Word: steels
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Flexibility. The members of the Pacific community have been able to adapt to the changing needs and wants of the world. They have built mammoth industries to make oil-drilling rigs and steel, and they have also cashed in on designer clothing and personal computers. Ironically, noted Chen, "the states that have been most successful are those that are very poor in resources, like Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. They have not been tied down like Malaysia to tin and rubber...
...industry has suffered more in the current slump than steelmaking. Once the backbone of the nation's industrial might, steel firms have seen sales plunge to the lowest levels in 24 years while unemployment has leaped to an alarming 37% of the work force...
...Though steel has been plagued over the years by everything from strong foreign competition to outmoded mills and plants, the industry's biggest headache remains exorbitant wages, which now average $23.40 per hr., including benefits. That makes unionized steelworkers the most highly paid blue-collar laborers in American industry...
...nearly 10% in the first year of a new multiyear contract. The deal would have required the U.S.W., in effect, to tear up its existing two-year-old contract, which does not formally expire until next August, and sign a new 45-month contract under which the steel companies would set up generous profit-sharing plans for U.S.W. members...
...foundering industry, the rejection could not have come at a worse time. Steel executives have been counting desperately on an economic recovery beginning next spring to help boost steel shipments and cut the industry's hemorrhaging losses. But even if demand for steel does improve, the companies could wind up losing if they have to negotiate a new contract with the U.S.W. as sales and profits are starting to recover. For both labor and management, the ultimate disaster would, of course, be a strike. It would open the door to a surge in foreign imports, bringing yet more anguish...