‘This hurts so many families': Father, son among 153 workers laid off at closing ArcelorMittal mill
Working at ArcelorMittal Long Products is a family affair for Arron Harris — which is why losing his steel-working job to
Hamilton's first plant closure of the tariff war
'will hurt for a long time.'
Harris was sitting beside his dad, Neil, in a plantwide meeting when they learned Wednesday they would lose their jobs to the looming closure of the storied wire drawing mill in east Hamilton.
Arron, 32, has worked as a 'pusher furnace' operator at the mill, currently owned by ArcelorMittal, for 11 years. His father and uncle are also co-workers who have spent decades at the Strathearne Avenue North plant. It was known as Stelwire when it formed a part of the sprawling 1980s Stelco empire.
'I feel anxious about the future, obviously,' Arron said in an interview at the United Steelworkers union hall on Barton Street East, the day after the company announced the mill shutdown.
'But I also feel hurt for my dad, my uncle. They have so much history in this place. My dad has been through strikes, through layoffs … He is still taking it hard.'
There are a lot of historical family ties within the plant workforce, noted United Steelworkers local president Mike Hnatjuk, who joined his own father working at what was then known as Stelwire 31 years ago.
Arron is also active in the union — and he considers all of the 153 soon-to-be laid-off workers his 'brothers and sisters on the floor' of the plant. Many of those co-workers have partners and children who depend on those disappearing jobs .
Union president Mike Hnatjuk, left, stands with Arron Harris, who is losing his job due to the closing of ArcelorMittal Long Products' wire drawing mill.
'At 32, hopefully I can have a new start and a new career,' he said. 'But this hurts so many families … they are the ones I really feel for.'
The company, a subsidiary of global steelmaking giant ArcelorMittal, said Wednesday it must consolidate operations at its Montreal site to be sustainable amid 'ongoing economic challenges, increased steel imports in Canada and market conditions.'
Hnatjuk characterized the ongoing trade war with the U.S. — including President Donald Trump's decision to impose
50 per cent steel tariffs just last week
— as the 'nail in the coffin' for a local mill that was already losing money annually.
The union president also blames successive federal governments he argued were unwilling or slow to protect Canada's steel industry from the threat of foreign 'dumping' of cheap steel into the domestic market even before the trade war.
Once upon a time, hardware stories across Canada carried nails made from wire drawn steel rod processed in the mill. Arron has fond memories of the 'deafening pounding' of nail machines he would hear as his dad toured him through the plant to the vending machine as a kid.
Wire fencing, springs for cars and 'strand' wire for reinforced concrete construction all depended on Stelwire-turned-ArcelorMittal Long Products.
But cheap foreign steel and changing construction markets gradually cut production at the plant — along with a workforce that still topped 350 in the late 1990s, said Hnatjuk.
Industry Minister Melanie Joly
was in Hamilton last Friday
to promise announcements 'very soon' to help address issues like the flood of cheap steel from countries that don't have related trade agreements with Canada.
But any announcement will come too late to save the Strathearne Avenue mill, which is expected to close permanently by the end of June.
ArcelorMittal Long Products Canada's wire drawing mill on Strathearne Avenue North in Hamilton is slated to close, affecting up to 153 workers.
The union will begin negotiating a closure agreement with the company next week, and Hnatjuk said he expects to discuss whether relocation options exist for employees willing to work in Montreal, for example.
The local's contract also has language around 'preferential hiring' within the larger ArcelorMittal family — although that's not a guarantee of a job at Dofasco or anywhere else. (Dofasco is owned by ArcelorMittal, but is a separate company from the wire drawing mill.)
Arron said he is still mulling what's next in his career.
'I think for a lot of us, it depends whether you want to stay in steel, because the industry is really struggling in Canada right now,' he said.
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