Workers at a Southeast Texas steel pipe plant have flooded the White House with 4,500 postcards asking President Trump to cool it already with the tariffs.
Workers at Baytown’s Borusan Mannesmann plant and their families sent postcards asking Trump to grant the company a waiver to the 25 percent steel tariffs he announced in March. The factory imports the steel pipes it works with from Turkey, where its parent company is headquartered.
Borusan Mannesmann already employs 264 people in Baytown and is mulling another factory onsite, which would allow it to hire even more. But the tariffs — which would add a reported $25-30 million in annual production costs — put the expansion in jeopardy.
“[Trump] does things out of the box,” CEO Joel Johnson said told the Houston Chronicle. “We think he’s going to look at this and say, ‘Wow. Look at all these guys. They need my help.’ … I think it’s important for the economy.”
Maybe it’s worth a try, but we wouldn’t bet on it. If Trump can’t muster up any sympathy for 800,000 Dreamers, it’s hard to imagine him giving a shit about 264 factory workers in a non-swing state.
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This article appears in The Brunch Issue.
