Some work returning to U.S. Steel Hamilton

U.S. Steel is re-opening a galvanizing line at its Hamilton operations in May.

The company says in short term 25 people will continue working, but if the demand is there more shifts could be added, which could employ more than 250 workers.

Rolf Gerstenberger, the president of Steelworkers Local 1005 says the agreement reached after the lockout was that U.S. Steel would keep 620 employees employed for about 26 weeks, and that time is ending now. He says that means roughly 150 workers would be laid off at the end of April.

“The announcement that the galv line is going to start up in May sometime will mean that there will be about 30 less employees that are going to be laid off.”

“The other question we keep getting asked is if the blast furnace is going to start up, so there’s really been no change as far as that, U.S. Steel is still saying they don’t have any plans to start it up yet but depending on how the markets pick up they may start up the blast furnace but it’s still an unknown; there’s no definite date for anything.”

U.S. Steel says the decision to restart the line was due to demand in the construction and appliance industries.

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