The UAW is calling on the Trump Administration to intervene in the closure of an iconic brass instrument plant which is facing an imminent threat of offshoring to China, destroying 150 good union jobs in Ohio.
In a letter to US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, UAW President Shawn Fain, UAW Region 2B Director David Green, and UAW Local 2359 President Robert Hines call on the Administration to include brass musical instruments under the broader Section 232 tariffs on copper imports.
“Workers in Eastlake, Ohio have produced brass musical instruments for over 60 years. They have done their jobs, producing world-class products, winning a union contract with family-sustaining wages, and building the company into America’s largest in the sector. Now, it is time for the federal government to do its job, by protecting our jobs, signaling to blue-collar workers across the country that their jobs will be safe too, and penalizing companies for attempting to offshore our jobs and decimate our communities,” write the UAW leaders. “The Commerce Department has the power to immediately halt the offshoring of jobs at Conn-Selmer by making the company, and its billionaire owner, pay a price for leaving Eastlake behind. Brass musical instruments must be included as derivate products within the scope of the section 232 tariffs on copper imports.”
In January – on what was supposed to be day one of the latest contract negotiations between Conn-Selmer and UAW Local 2359 members – the last, USA-made brass instrument brand, informed workers that it is shutting down its Ohio facility and offshoring almost all its Eastlake operations overseas to China.
Decades of an Ohio mainstay and 150 good, union jobs suddenly became on the chopping block because billionaire hedge fund owner John Paulson decided to lead with corporate greed over preserving an American institution – and American manufacturing.
Read the full letter here.