Stelco employee says plant layoffs due to tariffs is confusing when ‘all we do is Canadian orders’

Stelco employee Mike Watts says it was ‘a huge shock’ to receive an envelope stating he has been laid off.

Stelco Holdings Inc. has started handing out layoff notices to some of their employees at their Hamilton, Ont.-based steel plant.

Cleveland-Cliffs, Stelco’s U.S.-based parent company, has said it intends to lay off up to 500 workers, due to tariffs and market pressures beyond its control.

Stelco employee Mike Watts told CTV News Channel on Friday that he received his notice in the morning and was informed it would be his last day. Watts said that after working two decades at the company, he received an envelope with his layoff papers and was wished good luck.

“What’s my future?” he asked. “That’s all I’m thinking about. Well, what do I do next?

He said he doesn’t understand why the company is making sweeping layoffs when they have so many Canadian orders.

“It’s just crazy right now, they’re sending all of our slabs down to the United States,” he said. “We had companies from B.C., they want our steel. Honda from Alliston, they want our steel. This company just doesn’t want to help a Canadian product, they just don’t want to fulfil their obligation to Canadians.”

Watts said it’s been challenging to get answer from any higher ups as to what’s going on.

• How to set CTV News as your preferred source on Google

“From foremen to upper management, it’s nothing, it’s crickets here,” he said. “No one knows anything. No one knows the future of this place. It’s so up in the air.”

He added that he’s allowed to apply to the company’s Lake Eerie plant, but with 21years of service under his belt, his seniority would be eliminated.

“Is it beneficial for a guy with my years of service? No, it’s not beneficial,” Watts said.

Melanie Joly, Canada’s industry minister, said on Wednesday that the company’s U.S. owner has supported steel tariffs and, therefore, cannot portray the company’s plan to lay off up to 500 workers as a result to tariffs and market pressures as beyond its control.

In 2024, Canada allowed Cleveland-Cliffs to buy Stelco back under the Investment Canada Act, if the new owner maintained the number of union jobs and most non-union positions.

• How to set CP24 as your preferred source on Google

The company said it would hire back Stelco workers if a trade agreement on steel was reached between the U.S. and Canada.

However, that doesn’t give much comfort to Watts.

“I take it as Cleveland-Cliffs using it as blackmail, that’s how I see it,” he said. “Right now all we do is Canadian orders. I don’t understand why tariffs would even bother us because all we’re doing is Canadian orders.”

With files from The Canadian Press