Steelworkers Reap Benefits of Company Profits

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. acquired ArcelorMittal in 2020. (photo courtesy of Kale Wilk/The Times of Northwest Indiana)

In what may be a signal of recovery in the northwest Indiana steel industry, steelworkers have recently received bonus checks. Our partners at The Times of Northwest Indiana report steelworkers from Ohio-based Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE: CLF) just received profit-sharing bonuses of about $3,500.

United Steelworkers Local 6787 President Pete Trinidad said the steelmaker was paying $5.74 per hour in profit-sharing bonuses for the second quarter. Cleveland-Cliffs acquired the steel mill from Arcelor-Mittal last December.

“It broke all the post-Bethlehem Steel records by a couple of hundred bucks,” said Trinidad. “Workers love it. They’re ecstatic. They’re happy. It’s working out well.”

The publication says workers often had missed out on quarterly profit-sharing checks when ArcelorMittal ran the mill, even when the global company posted a profit for the quarter. Cleveland-Cliffs just post a record second-quarter profit of $795 million on revenue of $5 billion, another record.

“We are about profit-sharing,” said Cleveland-Cliffs President and Chief Executive Officer Lourenco Goncalves. “We have increased profits, so we are increasing sharing.”

The publication also reports steelworkers from U.S. Steel just received profit-sharing bonuses of more than $9,400.