Good Morning, my name is Andrea Zupancich, Mayor of the City of Babbitt. I am a first time mayor so I am deeply honored to be here. I'm a mother of 4, own my own Real Estate Brokerage as well as a proud hockey mom! Mining is our town. Mining built the town. Most of the houses were built with American Steel: steel windows, steel roofs, steel siding, and steel doors. Some are even built like bomb shelters I know, because I've been in a good majority of them because of my business.
It is my honor to be with our distinguished guests here today and humbled to be speaking on behalf of the Mayors and Local Elected Officials representing over -100,000 citizens that live across this vast swath of Northern Minnesota known as the Iron Range. Our history runs as deep as our pride in producing the iron ore that built our nation's cities, supplied the armaments that have won World Wars and now supply our countries auto and appliance manufacturers employing tens of thousands of people across the country.
The Steel dumping crisis has now stretched Ground Zero from the communities of Nashwauk and Keewatin, Hibbing and Virginia to the cities of Babbitt and Silver Bay, affecting thousands of families. Our Range communities were built by the mining industry. Our economic opportunities are wedded to the vast natural resources in our forests and minerals. We live a vastly different existence from the thriving metro area including Stillwater, Mr. McDonough's beautiful hometown. Mining is our way of live and has been for decades. This is our home.
Every single citizen of my region is touched by this crisis. We started holding our breath since early last year when we began to see the price of iron ore fall through the floor. Kept holding our breath when the Minntac, Keetac, and United layoffs were announced. Mesabi Nugget laid all the employees off, and Magnetation started to close some of their plants. We breathed a sign of relief when a portion of them went back to work, still hoping the rest will follow. We've weathered these times before, but this time it feels different and it's our turn now in Babbitt and Silver Bay with the recent Cliffs layoffs and even more scarier, without a start back date. There are so many things that are piling up on this industry. Across the Range, we are now over 2000 laid off mining employees, and thousands of others who work for the suppliers and vendors, who are suffering the personal brunt of unfair trade practices supporting foreign economies that subsidize or even own their steel industries.
BUT - It's not only the miners that are affected by this devastating situation. It's the community, the schools and the citizens as well. It's the local day care provider she was at is full capacity, mostly with Miner's kids, but now has open spaces to fill. Does she start taking the people on the waiting list? But what happens to those miner's kids when they get called back to work who will take care of the kids. It's the gas station owners who won't be selling that much gas anymore, service station owners not doing as many oil changes or tire changes; it's the local Grocery store that is affected. Everyone is going to make that dollar stretch farther and the best they possibly can. So that then means, even more people with hours cut, or laid off as a result of these layoffs. They don't work in the mine, but they are all hit equally as hard.
We understand this devastation first hand. My husband is one of the owners in a local family grocery store chain. Touting 6 stores in the areas of Silver Bay, Babbitt, Aurora, Ely, Cook and Tower. All mining towns. In fact Celebrating 100 years in business this upcoming year in 2016. They had to make the unfortunate decision to close their grocery store in Aurora. The effects of the local mines gave them no other choice, and unfortunately there may be another one too.
So we have our skilled and trained mining work force here. Generations of proud miners, actually. This is a way of life for them and not just a job. There is pride that goes into these mines. If they leave - what happens to our communities and schools? Classes are already getting smaller, programs cut, sports teams combined with other towns - or worse canceled all together. We want our kids to have the same advantages that the metro area offers, and these mining jobs help. Babbitt at one time had two elementary schools and one high school. We now have k-12 in one building, and plenty of empty classrooms still. Reserve Mine (currently Cliffs) built our town an amazing Arena one of the first at that time to have Plexiglas! And we produced an Olympic Hockey Skater Buzz Schneider, and I believe his father was a miner too! The towns were built by the mines. They believed in our miners and the communities, as they still do today.
That all being said, I now understand how Mayors of communities that have faced epic floods and devastating tornadoes must feel. I implore you to treat this disaster with the same amount federal attention and concern and prompt action. I applaud the recent announcement of US Dept. of Commerce's action on setting tariffs and anti-dumping duties on foreign cold-rolled steel that competes directly with our domestic taconite customers.
All of us who live on the Range know that we are all willing to work hard to build our economic future. We are resilient; , we have generations of miners that treat their work as if it was their own family business, and we are committed to the long term support of our traditional iron mining industry. We are hopeful that new innovations in metal technologies and nonferrous mineral mining will keep our sector growing and thriving for generations to come and the family tradition continues!
We are grateful for your visit, Mr. McDonough and to President Obama for his concern and the ongoing leadership of our federal and state delegation, and I wish you all a Merry Christmas!