U.S. Steel changes

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A bankruptcy judge will be making some big decisions that could affect more than 20,000 Hamilton residents. US Steel wants to stop paying more than $110 million a year in pension and benefit payments to former Canadian workers and $6 million in city property taxes. The court monitor, Ernst and Young, has already made a recommendation to stop the payments.

The city desperately needs that money to hold the line on a property tax increase that is already at 3% for the coming year. But more than that, the loss of pension income and benefit payments could be disastrous for more than 20,000 people, most of them seniors here in Hamilton.

The local 1005 president says bus loads of former steelworkers will be heading to Toronto, to defend the pensions and benefits they worked a life-time to get.