Cleveland-Cliffs Reaches New Four-Year Labor Agreements with United Steelworkers

CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) today announced that it has reached new four-year labor agreements with the United Steelworkers (USW) across its operating footprint. The agreements cover approximately 12,000 USW-represented employees across the Company’s steel plants and mining operations in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Michigan. The agreements resolve all USW labor contracts currently up for renewal.

Lourenco Goncalves, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cleveland-Cliffs, said: “Our USW-represented employees do work that is essential to Cleveland-Cliffs and to our country. These agreements recognize their contributions and give us the stability we need to invest, compete and continue strengthening American steelmaking. We greatly value our partnership with the USW and its leadership, whose constructive approach allowed us to reach agreements that benefit our employees and Cliffs.”

The new four-year agreements are subject to ratification by USW local union memberships.

About Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.

Cleveland-Cliffs is a leading North America-based steel producer with focus on value-added sheet products, particularly for the automotive industry. The Company is vertically integrated from the mining of iron ore, production of pellets and direct reduced iron, and processing of ferrous scrap through primary steelmaking and downstream finishing, stamping, tooling, and tubing. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland-Cliffs employs approximately 25,000 people across its operations in the United States and Canada.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. As a general matter, forward-looking statements relate to anticipated trends and expectations rather than historical matters. Forward-looking statements are subject to uncertainties and factors relating to our operations and business environment that are difficult to predict and may be beyond our control. Such uncertainties and factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These statements speak only as of the date of this release, and we undertake no ongoing obligation, other than that imposed by law, to update these statements. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Uncertainties and risk factors that could affect our future performance and cause results to differ from the forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to: the ratification of the new four-year agreements by USW local union memberships; our ability to recognize the benefits of these agreements; continued volatility of steel, scrap metal and iron ore market prices, which directly and indirectly impact the prices of the products that we sell to our customers; uncertainties associated with the highly competitive and cyclical steel industry and our reliance on the demand for steel from the automotive industry; potential weaknesses and uncertainties in global economic conditions, excess global steelmaking capacity and production, prevalence of steel imports and reduced market demand; risks related to U.S. and Canadian government actions and other countries' reactions with respect to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (as amended by the Trade Act of 1974), the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and/or other trade agreements, tariffs, treaties or policies, as well as the uncertainty of obtaining and maintaining effective antidumping and countervailing duty orders to counteract the harmful effects of unfairly traded imports; challenges to successfully implementing our business strategy to achieve operating results in line with our guidance; and the risk factors included in Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, and other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.