# Stelco to idle Hamilton finishing, cut ~350 jobs amid U.S. steel tariffs

> Cleveland-Cliffs’ Stelco will indefinitely idle cold-rolled and coated finishing at Hamilton Works from about Oct. 9; USW Local 1005 puts job losses near 350.

- Desk: TIC Staff
- Published: 2026-09-29
- Section: Labour
- Canonical: https://trueinflation.ca/article/stelco-hamilton-idle-350-layoffs-tariffs

Stelco is idling Hamilton finishing to survive a tariff wall. The Cleveland-Cliffs-owned steelmaker told customers it will indefinitely idle cold-rolled and coated operations at Hamilton Works, with wind-down starting around Oct. 9, and concentrate steelmaking at Lake Erie Works in Nanticoke. United Steelworkers Local 1005 president Ron Wells puts the layoff tally near 350; the company has floated an impact of up to 500 employees across sites.

Management says total tonnage will hold while the product mix skews toward hot-rolled coil, and that “a significant number” of Hamilton workers should be absorbed at Lake Erie. Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath called the move devastating and said she doubts the transfer offers will amount to much — while pointing at the U.S. 50% tariff on Canadian steel that took effect Aug. 22.

Horwath also flagged the 2024 Cliffs–Stelco deal, which included a five-year undertaking to keep unionized headcount intact. That is now a federal-accountability fight as much as a plant story: if the employment covenant was real, Ottawa needs to say how indefinite idle and mass layoffs square with it. Ontario’s economic development minister pledged to “use every tool” for affected workers — standard language after the jobs are already on the table.

Tariffs do not show up only in CPI printouts. They reallocate capacity, kill finishing lines and leave Ontario mill towns holding the labour bill while politicians argue about trade strategy. Hamilton’s shock is the price of a steel war playing out in pay stubs.

Source: Stelco / Cleveland-Cliffs; United Steelworkers Local 1005­