning of this,

05:55 - this new administration, you know, all of those actions

05:58 - really kind of embolden workers.

06:02 - I mean, I'm sorry, corporations to feel like they're living

06:07 - in an unchecked environment, and they can continue to go down a path

06:10 - of weakening the rights of of working people.

06:14 - So let's consider, the situation from the perspective of your membership.

06:19 - How are employment opportunities in general for your members?

06:24 - It really depends on the sector.

06:26 - You know,

06:28 - where, like I said, we're cradle to grave, so we're one of the most diverse unions.

06:33 - If not the most diverse union in North America.

06:36 - And so that question is different for health

06:38 - care than it is for the tire and rubber sector.

06:42 - Well, Roxann, let's start with steel, since that's in your name.

06:45 - How about that?

06:46 - Sure. That sounds great.

06:47 - You know, the steel industry, as a whole is is relatively, you know, steady.

06:54 - And we are seeing some, some hirings across some of our facilities.

07:00 - You know, the I will say you know, we've spent a lot of time

07:03 - over the last four decades trying to orient

07:07 - and rightsize our trade policy to help those facilities operate.

07:12 - Right, and to reclaim some of the capacity that we've lost in the jobs

07:15 - that we've lost.

07:16 - And steel is very much a boom and bust sector.

07:20 - Right now it's it's it's pretty steady.

07:24 - Well, I understand the federal government has a law

07:27 - called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

07:31 - So what does that mean for your members?

07:33 - What kind of tangible payoff has there been for them?

07:36 - You know, we fought for that bill.

07:38 - Really, really hard.

07:40 - We worked. We were boots on the ground.

07:42 - We had a bus tour that we took across the country

07:45 - to really push for that bill and show what it could mean

07:49 - for manufacturing workers, for our members who work at

07:53 - Corning and Wilmington, North Carolina, who make fiber optic cables.

07:57 - That bill has meant a lot as investments.

08:01 - And that infrastructure,

08:03 - has has seen significant, you know, kind of deployment and improvements.

08:08 - And that's jobs for them.

08:09 - So they were able to hire more people at that facility we built in

08:14 - and really boosted the strong domestic procurement standards in that bill.

08:18 - So that meant more steady jobs and more jobs for our steel steel workers.

08:24 - Right.

08:25 - Where you have Buy America provisions built in that bill for,

08:29 - for things like iron and steel and some that so, you know,

08:34 - we, we've seen, definitely some, some promise from, from that piece

08:40 - of legislation and what we would call industrial policy kind of built into it.

08:45 - We, you know, we also saw

08:47 - industrial policy built into into pieces like the Inflation Reduction Act.

08:50 - But again, we're also seeing unfortunately, cuts,

08:54 - in a very large way from that policy that takes away more of the opportunities

09:00 - we thought we would have in this moment for manufacturing workers.

09:04 - Roxanne, what's happening with tariffs on steel

09:08 - that comes from foreign countries?

09:11 - That's a very full question.

09:14 - Is it?

09:15 - That's a very good question.

09:17 - You know tariffs.

09:18 - There are few unions within the United States

09:23 - that have engaged with our trade policy as much as our union.

09:28 - No other.

09:28 - No other union, uses the trade policies in the way that the steelworkers have.

09:33 - We've had to file trade cases or been party

09:37 - to trade cases for now, almost four decades.

09:40 - Going back to the steel crisis right in the 80s.

09:44 - And, most Americans didn't know the T word tariffs

09:48 - because they were used historically.

09:52 - They've been used in a very strategic way around

09:56 - a certain set of products oriented towards a bad actor.

10:01 - So if there's a country that's been dumping, meaning

10:03 - sending their products into the United States like steel

10:07 - at a really low cost, that undercut the price of steel in the United States,

10:12 - we file a trade case or we join,

10:14 - you know, a steel company and file a trade case against that country

10:19 - so that we can level the playing field between the products

10:22 - our members make here and those products coming in.

10:25 - That's that's tariffs.

10:27 - That's how they've historically worked.

10:29 - They've worked well.

10:30 - They've helped to make sure that our members jobs, remain steady

10:35 - or bring them back to maintain capacity.

10:39 - The environment that we're in now is a bit chaotic.

10:41 - And instead of focusing on bad actors

10:46 - only we're focused on nations like Canada,

10:49 - our, our closest allies.

10:52 - And the tariffs aren't being done in a way that focuses strategically

10:56 - at those bad actors.

10:57 - It's really just against the world.

10:59 - And unfortunately, it's

11:02 - demonize the tool that our members

11:06 - and our union rely upon for their livelihood.

11:10 - We need strong trade policy to really get at bad actors.

11:15 - And, and unfortunately, that's that's not quite where we are right now.

11:21 - Well, how much steel approximately is coming into the United States from Canada?

11:26 - And the reason I'm asking is

11:28 - because I understand some of your membership lives in Canada.

11:32 - Yeah. And I would just say this.

11:34 - I mean, we have about a little over 300,000 members,

11:37 - in Canada across a whole suite of sectors.

11:41 - Our members in Canada actually do mind coal.

11:43 - But steel, aluminum, you know, wood products

11:47 - coming, you know, back and forth between the United States and Canada.

11:50 - I think that's a

11:52 - I think that's a key thing to remember in this conversation around trade

11:58 - when it comes to the United States and Canada, there is a long standing

12:04 - strategic relationship around trade and and products

12:09 - between the United States and Canada that that stems from our weapon systems.

12:15 - Right.

12:15 - Defense and key national security products going

12:19 - back and forth between our two countries and being made by U.S.

12:22 - workers and Canadian workers because we can trust them.

12:25 - That includes steel,

12:28 - steel

12:28 - coming into the United States, aluminum coming into the United States.

12:31 - And again, going back and forth a few times

12:34 - before a final product is produced.

12:36 - Right. So,

12:39 - the challenge now is because, of the tariffs

12:44 - and the way that they've been directed towards Canada,

12:48 - that that back and forth relationship

12:51 - wrong around some of these products is now impacted because each time it comes

12:55 - over, it's hit with the tariff each time.

12:58 - So it doesn't only impact the job

13:01 - that's in Canada, the steel worker job in Canada.

13:04 - It winds up impacting the steelworker job in the United States, too,

13:08 - because that company in Canada is saying, you know what?

13:10 - It's too expensive to do this business anymore.

13:13 - We gotta stop.

13:14 - So if that stops, what happens is the job on the U.S.

13:18 - side. And so these are the things that,

13:22 - that will

13:22 - wanting policymakers to to really understand

13:26 - there's a better, more strategic

13:28 - way to get at bad actors.

13:32 - And we need to maintain this relationship that we have with our closest ally.

13:36 - Unfortunately, you know, now Canada is in a position of having to,

13:41 - you know, look at other customers.

13:43 - And that also ultimately impacts the restaurants.

13:46 - Well, let's consider the United States relationship with another country.

13:50 - Japan and U.S.

13:52 - steel was sold to a Japanese company last year.

13:55 - What did that event mean to your membership?

14:00 - Well, you know, I can speak about what it means now

14:04 - because we went through, you know, over two years of, a process

14:09 - around that, that around that acquisition, which is now live history.

14:13 - Right.

14:13 - For us, we're very much focused on the fact that we've it's a major

14:17 - bargaining year for us, which includes steel and bargaining with, with U.S.

14:21 - steel.

14:22 - And for us, there were some significant commitments around investments

14:27 - made by U.S.

14:30 - steel and Nippon during that acquisition process.

14:33 - And we're holding their feet to the fire as we go into this round of bargaining.

14:39 - You know, to make sure that these investments do happen.

14:43 - Our goal throughout that whole process

14:47 - was to make sure that our members jobs

14:50 - here in the Valley don't only exist now, but go into the future.

14:55 - And so that's where we remain.

14:56 - And, you know, Nippon and U.S.

14:59 - steel has said that they're committed to those investments.

15:01 - So we're going to make sure that they see them through.

15:04 - Can you tell us in more detail, Roxann,

15:06 - what this investment in steel in the United States means?

15:10 - In other words, right here

15:11 - in our backyard in Pennsylvania, what specifically do we know about plans?

15:15 - And maybe they're already underway.

15:18 - Yeah.

15:19 - Well, it's it's it's forthcoming.

15:22 - I'll just say some of these investments are forthcoming, but what they mean from

15:26 - a macro level to places like them on Valley is longevity

15:30 - and specifically longevity for, you know, kind of blast furnace steel.

15:35 - Right.

15:36 - The, the steel, the type of steel making that,

15:39 - is it's, it's, it's still making in its purest form.

15:42 - And because it is in its purest form, it has far more,

15:48 - men and women and people, you know, doing that work.

15:51 - Right? That's, that's that's where the jobs are.

15:54 - And so we want to make sure not just we have this type of steel

15:58 - that in its purest form, continually made here

16:02 - in the United States, which is done right here in the Valley.

16:05 - But also we want to make sure that we maintain those jobs.

16:08 - You know, there's a shift right now, and, and, and parts of the industry

16:13 - to steel made, you know, from,

16:17 - electric arc furnaces, which is steelmaking too,

16:20 - but it, you know, a lot less people making that kind of steel.

16:24 - Folks in the Mon Valley want to maintain their jobs,

16:26 - and we want to make sure that those jobs are maintained, that,

16:30 - you know, a strong basic steel industry is maintained in this country

16:34 - because it quite literally is the backbone of this economy,

16:39 - and the backbone of this region, you know, this western Pennsylvania

16:45 - was quite literally built on the steel industry.

16:48 - And so we want to make sure that still continues for the long term.

16:51 - You know,

16:52 - and with respect to the, arrangement with Nippon Steel and the sale,

16:57 - tell me more about that relationship and what your concerns are for the future.

17:03 - As you're watching this unfold.

17:07 - Yeah.

17:07 - I think, you know, especially for me,

17:10 - coming from Washington DC,

17:13 - you know, when it comes to efforts like trade.

17:17 - Right.

17:18 - And, and fighting for a level playing field and trade policy

17:22 - that historically had a good, labor management relationship with U.S.

17:27 - steel, you know, in Washington, DC, and doing that work together,

17:30 - because we all have the goal of a strong domestic industry,

17:34 - and that's what they've committed to now.

17:38 - And so we want to make sure that we work together

17:42 - to ensure the strength of a strong domestic steel industry

17:46 - that maintains the jobs and the existing jobs

17:49 - of our members and brings those jobs into the future.

17:53 - You know, these we often call the jobs that our members do across

17:57 - all of our sectors, the last best good jobs in America.

18:01 - These are some of the last best good families sustaining.

18:06 - You can raise a family on these jobs, right?

18:10 - That's what we want now and into the future.

18:12 - And that's what we want to work together with U.S.

18:14 - steel on to make sure that we continue doing that going into the future.

18:17 - And those investments happen to make sure that that we can do that.

18:21 - So far, Roxanne, we've been talking quite a bit about the steel industry.

18:25 - But as you noted at the beginning of our interview,

18:28 - your membership includes a wide range of occupations.

18:31 - So I understand there was recently a rally in Washington, DC,

18:35 - about hazardous chemical safety.

18:39 - What was at issue there?

18:43 - Yeah.

18:43 - It's again and this this goes back to,

18:48 - our safety and health policy and the rollbacks that we have seen around

18:54 - some of our key safety and health, rules and,

18:59 - and programs, you know, in this case, it's, related to the,

19:05 - the rules around, our refining and,

19:08 - and chemical and heavy kind of heavy industry facilities

19:12 - and the fact that it's been stalled,

19:15 - the Biden administration moved it forward,

19:18 - and now it's it's been stalled under this administration.

19:21 - And that means workers are, again, less safe today,

19:25 - than they were two years ago.

19:29 - You know, the, the, the, the jobs that,

19:32 - that working people perform, not just in heavy industry.

19:37 - I mean, you think about I often think about our folks who work at refineries.

19:40 - Refineries are basically

19:42 - a lab.

19:45 - And, you know,

19:46 - the folks who are managing that lab

19:50 - and keeping that that lab safe and trying to prevent

19:53 - any, you know, potentially dangerous explosions.

19:57 - Our workers,

19:59 - our members doing that work.

20:02 - And it's not just about keeping themselves safe.

20:05 - It's also about the community.

20:08 - That notion and that fact replicates across our sectors.

20:14 - Whether you're talking about steel or pulp and paper.

20:16 - Right.

20:18 - It's really important that the rules exist,

20:22 - because the rules are not only about keeping workers safe

20:27 - and allowing workers to be able to go home safely to their families

20:30 - with all their fingers and toes and their lives at the end of a shift.

20:35 - It's also about making sure that employers and companies

20:39 - are following the rules to keep communities safe.

20:43 - Families are sleeping in their beds

20:46 - when some of our folks are working on their shifts, right.

20:49 - We want to make sure that those families can remain safely

20:53 - in their beds and our members remain safe at work.

20:56 - That's what the rules are about. And that's what that.

20:58 - So what that rally was about was about the rules.

21:01 - We got to follow rules

21:03 - as working people, right?

21:05 - The employer sets rules when they're at the job.

21:08 - They should have their own set of rules that they follow that keeps workers safe.

21:13 - And so we just want to make sure that this administration

21:17 - understands that and moves forward.

21:20 - These these rules around, community safety

21:24 - when it comes to using chemicals, heath standards, right.

21:27 - When it comes to workers

21:29 - working in these conditions that are very, very, very, extremely hot,

21:33 - making sure that they can do that work in a way that is safe to them.

21:37 - Well, Roxanne, my understanding of the situation

21:40 - is that the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA, federal government,

21:44 - they want to change the existing policy on working with dangerous chemicals.

21:49 - Can you be, specific, as specific as possible?

21:55 - I just, you know, just to

21:57 - speak about it kind of broadly without getting too wonky.

22:01 - I mean, it's a weakening of a proposed standard.

22:04 - I mean, that's really what it is.

22:06 - We worked really closely with the Biden administration around that rule to

22:10 - to make it as strong as possible, again, making the rules

22:13 - as strong as possible, to be complied with.

22:16 - What's happening right now, our efforts to to not just stall, but

22:20 - but to weaken the policy.

22:22 - And that will only, you know, make it worse for for workers.

22:27 - Well, these political rallies and these, these political rallies,

22:31 - Roxana, as you know, are often inspired by recent events.

22:34 - And I understand there was an explosion in Texas

22:37 - that may have been the inspiration for this rally.

22:41 - Can you tell us what happened there?

22:44 - There was an explosion at a refinery.

22:46 - Thankfully, there were, no lives lost.

22:51 - At that explosion, like we experienced here in the Lone

22:54 - Valley with the explosion, at Clairton.

22:58 - But again, these rules specifically apply

23:01 - to refineries, and chemical facilities

23:05 - because, as I said earlier, these are essentially labs.

23:08 - And there's a fire at a refinery every week.

23:12 - Every week there's a fire at a refinery.

23:15 - And so these rules exist for a reason.

23:18 - It's to make sure that companies are using the types of chemicals and,

23:25 - and in the safest way possible, not just for the workers

23:28 - but again for, for the community, the fact that there were no lives lost,

23:32 - in that explosion probably spoke to the fact that the workforce that was

23:38 - there did what they needed to do to contain, not just recognize the hazards

23:42 - and the dangers, but to contain the onus shouldn't

23:47 - only be on our members and working people to have to do that, right.

23:51 - There should be onus on the employers to be using the chemicals

23:55 - and the processes that keep our members safe,

23:58 - to prevent those types of explosions and to keep communities safe.

24:02 - Roxanne, let's change the subject to the U.S Labor Secretary.

24:06 - And I understand there was a resignation at that level.

24:08 - I'll try to pronounce her name.

24:10 - Lori Chavez de reamer resigned.

24:12 - And you've gone on the record about her performance.

24:15 - And can you summarize, what she

24:18 - had accomplished before she resigned?

24:21 - we have not seen much out of the department

24:25 - during this administration in the way of helping working people.

24:28 - I can't not authentically and honestly, especially then,

24:33 - you know, there were members are probably going to be listening to this interview.

24:36 - I can't authentically or honestly say that there's anything

24:41 - positive or constructive on the part of steelworker members

24:45 - or working people that have come out of this existing Labor Department.

24:48 - What I can speak to

24:51 - is the work that was done in the previous Labor Department

24:54 - under Julie Su, who was the acting Labor secretary.

24:58 - I can give you example after example around

25:02 - how she stepped up and helped working people.

25:04 - These rules for employers that I'm talking about, around worker

25:11 - safety and health, she pushed for those rules to be advanced, right.

25:16 - And for us to make changes and workplaces safer, run organizing.

25:21 - You know, we organized the workers at Bluebird and Middle Georgia

25:26 - and in the last few years, and Julie

25:29 - Sue went down to middle Georgia, went down to middle Georgia,

25:33 - as we were having that organizing campaign to tell Bluebird,

25:38 - do the right thing, respect this organizing campaign to

25:43 - those are positives for working people.

25:46 - It's not hyperbole. These are facts.

25:48 - These are things that have happened,

25:50 - and not things that we've experienced as a labor union,

25:55 - from the Labor Department during this current administration.

25:59 - I will say this, because I think there is a misconception

26:04 - that, you know, our union is only supportive of those people who have a good

26:10 - following their names and that that's not a it's

26:14 - the furthest thing from the truth, especially being here in a state

26:17 - like Pennsylvania, where we and so many others in labor,

26:22 - so enjoyed the closeness of our relationship with Senator Specter,

26:26 - with former Senator Specter, who was a champion for working people.

26:31 - We just care that you

26:33 - care about the things that we care about

26:34 - and what I want to fight for, the things we fight for.

26:37 - So with stop This Dreamer,

26:40 - we actually supported her nomination

26:44 - because she was, you know, the daughter of a teamster and,

26:47 - seeing the, you know, come from good labor stock,

26:51 - we we thought we thought, you know, what were we the steelworkers are going

26:55 - to go ahead and throw our weight behind, supporting her nomination.

27:00 - So we did that shortly after the Trump administration,

27:04 - you know, came into power.

27:06 - I think a lot of people don't know things like that

27:08 - because they make assumptions about who we support.

27:11 - Roxanne Faulkner.

27:13 - Yeah. Roxanne. Pardon me.

27:15 - We only have about a minute left.

27:16 - And there is one more thing I'd like to cover.

27:18 - And what?

27:18 - It's what it's going to amount to is kind of going into a circle, about steel.

27:23 - And as you know, the New York Times

27:25 - reported that Donald Trump accepted a donation of foreign steel

27:29 - for the ballroom project in Washington and try to tell me in

27:33 - less than a minute or so, your reaction and what you think should be done.

27:39 - The white House is the people's house.

27:41 - It just it's

27:43 - it quite literally sits

27:45 - and the seat of power, not just for this country, but for the world.

27:51 - It is the physical manifestation of our country.

27:56 - You put the white House up on a screen.

27:58 - The world knows what it is.

28:00 - So any components,

28:03 - any products going into the people's house

28:07 - should be made by the people of this country, period.

28:12 - I don't think there's more I can say about that.

28:14 - Roxann Brown, international president of United Steelworkers,

28:18 - thank you for your time. Thank you. Learn.