The Stel Salaried Pensioners Organization wishes to thank The Hamilton Spectator for permission to post the following article by Naomi Powell, published in the November 1, 2007 edition
It's the end of an era as Stelco name
disappears
The Hamilton Spectator
(Nov 1, 2007)
Goodbye, Stelco. Hello, U.S. Steel Canada.
On its first day as Stelco's new owner, U.S.
Steel replaced the corporate name that's been inextricably linked with Hamilton
for decades.
By yesterday afternoon, Stelco's website and
the glass front door of its Hamilton head office were already emblazoned with
its new handle: U.S. Steel Canada.
The switch came as Pittsburgh-based U.S.
Steel closed its $1.1-billion purchase of Stelco and swiftly installed a new
Hamilton management team, led by industry veteran Douglas R. Matthews.
"United States Steel Canada, United
States Steel Serbia, United States Steel Slovakia (that's) the way we name
subsidiary companies within United States Steel," Matthews said in an
interview. "Of course we wanted to respect the history and heritage of
Stelco, the Steel Company of Canada. We thought it would be nice to merge the
two names."
For Terrie DeMelo, who watched a worker
scrape the Stelco logo off the glass door of its headquarters yesterday, the
change is bittersweet.
"How can you talk about Hamilton and
not mention Stelco?" asked the Hamilton native and former employee of the
steelmaker.
"In the long run (the sale) is probably
a good thing for the company. But the thing about it being a Canadian company
just feels like it's gone."
The Steel Company of Canada was formed on
June 8, 1910, through the incorporation of five individual screw, steel, bolt
and wire manufacturers. It officially changed its name to Stelco in 1980,
partly to satisfy new French-language requirements. The name Stelco, it was
found, worked well in both French and English.
The Stelco moniker soon became synonymous
with Canadian steelmaking.
By the time industrial giant U.S. Steel came
calling this year however, Stelco and its workforce had been dragged through
years of financial problems and a difficult restructuring. Against that
background, some workers found it hard to shed a tear for the retired name.
"I don't care," said Tony Liota,
an industrial mechanic in Stelco's cold mill. "I'm probably better off
with these guys as a worker than I was with Stelco because of the size of the
organization. I'm now part of a worldwide company versus one little company
that was trying to make a go of it."
Matthews said most remaining Stelco signage
will be replaced with the U.S. Steel Canada logo.
npowell@thespec.com
905-526-4620