The bottom line I heard is that BF needs a Reline and major work done to it to bring it back online we are talking Millions of dollars , when you have a BF - Blast furnace at Erie that is running and they have the capacity in the states they don't need Iron for streelmaking in the Hammer sad day yes I think the rest of this plants days are numbered for the rest of the operations. Sad day my dad was a proud Stelco worker 37 years at 20" mill and I worked there as a student in 89 , 90 Sad but when Both companies AM dofasco and US Steel are foreign owned anything can happen in the future. Just talk to any Dofasco worker for example yes they have good jobs , stability, but ask an employee about Plant Morale and people will tell you "ITS not Dofasco anymore" most can't wait to get out and retire my opinion 25 years from now the Hammer will be another Pittsburgh our biggest employer in Hamilton is Hamilton Health sciences . And it has been for years .
The media had it wrong. The story changed
I salute you man, My Great grand father and grand father and great uncle all worked @ parkdale works local 5328 until my great grandfather retired in 1969, grandfather retired in 1993, uncle in 1995? I think. My dad worked @ parkdale works in the 1970’s as a summer student when he was @ Mohawk College. I would attend and walk in labour day parades as a kid with my uncle and grandfather and other members of local 5328 I even had a SteelWorkers local 5328 baseball cap and golf shirt I would proudly wear when I was a child! My cousin still works @ Dofasco but I don’t know how good or bad his job prospects look in the future. Sad news for our steel industry in Hamilton whenever it ceases… 
hi Hammer I was joking around in the earlier posts.
I was under the impression the blast furnaces were already shut down some time ago?
What about the 300 jobs lost yesterday at Blackberry in Waterloo? that’s more of a story than 47 US steel managers having to relocate!!!
Without Stelco, MadJack and I wouldn’t exist (pause for obligatory jokes…). Our parents met at the old Hamilton Works (Wentworth & Barton) during the war. I spent 2 summers at Hamilton Works myself…started out as mailboy, the same job my Dad started with, and the same boss was still there! He ran mail & stationery for decades and never budged; must have started during the war, he was still practically rationing pencils in the 60s. Had 2 other summers at Hilton Works.
Thx guys , great stories thx for sharing them let’s hear more! A little interesting tid bit lots of people probably don’t know?! Is that the former "Parkdale works and all the retires from this plant are working for the same company as Dofasco! Parkdale is owned now by Arcelor Mittal.
One of the reasons the the coke ovens will remain open is the fact the several of the US steel plants south of the border can not produce enough coke. If the where to produce more they would be in violation of state environmental laws. So hey lets produce coke in Hamilton and ship it south.
As far as blaming the downfall of stelco on the greedy unions and saying that that no Union at Dofasco is the reason they are still in business is bunk. There are other reasons but not the union. My dad spent 40 years at Stelco as an electrician. When the union went on strike for better wages, working conditions, pensions etc the workers at the Non union Dofasco hide behind the blast furnace to await the outcome and then got the same or similar packages. Dad had several friends who worked similar jobs at Dofasco.
IMHO Dofasco survived because they diversified there products STELCO did not.
That being said lets get back to football talk. (I here enough from dad about US Steel everyday screwing them out of there pensions that the workers put their own $$$$ into now the Government turns a blind eye to it)
Tcmik
The issue in Ontario is due to costs of hyrdo many do think more and more companys will move out.
That is one reason why so many companies came to Ontario in the first place - the cheaper hydro rates. But now Ontario has some of the most expensive hydro rates in North America. Companies will move where they can operate cheaper and hydro rates is one factor along with taxes and wage rates.
If i was a citizen in Southern Ontario this would make me very worried it would not shock me if we see company in mass numbers move now if Ont raises min wage to $14 we can kiss all of Ontario good bye it would do so much harm most would just pull up and move.
Unfortunately you’re right. I can’t remember where I read the article maybe on CBC but Ontario has the highest hydro rates in Canada? yet we sell a big percentage of our electricity to other provinces and states while citizens and companies in Ontario suffer with unbelievably high prices in electricity.
obviously to make and melt certain alloys of steel, you need a vast quantity of electricity to run your business, but if you can’t afford your hydro bill, the Stelcos and Arcilor Mittals in Hamilton are SOL
When NAFTA was signed, there were all kinds of predictions about Ontario’s (and Canada’s) industrial base being loaded onto flatbeds and high-tailing it to Mexico.
It rarely if ever happens that way.
What does happen is that companies that are in expansion mode will build their new plant in the location that makes best sense for them. Often, that will be a lower cost jurisdiction. Companies that are contracting will tend to close their highest cost operations. That’s what US Steel is doing.
Location decisions (about expansion or contraction) are made based on a number of factors. It’s a complex equation and different for every business. Hydro rates are certainly part of that equation. So are taxes (of all kinds), wage rates, labour flexibility, skills, proximity of a good supply base, proximity to markets, transportation links, existence of borders and border crossing rules and delays, up to date infrastructure, and others. It would be naive to think that foreign companies don’t have a degree of “home country” preference, it’s only human nature to have some of that, but I wouldn’t want to overestimate that either.
It’s OK to have high wage rates, provided you have some other things that you’re exceptionally good at to make up for them. What’s not OK is to have high wage rates combined with high costs and/or mediocre performance in other areas. We used to be very competitive in hydro rates. “Power at Cost” was a mantra (along with HIghway 401) that drew investment into the province for decades. That hasn’t been true since the 1980s. I don’t know what we can do about it. Building Darlington and Bruce nuclear facilities cost a bundle, and all the restructuring of Ontario Hydro was jiggery-pokery to “strand” debt, but did little to alter the fundamentals of generating and distributing electricity.
Right now Ontario has very competitive corporate income tax rates, among the best in North America. Andrea Horwath would like to see them go up. I think that would be a mistake. Trouble is, there are too many other areas in which we are not sufficiently competitive. We need to work at improving them, not reducing the few advantages we have.
US Steel probably made a mistake in buying Stelco to begin with. No doubt the government aid made the outlook brighter at the time… for a while. They don’t need the capacity now, haven’t for some time, and won’t any time in the foreseeable future. Closing it makes sense for them.
Governments need to make the overall competitiveness profile of the province (or country, or region) more attractive if they want businesses to come here. Raising wage rates for business is not likely to accomplish that. Cutting hydro costs is probably not attainable any time soon. I’m not sure what the “long suit” is that we should be playing. I sure would want to keep the corporate income tax rates low; we don’t seem to have too much else to brag about.
Being between a rock and a hard place is no fun.
When did this happen I had no idea? I wonder if my grandfather knew or maybe I never asked. I often ask my grandfather to tell me stories about his days @ Parkdale works but now I live in Saskatoon, He lives in Hamilton I haven’t been able to visit with him as much as I would like in the past 7 years and he has recently fallen ill and doesn’t like long conversations on the phone!
This topic has nothing to do with the Tiger Cats or the CFL it should be deleted. It goes against the forum guidelines and the moderator should remove this thread.
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1 post and your trying to be the forum police?
This thread is fine in my opinion. It is about the city and was thought to be a major story at the onset as the media was misreporting the true facts. If it had been true it would have had an impact on the team. I'm really not sure why someone who in their first post wants to tell everyone what they can post on and what they can't. If you don't like it don't read it?
For those that are dumping on the originator of this thread. I was taken in by the initial reports also. I read stories that said that Hilton works was closing. After I heard the truth I went back to those sites and the same articles had changed. It is not really the thread Authors fault as lots of people were misled by the initial stories!
I've seen worse 1st posts and I've seen worse post 1000-2000 post.
All he did was quote the rules...and he was right.
And please don't give the "if you don't like it don't read it "crap.
There are rules in place for a reason.
The thread should have been deleted as soon as the miss information was discovered.
I’ve always found that remark to be rather problematic.
How would you know if you don’t like it if you don’t read it first ?
Quoting the rules is fine but the truth is it was posted because it is relevant to the City and the team or so the Author thought. He could easily see what the topic was about which was the reason for the if you dont like it dont read it phrase. It’s not like he was fished in by a cryptic thread topic. It’s Easy to bypass certain subjects, I do it all the time!