Minnesota Iron Miner lost her work, but not her trust in Trump's tariffs

By the middle of March, everything brought a standstill, Jon Bird worked 12-hour-shifting stone, cough and worked huge iron ore crusher in a mine in North Minnesota four days a week.

The mines in the iron area of ​​the state, in which Mr. Bird born and grew up-and where his father, grandfather and great-grandfather worked in the box in front of him on a domestic care funnel. The ore, extracted and crushed, is further processed, sent, melted in a blast furnace, converted into steel and then brought to assembly lines where it is shaped in devices and automobiles.

The demand for cars and other articles filled with metal, which dropped in 2024, a tough year for the industry. The steel manufacturer Cleveland-Cliffs, to which the mine belongs, in which Mr. Bird Works works, reported a loss of $ 483 million in the first three months of 2025, which meant that jobs were up to date, including his.

When Mr. Bird, 33, found out that he was released, he did not hear it from “cliffs”. he said. Rather, he learned it in a breaking news segment on the local television station WDIO, while he was with his children on one of his days off with his children. Around 1,200 employees of Cleveland-Cliffs were affected, 600 in Minnesota.

“It is a damn good way to find out that you lose your job,” he said. “It feels like a slap in the face, honestly from corporate America.”

One thing that currently combines Cleveland-Cliffs and Mr. Bird, member of the United Steelworkers Union, is the support for President Trump's customs duties: a 25 percent tax on steel and aluminum imports and a 25 percent tariff for all imported cars.