Steelworkers in Hamilton, Ont. see President Donald Trump’s latest trade war escalation as a wake-up call, insisting U.S. efforts to protect struggling metal producers demand an equivalent national response.
Hamilton is known locally as “Steeltown,” with expansive industrial plants dominating the view from the main bridge that leads into the city.
The city has endured countless setbacks as the steel industry that drove its growth through much of 20th Century declined.
Trump’s decision to double steel and aluminum tariffs to a crippling 50 per cent did not come as a shock to those who have spent decades in the industry.
“Steel is like a roller-coaster,” said Jake Lombardo, who retired after 38 years at Stelco, one of Hamilton’s main plants.
Lombardo’s career spanned the era that saw automation and cheaper foreign product hollow out Hamilton’s steel sector.
He voiced a degree of understanding for Trump’s efforts to shield U.S. producers from external competition.
“I’m not a Trump supporter, but one thing I like [about] what he said, he wants to do things in-house. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that,” Lombardo, 69, said.
“We should have been doing this a long time ago.”
Hamilton’s steel industry was born in the early part of the last century, hitting its peak in the decades following World War II, when the main local union, United Steelworkers Local 1005, counted more than 12,000 members.
That number has since fallen to about 650 steelworkers, said union president Ron Wells.
Wells said he wasn’t opposed to a future where Canadian producers serve Canadian demand and cross-border trade is reduced.
But, like Lombardo, he believes Ottawa needs to create the environment that ensures that Canadian steelworkers thrive.
“We’ve been saying that for, like years, if not decades,” Wells said.
‘Better late than never’?
The union chief said he was encouraged by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s pledge to counter Trump’s trade war by boosting internal trade and ushering in an era of massive construction across Canada.
Asked about the prospect that Hamilton could benefit from Carney’s recent promise that his government would “build baby build,” Wells said, “we applaud it.”
“It’s better late than never.”
Carney on Wednesday called Trump’s decision to double steel and aluminum tariffs “unjustified” and “illegal” and promised that Canada — the largest supplier of foreign steel and aluminum to the United States — will respond.
But in the short term, Wells said there is cause for concern.
Stelco, which was bought by the U.S. steel producer Cleveland-Cliffs last year, had been sending about 30 per cent of its output to the United States, Wells said.
Those orders largely dried up when Trump imposed a blanket 25 per cent tariff on all metal imports in March.
But Stelco was still selling to Canadian clients who were making products subsequently sold to the United States, with the American importers absorbing the 25 per cent tariff hit.
‘The wrong foe’
At 50 per cent, Wells voiced fear that business could vanish.
“People are just pissed off that [Trump] keeps changing his mind and he’s playing chicken with the economy,” Wells said.
“Our members want to see the tariffs situation get resolved. So go back to full production and we can share the wealth.”
The Canadian Steel Producers Association, an industry group, said Wednesday that “at a 25 per cent tariff rate, we saw significant layoffs, curtailed investments and a significant drop of shipments to the United States.”
“At a 50 per cent tariff rate, the U.S. market is effectively closed to Canadian steel, leaving billions of dollars of Canadian steel without a market,” it warned.
Throughout Trump’s trade war, Canadian workers in targeted sectors — notably auto and metal — have voiced frustration over the president’s decision to harm a bilateral trade relationship widely seen as mutually beneficial.
“We think they’re picking on the wrong foe,” Wells said.
Tony Mclaughlin, who has worked for Stelco for 47 years, said he “always thought we’d be exempt [from tariffs].”
“Is he trying to get a new trade agreement?” he asked.
“Maybe that’s the big plan.”
