Saving Butler: UAW Members Fight for the Future of a Pennsylvania Steel Town

Workers at the Cleveland Cliffs Butler Works steel mill in Butler, PA, are speaking out about a proposed Department of Energy rule that threatens good union jobs at the mill.

In a new video, UAW Local 3303 members describe the fight to save jobs for the 1,100 workers at the plant who produce grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES) used for electric vehicles and EV chargers.

The video, “Saving Butler,” can be accessed here, and the media is invited to use the footage. “My grandfather worked at the plant, as did my father, and many, many families throughout our community,” said UAW Local 3303 President Jamie Sychak. “It’s generational.”

“This plant is the very heart and soul of this community,” says Steven Gilliland. “This is one of the biggest employers and certainly one of the best-paying employers around here. This is a good-quality union job.”

The proposed regulation would lower demand for grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES), threatening job loss at the Butler Works. 

A bipartisan bill sponsored by Senator Sherrod Brown was introduced in January that would freeze the implementation of the DOE’s proposed rule.

“A strong domestic supply of transformers is crucial to our electric grid and our energy independence,” said Brown. “We need to meet increasing demand for transformers, while keeping this critical supply chain in the U.S. and making sure the Department of Energy gets it right.”