Up to 500 Stelco employees could be on the chopping block when the steelmaker idles part of its Hamilton plant next month in a move criticized by both local union and government officials.
Ron Wells, president of United Steelworkers Local 1005, said the union was told during a meeting Monday morning that about 350 members will be laid off “indefinitely” as part of the plan. At that meeting, he said, Stelco officials indicated the company will shutter the cold mill and coating departments at its Hamilton facility on Oct. 9 as the steelmaker contends with low steel prices and a tariff-impacted market in Canada.
As previously reported, production in the two departments has been slow for months. Lourenco Goncalves, CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs, the U.S. steelmaking giant that owns Stelco, warned in a July call with investors that Hamilton’s operation was in danger if Ottawa did not do more to restrict cheap steel imports.
“Without further measures to protect fair trade in Canada, the future competitiveness of our galvanizing lines in Hamilton is at risk,” Goncalves said at the time.
Wells said Monday’s news still came as a shock.
“I don’t know if they expected that,” Wells said of his members’ reaction to the impending layoffs. “People trust (the company).”
Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath called the news “devastating.”
“That, for me, is unacceptable and it’s unfair to the people of Hamilton that an employer would be so willing to just lay workers off and create havoc in the community,” the mayor said at a news conference originally scheduled to talk about a strategy to protect Hamilton amid the U.S.-Canada trade war.
Trevor Harris, vice-president of corporate affairs at Stelco, confirmed the layoffs in an emailed statement.
“In the face of continued market uncertainty and prolonged injury to Stelco’s business resulting largely from steel imports into Canada, we have been forced to make this very difficult decision that will impact as many as 500 Stelco employees,” Harris wrote.
“We are working closely with the leadership of our union locals to ensure we meet our obligations to our employees under our collective agreements.”
Stelco’s statement did not break down whether any of the up to 500 affected employees are non-unionized.
Though Wells said he was told the layoffs would be indefinite, he said he expected the affected workers to be hired back sometime in the future. He noted that the union has language in its contract around permanent layoffs — and that restarting the cold mill wouldn’t take much effort.
There are 600 unionized workers at Stelco’s Hamilton plant. While the roughly 350 employees in the cold mill and coating departments will be laid off starting in October, Wells said the remaining 250 workers at the coke plant will remain at work. At its peak, in the 1970s and early 1980s, Stelco employed more than 25,000 people.
Another 60 to 80 unionized steelmakers at Stelco’s Nanticoke facility will also lose their jobs in the coming weeks as a result of the changes to Hamilton’s operations, John McElroy, president of United Steelworkers Local 8782, told The Spectator. Before Monday’s announcement, the Nanticoke plant was responsible for supplying the steel used in Hamilton’s cold mill.
“No steel from (Nanticoke) will be going to Hamilton,” McElroy said.
Both McElroy and Wells called the layoffs a violation of Cleveland-Cliffs’ commitment to maintain employment levels for five years when it bought Stelco in 2024. Neither Stelco nor Cleveland-Cliffs responded to a Spectator question on how this announcement fit into its past commitments on employment.
The two union presidents also noted that Goncalves, the head of Cleveland-Cliffs, has made it no secret that he’s a fan of Donald Trump and his tariffs on Canadian steel.
“It pisses us off that now he tries to blame the tariffs where he’s basically the master of his own destiny,” Wells said. “This is like spitting in our face.”
With Monday’s announcement still fresh, Wells and McElroy didn’t rule out legal action against Stelco. The pair also both called for swift responses from government officials.
“Why are we letting American companies come in here just to let them shut down?” McElroy said. ”(Governments) need to do something.”
The leading candidates for mayor echoed these calls for accountability Monday. (Horwath is also running for re-election.)
“With approximately 350 Stelco workers facing indefinite layoffs, every level of government needs to treat this with the urgency it deserves,” mayoral candidate and current Ward 8 councillor Rob Cooper said in a press release.
“Absolutely they should,” said Keanin Loomis, who resigned from his post as president of the Canadian Institute for Steel Construction to make a second attempt at the mayorship. “If the city has any role to play in doing that, we should as well.”
In an emailed statement to The Spectator, the office of Industry Minister Mélanie Joly described the layoffs as “extremely disappointing.”
“We will use every lever possible to defend Canadian industry, protect jobs, and secure our supply chain,” Joly’s office said.
Local Liberal MPs Lisa Hepfner (Hamilton Mountain) and John-Paul Danko (Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas) also slammed the announcement while voicing support for a federal response.
“If there are obligations that Stelco and Cleveland-Cliffs are not meeting, absolutely we will take every measure necessary to hold them accountable,” Danko said over the phone.
Federal Conservatives, including Ned Kuruc (Hamilton East—Stoney Creek), criticized Stelco, as well as the Liberals’ handling of the trade war.
Ottawa has announced support measures for Canada’s steel industry over the past several months amid the ongoing trade war, including some restrictions on foreign-made steel — though members of the industry have said more of these trade restrictions are needed to protect the domestic market.
The provincial government did not respond to requests for comment by publication, though Premier Doug Ford has previously made his disdain for Cleveland-Cliffs clear.
“Maybe they should find a new owner for Stelco, or maybe we should just buy ’em,” Ford said in August last year.
