The fight over Canadian steelworker jobs

Chelsey Masteij, a 34-year-old steelworker at Stelco's Hamilton plant, was laid off on October 9 after years of trying to break into the male-dominated industry. She had spent three years at the company, working in various departments before receiving the call that ended her career.

Masteij is among hundreds of Canadian steelworkers facing layoffs after Stelco's American owner, Cleveland-Cliffs, announced in late September it would temporarily shut down parts of its operations in Hamilton and Nanticoke, Ontario. As of Saturday, 175 workers at the Hamilton plant had received layoff notices, with cuts expected to affect up to 500 workers.

Tariff Impact

Stelco blames the layoffs on US President Donald Trump's tariffs, which doubled in June 2025 to 50 percent, making Canadian steel more expensive for US buyers. According to Stelco, Canada's exports of cold-rolled and coated steel to the US fell by 58 percent in the second quarter of 2026 compared with pre-trade war averages.

However, the union representing Stelco workers questions whether Cleveland-Cliffs is using difficult market conditions to serve its own business interests. "Everyone knows we're being used as pawns, that these layoffs weren't necessary," said Ron Wells, president of United Steelworkers Local 1005.

The auto industry, a major buyer of Stelco's cold-rolled steel, has also been hit hard by Trump's tariffs, according to Colin Mang, an economics professor at McMaster University. "When they say that there is less demand for the product coming out of the Hamilton mill, that is correct," Mang told Al Jazeera.

Company Promises

During a July earnings call, CEO Lourenco Goncalves warned that Stelco might scale back production in Canada unless Ottawa did more to protect its steel industry from imports. "And that will have consequences for employment in Canada, but will have a positive financial impact on Stelco and on Cleveland-Cliffs," he said.

The union later offered to help Cleveland-Cliffs lobby Ottawa for stronger protections against foreign steel imports, believing Canadian workers might have more sway with the government. "They never took us up on our offer," Wells said.

The Canadian government is threatening legal action, accusing Cleveland-Cliffs of breaking promises it made when it bought Stelco in 2024, including keeping the same number of unionized jobs and pushing for trade policies benefiting both countries' steel industries.

Financial Contradictions

Despite blaming market conditions, Stelco reported its strongest quarter since the acquisition earlier this month. "Mr Goncalves is not a victim," Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly told CBC. "He's never made so much money." Experts have also challenged Goncalves's claim that Canadian steelmakers are struggling because of "an avalanche of imports".

Mang points out that nearly 80 percent of Canada's cold-rolled steel imports come from the US. "What he's trying to sell people on is the idea that there's all this European or Asian steel coming into Canada," he said. "This stuff is coming from his own country."

The union has noted the irony that Goncalves, who helped create the conditions blamed for the layoffs, has been a vocal supporter of Trump's tariffs on Canadian steel. In testimony to US lawmakers in January, he argued that no country should be exempted from the steel tariffs.

Government Response

Cleveland-Cliffs has been under growing pressure from Ottawa, which gave the company 15 days from October 22 to honor its commitments to Canadian workers or face legal action. Amid that pressure, Goncalves made comments to CBC that appeared to support the union's suspicions.

Asked why he supported tariffs on Canadian steel despite promises to protect workers, he said: "I bought Stelco because I could not afford anymore having Stelco flooding the market here in the United States to the detriment of my own company." The admission caught Joly's attention, who said it could strengthen the government's case.

On November 6, as Ottawa's 15-day deadline expired, Joly asked Canada's Competition Bureau to investigate the 2024 acquisition and whether the company's conduct violated Canadian competition law. "If negotiations and acquisition were conducted in bad faith, Canadians deserve to know," she said in a statement.