United Steelworker-represented employees at the Empire and Tilden Mines in Michigan, and Hibbing Taconite and United Taconite Mines in Minnesota, have ratified new four-year labor agreements. Cleveland-Cliffs manages and holds substantial equity positions in all four mines.

The company stated that the agreements — which are comparable to other current United Steelworkers of America contracts — will provide significant benefits to both the company and its employees.

The new agreements provide employees a 9% wage increase over the next four years, and for the company to put over $220 million into pension plans and retiree health care accounts during the term of the contracts. This accelerated funding will better secure employee post-employment benefits, and reduce the company's future years employment legacy costs.

In turn, employees and future retirees will share a greater percentage of their health care insurance cost, with the company's share of future retirees health care premiums to be capped at 2008 levels. In addition, the union has agreed to certain workforce flexibility provisions and other work rule modifications that will improve mine productivity. Any future staffing reductions would be achieved through normal attrition.

John S. Brinzo, Cliffs' Chairman and CEO, stated, "These new agreements are a major step in securing the future of the company, which will benefit our employees and all the stakeholders in the mines we operate. The benefits of these agreements, together with the current demand in the industry, will give Cliffs and its partners the opportunity to operate our mines at capacity and improve their cost structure so that they remain competitive at all points in our business cycle. We appreciate the hard work and dedication of everyone involved in these negotiations."

Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. is the largest producer of iron ore pellets in North America, selling the majority of its pellets to integrated steel companies in the United States and Canada. The company operates six iron ore mines located in Michigan, Minnesota and Eastern Canada.