National Steel Car Strike Enters Second Week Over Pay Structure

CANADA: Roughly 1,200 workers at National Steel Car have been on legal strike since Aug. 12 amid disputes over wages, production incentives and workplace safety.

United Steelworkers Local 7135 says the dispute centers partly on an employee incentive program under which workers receive an additional 25% of their base wage after meeting a specified production threshold, according to CHCH News. The union argues that the structure pressures employees to compromise personal safety to reach the threshold. Members rejected the company’s latest offer on Aug. 11, with 91% turnout and roughly 80% voting against.

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A documented safety record at the plant

Three workers died at National Steel Car’s Kenilworth Avenue plant during a 21-month period between September 2020 and June 2022. Separate court proceedings have since documented additional enforcement cases. The company was fined $240,000 after a welded bulkhead panel fell on a worker in June 2022 and $50,000 for a separate critical injury three days earlier involving scrap metal moved with a crane magnet. In 2025, National Steel Car received a further $90,000 fine after an October 2022 incident in which a hydraulic clamp retracted into an unguarded pinch point. These cases are separate from the incentive-program concern being raised in the current labor dispute.

What to watch

Watch for whether National Steel Car resumes contract talks. The union says its bargaining team remains available and that an Ontario Ministry of Labour mediator has been assigned, although active mediation had not begun as of Aug. 18. Another key issue is whether changes to the production-incentive program become part of any settlement alongside the wage increases under discussion.

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