Windsor rally calls for stronger action to protect Canadian steel jobs, as foreign steel used in E.C. Row project

Union leaders and steelworkers gathered in Windsor today, pushing the ‘Buy Canadian’ movement. CTV Windsor’s Sanjay Maru has details.

Dozens of steelworkers and union leaders gathered Friday at the intersection of E.C. Row Expressway and Banwell Road — using Windsor’s latest overpass project as a symbol of what they call a national crisis in Canada’s steel industry.

The I-beams being driven into the ground for a new interchange were imported from South Korea, according to labels visible on site. It’s a detail that organizers said captures how Canada has grown increasingly dependent on foreign steel.

“Every time I hear that hammer hit, it’s like driving a stake in my heart and in my gut. It’s terrible,” said Barry Zekelman, head of Zekelman Industries, which runs Atlas Tube Steel in Harrow.

“They’re pounding this foreign steel into our soil to build our infrastructure, and it just defies logic and common sense why we would do that.”

Zekelman said the same material could have been produced at Atlas Tube in Harrow — about a half-hour drive from the site — and argued that government promises to support domestic manufacturing aren’t being followed through.

“We’ve moved product to the U.S. I don’t want to do that,” he said.

“This is our best plant, with hardworking people who deserve good jobs.”

Atlas Tube team leader Scott Cressman, who has worked at the Harrow steel facility for 29 years, said what’s happening in Windsor-Essex mirrors what workers are feeling on shop floors across Canada.

“At Atlas Tube, production’s down about 40 per cent,” he said.

“We can make what they’re using here — but we aren’t able to because there’s too many foreign imports. That’s cutting into our production.”

According to Cressman, about 200 people work at the Harrow facility, and every missed contract means lost revenue, fewer tax dollars, and growing concern about job security.

Union leaders from Hamilton and Nanticoke joined the Windsor rally, representing about 2,000 members from Stelco’s Hamilton Works and Lake Erie Works.

They’re calling on Ottawa to double Canada’s current 25 per cent retaliatory tariff on U.S. steel to 50 per cent and take stronger action to keep work in Canada.

“Canadian tax dollars should buy Canadian steel,” said Ron Wells, president of United Steelworkers Local 1005 in Hamilton.

“There’s no reason offshore material should be going into these projects.”

The U.S. currently imposes 50 per cent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum.

Prime Minister Mark Carney met with President Donald Trump earlier this week to discuss potential relief, but no deal was reached.

The provincial government has updated its procurement policies to favour Ontario-made materials.

But Windsor–Tecumseh MPP Andrew Dowie told CTV News the E.C. Row and Banwell project is a city-led tender that predates those changes.

“Going forward, the goal is to make sure projects like this reflect those Buy Canadian priorities,” said Dowie.

In a statement to CTV News, the City of Windsor said the steel H-piles for the project were purchased through Canadian distributors but made overseas, as that “specific type of steel isn’t manufactured domestically.”

According to the city, sourcing from suppliers in Korea and Luxembourg helped avoid supply delays and cost overruns, and that the imported piles account for less than one per cent of the project’s total cost.

City officials added most of the remaining steel — including rebar, hand railings, and watermain casings — was produced in Canada.

The E.C. Row overpass project is part of a major corridor upgrade aimed at easing traffic flow in Windsor’s east end, including improved access to the NextStar Energy electric-vehicle battery plant.