It is difficult to move a steel mill, and the percentage of investment represented by current, lower labor costs is much lower in steel. The textiles industry is different in both respects, and so is the electronics industry. But the overall result is not so terribly different. That is, production tends to move to other countries. In the case of steel, it is not primarily a question of United States Steel itself investing in Korea, Brazil and other overseas nations.
Steelworkers forever allege that.
But it is rather that the steel companies get out of steel altogether and do something else, such as buying an oil company, or buying a savings and loan institution. And while no doubt the American market as a percentage of the world market is gradually declining, I don't think that market is the principal reason for these trends in the steel industry. To say it another way, the amount of steel consumed in the United States has not declined all that much over the last several decades, but a lot of semi-finished steel is being imported and finished here. The labor movement has its head in the sand even when it talks about innovative international strategies. The thing to be done with these corporations is to take them out of the hands of their present owners.