Stelco is recalling 175 temporarily laid off workers as it plans to restart its Hamilton, Ont., finishing operations on Dec. 1.
The company said Friday the move is due to increased customer demand.
“I would like to thank our valued customers for the faith they have placed in us, and our workers for the patience and resilience they have continued to demonstrate during this challenging period,” Stelco president Paul Simon said in a statement.
Stelco parent company Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. raised the ire of Ottawa when it announced the layoffs in September, as Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said it went against conditions the government set when approving the steelmaker’s sale.
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Cleveland-Cliffs cited US tariffs, weak demand for Canadian steel and competition from imported steel products as reasons for the cuts.
However, it said it has now reached agreement with a sufficient volume of its customers to restart the operations and recall all of the laid off workers.
The company noted that it will take several weeks to restart operations, but that all affected employees will be made whole retroactively for the standard wages they would have received during the period in which they were temporarily laid off.
The layoff announcement came roughly two years after Cleveland-Cliffs acquired Stelco in 2024 in a transaction that required government approval under the Investment Canada Act.
Joly had put Cleveland-Cliffs on notice last month to address alleged violations of its commitments under that process, including employment guarantees, or face potential legal action.
The federal government was also consulting its lawyers about remarks by Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves suggesting he bought Stelco to protect his company’s US operations from Canadian competition.
The minister had warned that Cleveland-Cliffs could be forced to sell Stelco if it failed to meet its binding commitments.
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