{"id":167825,"date":"2025-12-04T14:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T14:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/167825\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T14:39:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T14:39:08","slug":"video-algoma-steel-has-lost-1300-jobs-since-donald-trump-took-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/167825\/","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO: Algoma Steel has lost 1,300 jobs since Donald Trump took office"},"content":{"rendered":"

To be clear, Algoma Steel started prepping for a wave of layoffs<\/a> long before Donald Trump unleashed his punishing tariffs. The trade war just kicked the plan into warp speed \u2014\u00a0and wiped out a few hundred more jobs than initially anticipated.<\/p>\n

That context is important, especially as politicians continue to trade jabs<\/a> (and more jabs<\/a>) over who deserves blame for this week\u2019s devastating news.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Who knew the plant was on the verge of slashing its workforce? Everybody did<\/a>. Algoma Steel made no secret<\/a> of the fact that its $900-million transition from blast furnace to electric arc production would gradually eliminate close to 1,000 jobs.<\/p>\n

Then along came President Trump and his 50 per cent tariffs \u2014 and gradually became immediately<\/a>. (And 1,000 expected job losses became 1,300.)<\/p>\n

Simply put, Algoma Steel insists it had no other choice but to accelerate its move to electric arc furnaces (EAF). That means shutting down the blast furnace and coke-making operations in early 2026, \u201cone year earlier than we had anticipated or planned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ironically enough, Trump\u2019s tariffs may prove to be the most resounding validation of Algoma\u2019s embrace of green steelmaking. Had the company not committed to that massive change back in 2021, every last person at the plant might have received pink slips this week.<\/p>\n

To use the words<\/a> of CEO Michael Garcia: \u201cMake no mistake, Algoma Steel would have experienced an even darker day \u2013 months ago, most likely its last.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twice over the past year, Garcia sat down for an in-depth interview\u00a0with Village Media\u2019s podcast (now called Closer Look<\/a>). You can find those conversations HERE<\/a> and HERE<\/a>, as well as select\u00a0snippets in the video clip above.<\/p>\n

Get Closer Look in your inbox<\/a><\/p>\n

In the first interview<\/a>, recorded in early March, Trump had just introduced a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian steel imports. Garcia talked about how the company was navigating the change, but also about the ongoing shift to electric arc production \u2014 and the job losses that would inevitably follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one of the most sobering parts of this transformation,\u201d Garcia told the podcast. \u201cAn electric arc furnace requires much less staffing than a blast furnace and a coke oven\u2026It’s going to be a big change in the employment of our company. We’ve tried to be open with our employees from the very beginning, helping them understand what this means, what the journey looks like, some idea of the timeframe that these moves will be made in.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he said those words, Algoma Steel employed around 2,750 people. Garcia said that number would be trimmed by a \u201clittle more than 1,000\u201d over the next few years as the furnaces came online, lowering the total workforce to approximately 1,700.<\/p>\n

But by July, when Garcia spoke to the podcast again<\/a>, the landscape had drastically changed. Trump had introduced a 50 per cent tariff the previous month, a move that essentially blocked Algoma from accessing more than half of its traditional customer base.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat has been very challenging for us,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cWe’ve had to lay off around 200 of our employees, around 10 per cent of our professional and technical staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if the company might not survive, Garcia was honest. He said it all depends on how long Trump\u2019s tariff stays in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it’s a 50 per cent tariff, I don’t know,\u201d he told the podcast. \u201cWe’re going to try our best to continue to be here. It would take some extreme measures, but we won’t know exactly what that will take until we know the tariff.\u201d<\/p>\n

As we now know, that 50 per cent tariff is still on the books.<\/p>\n

All told, layoff notices were issued to 1,050 employees<\/a> on Monday. Add the approximately 200 layoffs<\/a>\u00a0Garcia told us about in July \u2014 as well as a handful of others<\/a> who were trimmed before the end of October \u2014 and Algoma Steel is losing close to 1,300 positions.<\/p>\n

What Garcia told our podcast in July still applies today, five months later.<\/p>\n

“Everybody’s nervous, everybody is uncertain about what the future is going to bring,” he said. “But we’re focusing on what we can control, and I think that’s the number one thing we’re trying to do: focus on what we can control.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To be clear, Algoma Steel started prepping for a wave of layoffs long before Donald Trump unleashed his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,109208,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-167825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-layoffsalgoma-steelmichael-garciacloser-look","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}