The idling of Stelco operations in Hamilton is producing what the USW calls 'nation wrecking' results - Toronto Star
More than Trump tariffs, writes Guio Jacinto, looming layoffs in Hamilton are about a foreign owner choosing U.S. plants over Canadians.
More than Trump tariffs, writes Guio Jacinto, the looming layoffs at Stelco in Hamilton are about a foreign owner choosing U.S. plants over Canadians.
Guio Jacinto is an economic and trade policy analyst with the United Steelworkers Canada.
This week’s announcement by Cleveland Cliffs to indefinitely idle certain Stelco operations in Hamilton is a tragedy.
Losing 400-500 well-paid union jobs will impact thousands locally, and losing critical value-added manufacturing capacity makes Canadians collectively poorer.
Unfortunately, members of the United Steelworkers (U.S.W) have seen this before.
Not long ago, another American steel company, U.S. Steel, purchased Stelco, but citing economic headwinds permanently reduced capacity, laid-off thousands, declared bankruptcy and took Stelco’s most lucrative customers from the auto sector.
While the names have changed, the outcome is similar: the shuttering of advanced Canadian manufacturing capacity and losing hundreds of good, union jobs.
Now, Cleveland Cliffs, Stelco’s new owner, cites U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and imports as reasons for the idling. These factors are real. Ottawa’s tariff-rate quota (TRQ) program insufficiently protects domestic flat rolled producers, such as Stelco, Algoma and Dofasco, while its ‘horizontal remission program’, which exempts entire industries from paying tariffs on imported U.S. steel, has also piled import pressure on Canadian steel producers.
Combined with the loss of the U.S. export market, the results are predictable: oversupply, depressed prices and idled capacity. Nor was Stelco the first casualty; Algoma in Sault Ste. Marie had already closed one mill and significantly scaled back another.
The U.S.W has repeatedly warned about the limitations of these measures.
