Talked to a union pipefitter at a diner in Pittsburgh

I was grabbing lunch at this old diner near the airport last week and sat next to this guy who's been a pipefitter for 35 years. He started talking about Trump's tariffs and how they brought his plant back from the dead in 2018. He said they went from 50 guys to 120 after the steel tariffs kicked in. It hit different hearing it from someone who lived it, not just news headlines. Has anyone else heard personal stories about how his policies affected real jobs?

2 comments

2 Comments

pat_park3d ago

Honestly, if a union guy in Pittsburgh says it worked, I'm not gonna argue with a guy whose hands actually built stuff.

perry.lee3d ago

You say "not gonna argue with a guy whose hands actually built stuff," but one guy's story doesn't prove the whole policy worked. The tariffs did save some jobs in steel towns, sure, but they also jacked up prices for everyone else buying cars, houses, and appliances made with that steel. A bunch of manufacturing jobs got killed in other places because the cost of raw materials went up, so it's not like it was a net win for American workers overall.