Carney vows to go after Cleveland-Cliffs following layoffs at Stelco

Prime Minister Mark Carney made a statement Tuesday, following the layoff announcement by Stelco earlier this week.

Carney said that Stelco betrayed its workers and he vowed to go after the steelmaker’s parent company Cleveland-Cliffs legally, but what that could actually look like is up in the air.

A Stelco worker spoke with CHCH News and said the news came as a complete shock, because there was no indication that the steelmaker was struggling with the tariffs.

Patrick Ducharme is a heavy industry mechanic at Stelco, who was caught off guard by Monday’s layoff announcement.

“It’s pretty shocking, actually,” said Ducharme. “I didn’t think that was going to happen — I don’t think any of us did, so definitely not a good thing to receive.”

WATCH MORE: Stelco to indefinitely idle Hamilton Works operations, impacting up to 500 employees

It was especially shocking since Stelco’s owner, Cleveland-Cliffs, made a commitment in 2024 to maintain the number of unionized employees.

“The promise — there is not really any inkling that this kind of thing was going to happen to that division of the company, I mean other than the coke ovens, which we all knew was kind of numbered,” said Ducharme. “But yeah, everybody thought that if anything was going to hold, it was going to be the coal division.”

The company says layoffs will impact up to 500 employees starting on October 9th.

“That’s a big chunk of the workforce, and for that many people to go away, to lose that many jobs that quickly, that’s going to be a big impact for sure,” said Ducharme.

Carney expressed his disappointment Tuesday, saying workers have been “betrayed by the company.”

WATCH MORE: Uncertainty and disappointment as Stelco workers await layoff list

He said the government intends to use all the power it has and pursue them to the fullest extent of the law, but McMaster economics professor Colin Mang says a potential resolution would take time.

“It is possible for the federal government to take the company to court and to settle with them either, for some amount of fines or to have some level of production and employment at the plants, but that would need to be litigated in federal court,” said Mang.

The United Steelworkers Union (USW), which represents the Stelco workers, would like to see the federal government take more drastic action.

“If we are being bombarded and cheated adversely by an American owner, then maybe we should force the company to be resold for a Canadian owner that’s willing to basically build the steel industry back in Canada for our workers,” said Kevon Stewart, the USW District 6 director.

Ducharme says he has been told that his department will likely be spared, but he says it’s hard to be confident about his future there, knowing that Trump’s tariffs remain in place.

READ MORE: Stelco cuts expose domino effect of tariffs through supply chain: Experts