Laid off from Cleveland-Cliffs.

What Cleveland-Cliffs layoffs have meant for employees

If your Cleveland-Cliffs plant was idled rather than closed, the difference reaches past the word. A permanent plant or mine closure can speed up Cliffs' pension and retiree benefit costs, and certain closures may trigger severance obligations, the company warns in its 2025 annual report. In plain terms, a closure can change what laid-off people are eligible for, which is why the status of a site matters as much as the date of the last shift. Steelton, Conshohocken and Riverdale crossed that line in 2025, when Cliffs decided to close them for good, and at Steelton the change arrived by company letter in October, months after the mill had gone idle. At Minorca and Hibbing Taconite the idle was still called indefinite as 2025 ended, so people laid off there were waiting on a restart rather than living with a closure. If you're not sure which status your site carries, you can ask the plant's human resources office or the union for it in writing.

The money tied to these closings shows up in the company's filings as totals, and it's large. Cliffs booked employee-related costs for the Steelton rail mill and the Weirton tin mill in both 2024 and 2025, and the same filing says idling and then closing Conshohocken, Riverdale and Steelton led it to record about $300 million in employee-related costs, asset impairments and exit costs combined. Those totals cover everyone at once, so they can't tell any one person what they'll receive. If you worked at Steelton, you can ask the union local or human resources for the text of the June 2025 rights-and-benefits agreement that the company's letter described, as ABC27 reported. If you're offered a move to another Cliffs plant after an idle, you can also ask whether turning it down would affect any severance, since the company's Weirton announcement put relocation and severance side by side.

On the Iron Range, a layoff called temporary ran long enough to change people's plans. About 600 miners were still out of work in December 2025, the Mesabi Tribune reported, and union leaders said some had already taken jobs at U.S. Steel's Minntac and Keetac mines, while the extended unemployment benefits for those still waiting would end in May. For the rest, every month on layoff became a choice between holding a place for a restart and taking steady work somewhere else. If you're on an indefinite layoff from a Cliffs mine and weighing another job, it's worth asking in writing what the move would do to any recall rights and benefits tied to your layoff.

The plants Cliffs let go match the products its leaders said they wanted out of. In May 2025, chief executive Lourenco Goncalves said the company was moving away from rail, high-carbon sheet and specialty plate to concentrate on steel for automakers, and the first-quarter results release carrying his words also dropped a planned transformer plant at Weirton, where the tin mill had sat idle since 2024. Steelton made rail and Conshohocken finished plate, and before the year was out the company had decided to close both for good. If you came from one of those lines and you're looking at openings at other Cliffs plants, it's worth knowing that the company has described its future around automotive steel.

Cliffs' 2025 idlings reached Pennsylvania, Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan, and our state pages for Pennsylvania, Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan cover how unemployment benefits work in each. Our WARN filings tracker lists Cliffs' filings, which can help you find the one for the site you worked at. Pennsylvania records the date people were laid off rather than the date a notice went out, so the state's June 30, 2025 entries for Cliffs mark when the Steelton and Conshohocken layoffs began.

A sourced history of Cleveland-Cliffs layoffs

• January 2026, Hibbing Taconite cuts 45 more positions

  Management told workers, Northern News Now reported, that the February 1 cuts came from operational needs and extending the mine's life. The local's president said they took 37 hourly and eight salaried jobs, and union leader Al King called them devastating.

• October 2025, Cliffs sets Steelton's permanent closure date

  Cliffs called the Steelton mill no longer economically viable after weak demand and pricing, and a letter ABC27 reported on set January 13, 2026 for its permanent closure.

• August 2025, Conshohocken given a November 4 closure date

  Cliffs told Steelworkers leaders, ABC27 reported, that the Conshohocken plant, which had employed more than 100 people, would go from indefinite idle to closed on November 4. Steelton's local president said the same date applied to Riverdale and Weirton.

• May 2025, Steelton, Conshohocken and Riverdale mills idled

  Cliffs announced full idles of the Steelton rail mill, the Conshohocken plate finishing plant and the Riverdale strip mill in its May 2025 results release, citing imports, losses and costs. State WARN records put the start of layoffs at all three on June 30.

• March 2025, Dearborn Works steelmaking idled

  Cliffs confirmed that 600 Dearborn layoffs would begin July 15 as it halted the blast furnace, steel shop and caster, blaming weak US auto production in remarks The Detroit News reported. Its finishing lines kept 550 employees.

• March 2025, Minorca and Hibbing Taconite mines idled

  WARN letters that Northern News Now reported on covered about 597 workers at the two Minnesota mines, laid off starting May 20. The company called the layoffs temporary, possibly longer than six months, and tied them to iron ore stockpiled in 2024.

• February 2024, Weirton tinplate plant idled

  Blaming a trade commission vote against duties on imported tinplate, Cliffs said in its February 2024 release that it would idle the Weirton plant in April and issue WARN notices to about 900 employees.

What to do if you're laid off from Cleveland-Cliffs

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Cleveland-Cliffs's biggest hubs: Pennsylvania, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Cleveland-Cliffs's hub states run: Pennsylvania, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.