Tomorrow, Severstal - which became privately-owned after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union - becomes the new owner of the Rouge steel mill.
And one of America’s most powerful union locals helped the Russians buy the mill.
"I guess it goes to say what kind of society we live in today, when we have to depend on foreign investors to preserve American jobs and the American way of life," said Jerry Sullivan, president of United Auto Workers Local 600, which represents 2,000 of the Rouge steel mill’s 2,600 workers.
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Severstal executives committed to investing in the mill so the first Russian company to buy one in the United States can become a supplier to U.S. automakers. Severstal is expected to import steel slab from Russia, and then process it at the Rouge mill.
U.S. Steel, which bid against Severstal in federal bankruptcy court, wanted to buy the mill to shut it down, said Mr. Sullivan, president of UAW Local 600. That would have enabled U.S. Steel to remove 2.5 million tons of steel annually from the market "so it could name its price," he added.
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As a Russian company tries to keep a steel mill open which once had a blast furnace named after Henry Ford II, Mr. Sullivan said many American workers in Michigan and Ohio are fighting for survival.
"There’s no nationalism anymore, the way there should be," said Mr. Sullivan, 56. "It’s all about profit. People don’t mean anything."
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