U.S. Steel strike threat grows as talks enter third month

The United Steelworkers says it’s running out of patience with U.S. Steel as negotiations over a new labor agreement stretch into a third month, raising the prospect of a strike at one of America’s largest steelmakers. Bernie Hall, a steelworker leading negotiations with U.S. Steel, said it’s “highly unlikely” the union will continue negotiations into 2027, putting a rough deadline on talks that have dragged well beyond the expiration of the previous labor agreement in September. “We’re in the fourth quarter,” said Hall, a union leader representing the more than 10,000 workers at U.S. Steel facilities, including operations in Pennsylvania and Indiana. “We’ve been here for months and we’re not going to be here for months longer.” The prolonged negotiations represent one of the first major tests of labor relations since Nippon Steel Corp. completed its roughly $14.9 billion politically contentious takeover of U.S. Steel last year. The Japanese steelmaker overcame fierce opposition from the USW to buy the American company after agreeing to an unusual national-security arrangement with the Trump administration that places restrictions on plant closures, job transfers and reductions in promised capital spending. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. U.S. Steel and the union have been continually renewing the contract on a rolling, 48-hour basis to allow for bargaining to continue. Either party can move to terminate the contract with 48 hours’ notice. At the center of the contract dispute is so-called successorship language, which protects union contracts if U.S. Steel facilities are sold. Such language would require a buyer of U.S. Steel…

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