Federal Government comes to the aide of US STEEL workers.

Picket Gate at US STEEL

The Federal of Government has come to the aide of US Steel employees who have been out of work and on the picket lines since November 7^th 2010. The 900 workers, who have been living off of $200 a week, have been given a financial boost with the news that they are eligible for Employment Insurance (EI) retroactive from the November 7^th date.  Many US STEEL workers feel that the Steel Company knew that they were ineligible for EI and that was part of their scare tactic in negotiations last year.  Under normal circumstances a worker who is involved in a labour dispute is not eligible for EI, but the union argued the Hamilton situation is different because the workers aren’t on strike; they’ve been locked out by a company that has also broken employment and production promises made to the government. (The federal government is suing the company over those broken promises, seeking penalties that now total about $15 million. The case could go to trial in the spring.) Service Canada, which administers EI payments, decided to approve the Hamilton applications after an extensive review of legislation and fact-finding effort here.

Canada’s employment insurance system pays workers who’ve lost their jobs through no fault of their own up to 55 per cent of their weekly pay to a maximum of $457. That’s substantially less than the $20 to $30 an hour U.S. Steel workers are used to getting. Eligibility is usually based on working a minimum number of insurable hours over the previous 52 weeks.