12 Facts About US Steel

At one time, U S Steel was the largest steel producer and largest corporation in the world.

US Steel established its headquarters in the Empire Building at 71 Broadway in New York City; it remained a major tenant in the building for 75 years.

In 1907 U S Steel bought its largest competitor, the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company, which was headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.

In 1902, its first full year of operation, U S Steel made 67 percent of all the steel produced in the United States.

US Steel could obtain black labor at a fraction of the cost of white labor by taking advantage of the Black Codes and discriminatory laws passed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Southern states after the Reconstruction Era.

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In 1984 the federal government prevented U S Steel from acquiring National Steel, and political pressure from the United States Congress, as well as the United Steelworkers, forced the company to abandon plans to import British Steel Corporation slabs.

US Steel conducted separate negotiations with the union and with management and proceeded to have proxy battles with shareholders and management.

In January 2012, U S Steel sold its Serbian mills outside Belgrade to the Serbian government, as their operations had been running at an economic loss.

US Steel dropped its hard-line, anti-union stance in 1937, when Myron Taylor, then president of U S Steel, agreed to recognize the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, an arm of the Congress of Industrial Organizations led by John L Lewis.

Still, U S Steel worked hand-in-hand with the Birmingham Police Department as it vigorously investigated and targeted labor activities during the 1930s and 1940s.

In 1986, U S Steel employees stopped work after a dispute over contract terms, characterized by the company as a strike and by the union as a lockout.

US Steel acquired Great Lakes Works and Granite City Works, both large integrated steel mills, in 2003 and is partnered with Severstal North America in operating the world's largest electro-galvanizing line, Double Eagle Steel Coating Company at the historic Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan.