[19] Due to large debts from its founding, since Andrew Carnegie demanded gold bonds for his share, and concerns about antitrust lawsuits, U.S. Steel operated cautiously.

[21] Charles M. Schwab, the Carnegie Steel executive who originally suggested the merger to Morgan,[22] ultimately emerged as the new corporation's first President.

[25] The committee's formation was intended to enhance workplace safety, reduce worker accidents, and safeguard the company against criticisms and legal liability.

In a 2008 book, author Douglas Blackmon[26] argued that U.S. Steel’s growth in the South was attributable partly to cheap Black labor and exploited convicts.

This convict leasing system persisted into the late 1920s and was widespread across eight Southern states, benefiting companies and farmers alike.

In 1952, President Harry S. Truman attempted to take over the company's steel mills to resolve a crisis with its union, the United Steelworkers of America.

[30] According to author Dan Carter in The Politics Of Rage: George Wallace, The Origins Of The New Conservatism, And The Transformation Of American Politics, U.S. Steel did not support the Kennedy administration’s efforts to involve Alabama businesses in the desegregation of the University of Alabama, which Governor George Wallace had opposed.

[18] In the early days of the Reagan administration, steel firms won substantial tax breaks in order to compete with imported goods.

[35] In late 1986, Corporate raider Carl Icahn launched a hostile takeover of the steel giant in the midst of the work stoppage.

In 2001, under CEO Thomas Usher, it spun off Marathon and other non-steel assets, except Transtar, and expanded internationally by acquiring plants in Slovakia and Serbia.

[55] After this revelation, it was noted the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) had the authority to block the acquisition based on national security matters.

[56][57] On December 10, 2024, it was reported that then U.S. President Joe Biden intended to block the proposed Nippon acquisition following the completion of a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which later concluded several weeks later.

[58][59] On December 18, 2024, a letter from the CFIUS, which was written on December 14, 2024, was obtained by Reuters, which revealed that the stage was set for Biden to block the proposed Nippon Steel deal by the December 23 deadline, concluding that "The Committee has not yet reached consensus on whether the mitigation measures proposed by the Parties would be effective... or whether they would resolve the risk to U.S. national security arising from the Transaction" and that "The President may take such action for such time as the President considers appropriate to suspend or prohibit a covered transaction that threatens to impair the national security.

"[60] On December 23, 2024 the CFIUS concluded its review of the proposed Nippon Steel buyout without reaching a consensus on national security risks.

[63][13] The companies also filed a RICO complaint against Cleveland-Cliffs, its CEO, and the head of the United Steelworkers, the primary union representing US Steel employees.

[65] On January 27, 2025, activist investor Ancora Holdings released a proxy fight strategy with the goal of ousting CEO David Burritt and dropping the litigation focused on completing the Nippon deal.

Watching the upheaval caused by the United Auto Workers' successful sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan, and convinced that Lewis was someone he could deal with on a businesslike basis, Taylor sought stability through collective bargaining.

[75][76] Still, U.S. Steel worked hand-in-hand with the Birmingham (Alabama) Police Department as it vigorously investigated and targeted labor activities during the 1930s and 1940s.

The corporation developed and fed information to a "Red Squad" of detectives "who used the city's vagrancy and criminal-anarchy statutes (liberally reinforced by backroom beatings) to strike at radical labor organizers."

[78][79] The Steelworkers union attempted to mollify the problems of competitive foreign imports by entering into a so-called Experimental Negotiation Agreement (ENA) in 1974.

In 1986, U.S. Steel employees stopped work after a dispute over contract terms, characterized by the company as a strike and by the union as a lockout.

In 1993, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an order for U.S. Steel to clean up a site on the Delaware River in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania, where the soil had been contaminated with arsenic, lead, and other heavy metals, as well as naphthalene.

[91] U.S. Steel's Gary, Indiana facility has been repeatedly charged with discharging polluted wastewater into Lake Michigan and the Grand Calumet River.

In 1998 the company agreed to payment of a $30 million settlement to clean up contaminated sediments from a five-mile (8 km) stretch of the river.

"[96] The logo was used as part of a major marketing campaign to educate consumers about how important steel is in people's daily lives.

[107] This same U.S. Steel manufacturing plant that was located on Disney property also helped build the now defunct Court of Flags Resort in Orlando, Florida, on Major Blvd.

The company acquired Great Lakes Works and Granite City Works, both large integrated steel mills, in 2003 and is partnered with Severstal North America in operating the world's largest electro-galvanizing line, Double Eagle Steel Coating Company at the historic Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan.

Those properties included the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway in the iron-mining region of northeast Minnesota; the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern that served its Gary Works in northwest Indiana; the Birmingham Southern Railroad serving the U.S. Steel mill in Birmingham, Alabama; and the Bessemer & Lake Erie and Union railroads in western Pennsylvania that delivered iron ore and provided plant-switching services at its mill complex in Braddock, Pennsylvania and coke works in Clairton, Pennsylvania.

The laker fleet, the B&LE, and the DM&IR were acquired by Canadian National after U.S. Steel sold most of Transtar to that company.

The recognition highlights U.S. Steel’s commitment to workplace diversity and inclusion, its SteelPRIDE employee resource group, and its Culture of Caring initiative.