Restart remains a distant dream for US Steel Hamilton plant
Hamilton Spectator reported that the heart of US Steel's Hamilton plant has been silent for two years now and a restart remains a distant dream.
It was on October 4th 2010, when the company shut down its Hamilton blast furnace, citing lack of demand for steel. Within days, however, it brought two American blast furnaces back into production.
Since that day, the company has said repeatedly, most recently during its August 1st 2012 release of second quarter financial results, steelmaking in Hamilton will not resume without a sharp turnaround in demand and prices.
The company's refusal to restart the Hamilton blast furnace continues to draw the anger of labor leaders and local politicians. They attack both the company for breaching jobs and production promises made in 2007 when it was given approval to buy Stelco, and the Harper government for not enforcing those promises. They remain angry that the government dropped a lawsuit against the company in exchange for vague promises of future investment and small community grants.
Hamilton Mountain MP Mr Chris Charlton raised the issue again in Parliament, asking Industry Minister Mr Christian Paradis to take action.
Mr Charlton said that "October 4th 2012 is the two year anniversary of the blast furnace being shut down at US Steel. People are still not back to their jobs. I wonder if the minister could stand up and explain to this House, but more importantly, to the members of USW Local 1005, what he is doing to act now to protect their jobs, when he rolled over so badly just a little while ago?"
Mr Paradis responded by praising the Harper government for the tremendous undertakings it extracted from US Steel in exchange for dropping the suit. Those undertakings do not include commitments to future employment and production in Hamilton.
Mr Wayne Marston, MP for Hamilton East Stoney Creek, said that he is still waiting for the net benefit Canada was supposed to get from allowing the sale of Stelco to the American company.
He said that "We haven't seen any benefit from that takeover and that's a bloody shame. If there has been a net benefit to Canada from this, I don't see it."
City councilor Mr Sam Merulla said that the situation shows an American company putting American interests ahead of Canadian workers. He added that "There is no reason that plant should not be operating except for American politics and economics. We have to keep up the pressure on our political leaders to protect Canadians and Canadian jobs."
The Hamilton plant is not making steel, but is operating its coke oven battery, a galvanizing line and finishing operations, including a cold mill and the Z line, which produces coated steel for exposed auto parts. The plant currently employs 625 workers. The October 2010 blast furnace shutdown followed an idling between October 2009 and August 2010, the first time in a century no steel was produced at the plant.
The continued shutdown remains a bitter point for Local 1005 of the United Steelworkers. In a recent bulletin to members, president Mr Rolf Gerstenberger accused the company of trying to wreck Canadian industry.
He said that "This situation reveals a concerted attempt to wreck manufacturing in Canada so as to make a big score. Once Canadian companies become part of foreign empires, all control is lost as far as what is good for the Canadian economy. Local 1005 demands that the Hamilton blast furnace be started up without further delay."
Source - Hamilton Spectator