FEBRUARY 16, 2024 — 900 LAYOFFS AT WEIRTON, WEST VIRGINIA MILL
The company has announced that it is idling its tinplate production plant in Weirton, West Virginia with approximately 900 employee layoffs.
According to a statement by chairman, president, and chief executive officer Lourenco Goncalves, "We worked very closely with our partners at the USW on this solution to save Weirton and together fought tirelessly for its survival. In what was our final effort to maintain tinplate production here in America, we proved that we are forced to operate on an uneven playing field and that the deck was stacked in favor of the importers.”
“Despite the Department of Commerce finding evidence of dumping and subsidization from respondent countries, the ITC shockingly ruled against the imposition of tariffs, keeping the uneven playing field in place and making it impossible for us to viably produce tinplate. We have been upfront and open with union leadership throughout this process and our partnership with the USW remains unbreakable. To the tin can makers and consumer groups who irrationally fought against American jobs and a domestic-based food supply chain, this outcome is due to your own greed. We disproved all the arguments leveled against the domestic industry and workers. Furthermore, Weirton recently concluded a successful run of Drawn & Ironed material that tested perfectly with zero defects. This test proves that Weirton and its workers are able to manufacture all the products the market demands. The ITC’s decision is a travesty for America, middle-class jobs, and our critical food supply chains. This bad outcome requires better and stronger trade laws. We will continue to work tirelessly with our Congressional champions who fought with us in this case to improve the trade laws so that the American industry and our workers are not left behind.”
MAY 14, 2023 — 300 LAYOFFS AT WEIRTON, WEST VIRGINIA MILL
The company has announced the layoff of 300 employees of the Cleveland-Cliffs Weirton tinplate facility in June 2023.
“Once again, unfair trade practices are harming good paying, union jobs,” Lourenco Goncalves, Cleveland-Cliffs’ chairman, president and chief executive officer, said. “Cleveland-Cliffs and the United Steelworkers have partnered to bring a trade case before the U.S. International Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Commerce to address the surge of dumped and subsidized tin mill product imports. A petition seeks the imposition of duties on U.S. imports of tin mill products from Canada, China, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.”
MARCH 4, 2022 — Original post
Cleveland, Ohio-based Cleveland-Cliffs, an integrated steelmaker and the largest flat-rolled steel producer in North America with facilities for mining, beneficiation, and pelletizing of iron ore, coke production, stamping, and tooling, has announced that it will be closing its division is located in Follansbee, West Virginia.
The closure will impact 288 employees sometime between April 2022 and June 2022. A limited number of employees will be retained to complete closure activities.
According to a company spokesperson, “We continue to reduce the usage of coke by increasing the use of hot-briquetted iron production and increased use of scrap in our steelmaking. This has dramatically lowered our needs for coke and coal."
Additional cut-backs are anticipated as the company plans to idle its Northshore Mining operations. The Silver Bay pellet plant in Silver Bay, Minnesota, and the Babbitt mine in Babbitt, Minnesota will idle starting May 1, 2022, and last into at least the fall as the company moves production of direct-reduced grade pellets to its Minorca Mine in Virginia, Minnesota.
The decision was driven by a royalties dispute and the use of scrap metal in its electric arc furnaces reduces the need for its pellets. The layoffs will impact Layoffs are expected for 410 of Northshore's 580 employees
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?