Stelco Idles Cold-Rolled and Coated Operations at Its Hamilton Works

CBC reports that hundreds of Stelco workers in Hamilton and Nanticoke, Ontario are facing an uncertain future after the company said it will indefinitely idle the cold-rolled and coated operations at its Hamilton Works plant. The word doing the work in that announcement is “indefinitely.” It is not a closure date, and it is not a promise to restart; it is a state that can last as long as the company finds it convenient. For the workers in two Ontario steel towns, the practical difference between an idle plant and a shut one is mainly one of hope — and hope is not a schedule. What is not in doubt is the scale of the disruption concentrated in a single company's decision about a single set of production lines.