United Steelworkers union talks extend into October

REGIONAL—United Steelworkers members across northern Minnesota are still working under contract extensions as negotiations with Cleveland-Cliffs and U.S. Steel continue into October. The union’s contracts with both companies expired Sept. 1, but the parties agreed to a 30-day extension. That extension ended Oct. 1, after which talks will continue under rolling 48-hour extensions.
The negotiations affect USW members at steel and mining operations across the country, including workers at Hibbing Taconite, Northshore Mining Co., United Taconite and the currently idled Minorca, all of which are operated by Cleveland-Cliffs, as well as workers at Minntac and Keetac, which are owned by U.S. Steel.
The negotiations come amid uncertainty in the U.S. steel market, which has increased pressure on the bargaining process. Yet, the two companies are grappling with different issues in their negotiations with workers. U.S. Steel, which was recently acquired by Nippon Steel, has promised several investments in mining in the U.S., which union negotiators hope to press to their advantage. Cleveland-Cliffs, on the other hand, is facing financial difficulties.
“We’re bargaining with a company who has lost money almost every single quarter for the last few years, and you know they’re trying to get some of that money back, trying to tighten the ship, so to speak, and make themselves so that they can be sustainable for the future,” said Al King, president of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6115 in Minnesota, who worked at the Minorca facility before it ceased production.
The last bargaining period came as COVID-19 restrictions eased across the country. It was a period when trillions in stimulus were flowing into the economy. King said negotiating was easier back then.
“A lot of these companies made a lot of artificial growth when it came to their stock valuation,” King said. “It was just kind of a crazy period of time, and they were at the very top of that. And during that bargaining period, it was a lot easier to go down there and get wage increases and get things that were much due and necessary for our members.”
The steel industry is also operating under a substantially different trade environment than it was during the last round of negotiations. The federal government increased tariffs on imported steel from 25 percent to 50 percent in June 2025 under Section 232, a trade law that allows the president to restrict imports deemed a threat to national security.
But the tariff changes have not eliminated production uncertainty across Cleveland-Cliffs’ operations. In 2025, the company fully or partially idled six operations, including the Minorca mine and part of Hibbing Taconite. Cliffs said the Minnesota idlings were intended in part to consume excess pellet inventory produced in 2024.
Now, a combination of post-COVID inflation, supply chain issues and widespread economic uncertainty has created a challenging backdrop for steel companies and union negotiators.
“When you have wars going on in the Middle East and in Europe, and you know the tensions in China and all this stuff. It just creates an unstable environment, and that’s something that has never resulted in markets or companies feeling comfortable with making giant decisions, such as, you know, big contracts that have big investment commitments that we want to see to ensure our job security,” King said.
A major round of layoffs and the idling of Minorca have also affected the bargaining unit. Workers from Minorca and Hibbing Taconite are already waiting for clarity about whether and when they will return to work.
While the details of negotiations are generally kept quiet while negotiations are ongoing, the broad priorities for the union are wage increases that keep pace with inflation, health care, retiree benefits, pension protections, and job security.
“Going into this bargaining period, there’s been a lot of things that we have at stake here, being that we’re laid off, and you know here’s an opportunity right now to kind of bargain some securities for our facilities at the big table down in Pittsburgh, so that you know, hopefully, we don’t have to go through that,” King said.
The U.S. Steel negotiations present a different set of circumstances. Nippon Steel has committed to investing $11 billion in U.S. Steel by the end of 2028, and several projects have already been approved. One of those projects is a roughly $1.9 billion direct-reduced iron facility at U.S. Steel’s Big River Steel Works in Arkansas. The facility is expected to use taconite pellets produced at Keetac in Minnesota.
As things stand, either side can decide not to extend the contract. This could lead to strikes, lockouts or other escalation.
“Nobody wants a massive dispute. Nobody wants to go on strike. Nobody wants to lock their members out. You know, no big union wants to heighten it to that extreme,” King said.