ArcelorMittal announced Friday that it will suspend operations at its flats mill and finishing plant in Cleveland, Ohio in early May, resulting in about 950 further layoffs, due to the declining worldwide steel demand.
The company says that the layoffs should be temporary, though it has no time line as to when it will call back employees or when steel production at the facility will resume. Out of the more than 1,400 union workers employed at the plant last summer, only an estimated 250 employees will remain on the job during the idle to provide basic fire watch and maintain the water treatment, boiler and environmental systems.
In December, the Cleveland plant issued about 450 layoffs to union workers after idling its two blast furnaces in October.
Mark Granakis, President of the Local 979, told press that he had expected further layoffs this month at the plant, but had not anticipated this severe of a reduction.