"Go out there and get the cheapest shit you can find."

I've got a new piece up at Shareblue about United Steelworkers calling for investigation of steel Trump used in his 2008 Trump International Hotel project in Vegas.

That Trump elected to use Chinese steel for his project is itself a serious concern, particularly from a candidate who promises to "make America great again."

Shareblue spoke to Leo Gerard, president of United Steelworkers, North America's largest industrial union, who described Trump's use of Chinese steel as "terrible and hypocritical."

Said Gerard, "It closes the circle on what we already knew about Trump's business practices. He uses cheap, foreign labor to make his apparel, claiming it couldn't be made in America, which is not true. His hotels are furnished — nearly every piece of furniture and décor, right down to the Holy Bible — with items not produced in the USA. He used a series of holding companies to get cheaper steel and aluminum from China. And while he's in Pennsylvania, he says he's going to revitalize the steel industry. Not in the U.S., he's not. Maybe he'll revitalize China's steel industry."

Gerard said he is "outraged — and our members are outraged."

Trump has attempted to deflect responsibility for the use of Chinese materials in multiple construction projects onto his foremen, but, notes Gerard "it was his responsibility to tell contractors not to use those materials. Instead, he told them, 'Go out there and get the cheapest shit you can find.'"

United Steelworkers' concerns took on a new urgency when it was discovered that Ossen Innovation had, in 2014, provided falsified quality certificates for the Waterview Connection roading project in New Zealand.

There is much more at the link.

It's no secret that I grew up in northwest Indiana, which is one of the steel producing centers of the United States. I grew up around steelworkers; I have friends who are steelworkers; I have known people who lost a lot when they were laid off from steel mills in the 1980s.

This is not an abstract issue to me. It's something about which I care deeply. And I think these steelworkers deserve answers to the questions they've raised.