Hamilton steelworkers reach contract agreement with Stelco, avert strike threat
Stelco workers in Hamilton have ended a strike threat by voting in favour of a new five-year contract.
More than 82 per cent of the United Steel Workers Local 1005 members who voted approved the contract Wednesday - the same day Stelco's last Hamilton steelmaking blast furnace was demolished.
The company has not made steel in Hamilton for more than a decade.
But around 600 local Stelco workers continue to operate steel-finishing operations on the bayfront, including a zinc-coating line, as well as an 83-oven battery that makes coke for the company's integrated steelmaking mill on Lake Erie.
A union memo to members earlier this month said the agreement will include wage increases of $1.05 per year as well as cost-of-living adjustments, pension and benefits improvements.
The Hamilton-based steel company reached a tentative agreement with the union last week, a few days before a legal strike or lockout would have become possible.
The USW local representing 1,000 unionized workers at Stelco's Nanticoke plant has also reached a tentative agreement with the company, with a vote on that prospective contract scheduled for Friday.
Locally, the union argued during bargaining that Stelco has been extremely successful and profitable" in recent times, pointing to its recent sale of its Hamilton lands to a developer, investment in the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and announced plans to buy back $1 billion in shares from investors.
Negotiations over the latest local contract came amid a historic ownership change in Stelco's 324 hectares of bayfront land. Earlier this summer, Stelco sold its Hamilton land to would-be developer Slate Asset Management, which agreed to lease back to the steelmaker the property required to continue local operations.
But The Spectator discovered the company's lease agreement for coke-making operations appears set to end by 2029 at the latest - leaving the future of that facility and its jobs up in the air.
Matthew Van Dongen is a transportation and environment reporter at The Spectator. mvandongen@thespec.com