U.S. Steel Updates Layoff Notice to State
(image courtesy of The Times of Northwest Indiana)
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowPittsburgh-based U.S. Steel Corp. (NYSE: X) has updated the state regarding previously-announced layoffs at its East Chicago Tin Mill. The company says 314 workers will be displaced, slightly more than originally projected, when the mill is idled this fall.
U.S. Steel sent a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN notice, to the Department of Workforce Development in September to announce the plant closure. Last week, the company updated the letter by saying seven more positions, mostly security jobs, would be laid off in December.
The steelmaker says it is consolidating its three tin mills into two facilities as the reason for the idling of the East Chicago plant. The company cites global competition and imports of low-priced tin as part of the reason behind the layoffs.
“The idling is not expected to be permanent but will be of an indefinite period,” said James Van Buren, director of employee relations for U.S. Steel Gary Works, in the WARN letter to the state.
U.S. Steel says while more than 300 workers will be displaced, it expects actual job losses to be fewer than 150 when workers take positions at other U.S. Steel facilities in Gary and Portage.
According to the original WARN letter the layoffs will begin on November 9 and will continue periodically through the end of the year.
Talks are underway with the United Steelworkers union about the number of workers who will be transferred to those other sites.
East Chicago Tin makes tin products like paint cans and tin-plated metal for canned foods.