Independent US Senator Bernie Sanders

Independent US Senator Bernie Sanders has called on Warren Buffett, the ninth-richest person in the world, to settle a strike by 450 steelworkers at a company he owns and pay them better.

Sanders wrote a letter to the Berkshire Hathaway CEO, requesting that he intervene in a United Steelworkers union strike at the Special Metals plant in Huntington, West Virginia, CNN reported on Friday.

The workers have been on strike since October 1, 2021, at Special Metals. Precision Castparts, a subsidiary of Buffett’s conglomerate, owns Special Metals.

At a time when this company and Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) are both doing very well, there is no reason why workers employed by you should be worrying about whether they will be able to feed their children or have health care, Sanders wrote.

There is no reason why the standard of living of these hard-working Americans should decline. I know that you and Berkshire Hathaway can do better than that, Sanders said in the letter released by his office on Thursday.

Sanders wrote in the letter that Special Metals offered employees a contract with no pay raise the first year, only a $2,000 signing bonus, and then pay increases of 1% the second year and 2% a year the following three years. The Vermont independent described the offer as outrageous and insulting.

In response, Buffett wrote that it’s not up to him to settle the strike by steelworkers. He quoted Berkshire’s annual financial filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which informs investors that the executives at different companies manage each subsidy -- not Berkshire itself (or Buffett).

He cited Berkshire’s policy of letting its companies deal individually with their own labor and personnel decisions.

I’m passing along your letter to the CEO of Precision Castparts but making no recommendation to him as to any action, Buffett wrote. He is responsible for his business.