U.S. Steel has recalled all of its laid-off Hamilton workers and is posting plans to hire another 72 staff for its Canadian operations, the Hamilton Spectator reported.

The good news, however, doesn’t include restarting the Hamilton blast furnace.

In an email exchange, U.S. Steel spokesperson Trevor Harris said the jobs are a response to business conditions.

"In order to continue to support the needs of our customers and meet demand in the marketplace, we have recalled all remaining eligible workers to Hamilton Works," he wrote.

"It’s just a matter of us running our business," he added in an interview. "It’s about business conditions. We are operating this plant and we need these people now."

Harris warned the recalls and hiring shouldn’t be taken as a sign of coming changes in operations at the former Stelco plant.

"Don’t read anything into this about changes in our operations, especially regarding the blast furnace. Don’t fall into that trap," he said. "There is nothing on the horizon regarding that."

Rolf Gerstenberger, president of Local 1005 of the United Steelworkers, welcomed the recall as the end of a chapter that never should have been opened.

"These people shouldn’t have been laid off in the first place," he said. "They were needed to cover all the operations."

To cover all of its requirements the company has relied for several months on 60 retired Local 1005 members who have been working on salary at their former jobs. The move sparked bitter complaints from the union because the retirees were being paid more per hour than they earned during their active years.

Active employees were supposed to have been getting training for those jobs, but the union has complained staffing has been so tight there have been no replacements available and thus no training.

"They’ve been running everything with the bare minimum manning and lots of overtime," Gerstenberger said.

The recall affects 24 workers who were laid off late in April after completing 26 weeks of employment they were guaranteed under the contract that settled the 11-month lockout that started in November 2010.

The other positions to be filled are posted under the careers tab of the company’s website uss.com. They include eight production jobs in Hamilton and 28 at the Lake Erie, plant plus 11 salaried jobs in Hamilton and 16 in Nanticoke. There are also nine positions in other operations.

U.S. Steel Canada currently employs 1,100 hourly and salaried staff in Hamilton and 1,250 in Nanticoke.

The company is currently operating its Hamilton coke oven battery, the cold strip mill, galvanizing line and Z line. The blast furnace has been idle since October 2010. Without that operation the former Stelco plant is not producing steel, it is only processing metal made at other U.S. Steel operations.

Executives have said repeatedly there are no plans to restart steelmaking in Hamilton until there is a sharp improvement in steel demand and prices.

The latest action brings the company’s Hamilton hourly employment to about 625, still well short of the 900 who were locked out in 2010.

Veteran industry analyst Chuck Bradford speculated one reason U.S. Steel may be ramping up its Hamilton operation is the simple fact the company is negotiating with its American production workers, also members of the United Steelworkers. That contract expires Sept. 1.

"I don’t think either side wants a strike," he said.

Another looming issue for the company is the pending retirement of a large part of its workforce. That’s a huge threat for a company with only limited hiring of new workers in the last decade.

"I’d almost bet this is really about retirements," Bradford said.