Steelworkers Moving to Block U. S. Steel Production Change
09/11/2015 - The United Steelworkers union said it will try to prevent United States Steel Corporation from shifting some production from its Canadian operations to its American mills.
According to The Globe and Mail newspaper, the Steelworkers said they'll seek a court injunction to stop the move.
U. S. Steel’s Canadian operation, U. S. Steel Canada (USSC), is under creditor protection, and in August, the court-appointed monitor in the case reported that U. S. Steel intends to move 180,000 tons of annualized production out of its Hamilton and Lake Erie works to American mills.
The production to be shifted is for value-added automotive steel. Losing that production would cost USSC more than CAD$160 million in revenue in 2016, according to the monitor’s report.
“The USW believes this ‘move’ by USS is designed by USS to have a devastating impact on the revenue earnings and cash flow of Hamilton Works and Lake Erie Works at a critical and vulnerable time,” United Steelworkers attorney Ken Rosenberg wrote in a letter to Ontario Superior Court Justice Herman Wilton-Siegel, the judge who is overseeing USSC’s restructuring.
U. S. Steel centrally allocates production to its operations. It has said the production shift is in keeping with past practices.
U. S. Steel’s Canadian operation, U. S. Steel Canada (USSC), is under creditor protection, and in August, the court-appointed monitor in the case reported that U. S. Steel intends to move 180,000 tons of annualized production out of its Hamilton and Lake Erie works to American mills.
The production to be shifted is for value-added automotive steel. Losing that production would cost USSC more than CAD$160 million in revenue in 2016, according to the monitor’s report.
“The USW believes this ‘move’ by USS is designed by USS to have a devastating impact on the revenue earnings and cash flow of Hamilton Works and Lake Erie Works at a critical and vulnerable time,” United Steelworkers attorney Ken Rosenberg wrote in a letter to Ontario Superior Court Justice Herman Wilton-Siegel, the judge who is overseeing USSC’s restructuring.
U. S. Steel centrally allocates production to its operations. It has said the production shift is in keeping with past practices.
