HAMILTON, Ontario, November 13, 2026 — Stelco will recall all 175 workers temporarily laid off from its Hamilton finishing operations on December 1 and compensate them for standard wages lost during the shutdown, the steelmaker announced Friday.
The company said it had secured enough customer commitments to restart the operations. Bringing the facility back into production will take several weeks, but the workforce recall will take effect December 1.
The announcement gives employees a firm return date after weeks of uncertainty and a public dispute between Cleveland-Cliffs, Stelco’s American parent company, and Ottawa over employment promises made when the business changed hands.
In its official recall announcement, Stelco said affected employees would receive retroactive compensation covering the standard wages they would have earned while temporarily laid off.
Stelco president Paul Simon thanked customers for supporting the restart and workers for their “patience and resilience” during the disruption.
Why Stelco laid off workers in Hamilton
Stelco announced plans on September 28 to idle its Hamilton cold-rolled and coated operations, with the shutdown expected to begin around October 9. The company blamed weaker markets, U.S. steel tariffs and competition from imported products.
Its initial warning said as many as 500 employees across Hamilton Works and Lake Erie Works could be affected. That was the potential impact of the plans, rather than the eventual number of workers laid off.
By October 28, United Steelworkers Local 1005 president Ron Wells confirmed that 175 Hamilton employees had been laid off and that no layoffs had yet occurred at Lake Erie Works.
Wells sharply criticised the company’s handling of the situation, accusing it of using workers to pressure Ottawa into tightening restrictions on foreign steel.
“He just caused a lot of pain and grief for 175 people,” Wells told The Canadian Press on October 28. “Obviously, we’re against using our members as pawns.”
Those comments came before Friday’s recall announcement. In the same October 28 report, Cleveland-Cliffs chief executive Lourenco Goncalves said he hoped to bring the workers back before Christmas if efforts to increase Canadian sales succeeded.
Friday’s announcement turns that conditional plan into a December 1 recall. Stelco said customers had committed enough business to support the Hamilton restart, while maintaining its criticism of federal tariff measures and offshore galvanized steel imports.
The struggle to find more Canadian buyers has also put domestic distribution costs under scrutiny. Canada’s $100 million steel shipping rebate program was introduced to help domestic producers compete for customers across the country.
Ottawa pressure and Stelco’s Hamilton history
The layoffs brought renewed scrutiny of the commitments Cleveland-Cliffs made when it acquired Stelco in November 2024.
On October 22, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly gave the company 15 days to address alleged breaches of its acquisition commitments or face potential legal action. Those commitments included minimum annual average employment levels of 1,766 unionized full-time-equivalent workers and 603 salaried full-time-equivalent employees.
Cleveland-Cliffs disputed the allegations. In an October 26 statement, the company said Stelco complied with all 34 undertakings and projected employment averages above both required thresholds.
It expected average annual employment of at least 1,879 unionized full-time-equivalent employees and 627 salaried full-time-equivalent employees for the reporting period.
Joly continued pressing for workers to return. In an October 29 letter, she demanded their immediate recall and a concrete plan for bringing them back. Prime Minister Mark Carney also said Cleveland-Cliffs needed to honour the commitments it made when purchasing Stelco.
The dispute concerns a business with roots stretching back more than a century. Stelco was formed in 1910 through the merger of Montreal Rolling Mills and the Hamilton Steel and Iron Company. Its Hamilton Works site was commissioned in 1905.
According to Stelco’s company history, Hamilton Works produces galvanized and galvannealed sheet steel used in industries including automotive manufacturing, agriculture and infrastructure. Lake Erie Works, built in 1980, is the company’s other major Ontario operation.
Cleveland-Cliffs completed its acquisition on November 1, 2024, with Stelco continuing as a wholly owned subsidiary under its existing name.
For the 175 affected workers, the immediate commitments are now clear: a December 1 recall and repayment of lost standard wages while the Hamilton operations are brought back into production.
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