Mediation begins for U.S. Steel Canada

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Mediation between the province and U.S. Steel Canada has started. The United Steelworkers union has also been directed by the courts to participate.

That comes ahead of a court hearing, where the company is seeking to suspend payments of benefits to their pensioners, and an extension of its bankruptcy protection. U.S. Steel Canada says they will have to cease production entirely by the end of the year unless it is able to cut off health-care benefits for more than 20,000 retirees and dependents, and halt all municipal tax payments.

The salaried employees and retirees argue the company should be prevented from taking any action on production until a hearing is held on the union’s application for an injunction. That hearing is set for later this month after three scheduled days of mediation.

CHCH News spoke with Bill Ferguson, president of USW Local 8782 at the Lake Erie Works in Nanticoke. He says U.S. Steel removed 15,000 tonnes of capacity from the metal stream in Hamilton. “What they have done is in turn now turned around and said that they want benefits back from our pensioners, understanding too that these pensioners worked in that environment all of their lives, most of them are ill, in their old age and need those benefits so it’s really putting a gun to the head of the people that need it the most, the most vulnerable in our society. That’s who they are going after at this point.”

“The mediation, we filed a motion for the 15,000 tonnes, U.S. Steel filed a motion saying that they had to do it. It violates the first principle of CCAA: when you are going into protection, you are supposed to maintain the operation in order to fix it. What they’ve started to do is remove tonnage.”

According to Ferguson there’s very little impact for the people who are currently working at U.S. Steel in Hamilton. He says the impact will really be on pensioners if this isn’t resolved.