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U.S. Steel Celebrates Safe 2019
In 2019, the United States Steel Corporation improved its recordable injury rate—and set a new record for overall company safety. The company finished the year with an OSHA Days Away rate of 0.10, which is seven times better than the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ reported average. In addition to this improvement, the company also improved its total OSHA recordable injury rate—which was nearly three times better than the BLS industry average of 2.7.
The CEO of U.S. Steel, David Burritt, says that safety has been, and will continue to be, the company’s more important core value. “Every employee who works in one of our facilities has the right to return home safely at the end of every day,” said Burritt, “and I am grateful to all of our employees for the extraordinary safety performance in 2019.”
Burritt also said he wanted to give special recognition to the United Steelworkers union for its leadership in improving safety and driving floor-level engagement activities.
U.S. Senate Ratifies USMCA
The U.S. Steel industry is very optimistic about the passage of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement—this new trade deal will help promote investment, as well as ensure that more steel is made within North America. A bipartisan majority in the Senate ratified the agreement on Thursday, voting 89-10 in favor.
Steel Manufacturers Association President Philip K. Bell says that the North American steel industry will benefit greatly from this new agreement. Essentially, it strengthens the rules of origins regarding steel-intensive goods. In this way, it’s meant to incentivize the use of North American steel as opposed to steel outsourced from other continents.
The agreement as a whole sets a stronger definition of what constitutes “North American steel” than what was previously in place, which will help ensure that more steel is produced within the region. It also includes strong provisions for trade enforcement, labor, and the environment. The USMCA also promotes increased cooperation and information sharing among these North American governments to address circumvention and evasion of trade remedy orders.
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