Minntac announces nearly 600 layoffs
By: Peter Passi , Duluth News Tribune
U.S. Steel Corp. has notified workers at Minntac, near Virginia, that it will cut production in the next two to three weeks. As a result about 500 union and 90 salaried management employees will be indefinitely laid off.
Minntac currently employs about 1,100 union workers and about 180 people in salaried management positions. So the layoffs will affect about 46 percent of the work force.
“Here at U.S. Steel, we continually analyze and assess our production, market conditions and how those conditions affect our order book,” said Courtney Boone, a corporate spokeswoman.
As a result of that assessment, Boone said: “We’ve made the difficult decision to temporarily idle some of our production at Minntac.”
Minntac has five lines, but just four are currently operating. In the coming weeks, the number of operating lines will be further reduced to two. Boone said the duration of the layoff will depend on market conditions.
Mike Woods, president of USW Local 1938, received word of the pending layoffs late Wednesday.
“I don’t think it came as a huge surprise to anyone, but it’s always devastating to get news of layoffs,” he said. “We haven’t been through layoffs at Minntac since the early 1990s.”
Woods explained that the most difficult part of the situation for workers is that no one knows how long or deep the current downturn in the steel industry will be.
“It may get worse before it gets better,” he said. “I personally think things will turn around eventually. But the question is when.”
Boone said U.S. Steel also is scaling back production at its Granite City Works operations in southern Illinois. There at the mill, the company expects to temporarily lay off 300 union-represented employees and 90 salaried management workers, as it ratchets down steel production.
In December, U.S. Steel halted production at Keetac, a taconite operation in Keewatin that employs about 380 people.
Labels: layoffs, Minnesota, U.S. Steel
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