Once again, layoffs at iron ore mines on Minnesota’s Iron Range are prompting state lawmakers to consider longer unemployment benefits to ride out temporary closures.
And once again, those benefits are being held out as political leverage.
The replay this time comes as about 600 workers were laid off at Cleveland-Cliffs last month. The company temporarily ceased operations at two of its Minnesota mines.
That has led to a pair of proposals in the Minnesota Legislature to extend unemployment insurance benefits for those workers until around Christmas if they’re still idled. The plans would lengthen the normal limit on unemployment benefits for another half a year, or 26 weeks.
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Preliminary estimates say the unemployment extension would cost between $10 million to $12 million.
“If we do not get this extension and provide hope to our members, they will not be able to stay, as a lot of them are young, with children,” said Al King, who is with the United Steelworkers Local 6115. He testified Wednesday before the House Workforce, Labor and Economic Development Committee.
Both plans offer the broader benefits window. But one also seeks changes to environmental regulations that the mine owners say they need to stay afloat for the long-term.
“When you have a mining job and your life is supported by that you can’t just wait around and hope that when you hear the words temporary, indefinite from the company that that’s going to be just a short term layoff,” King told lawmakers.
The two-part proposal, sponsored by Republicans, went down on a deadlocked vote in the House committee. Democrats objected to the unemployment benefits being linked to environmental regulation changes for mining facilities.
Rep. Spencer Igo, R-Wabana Township, speaks to members of the press at the Minnesota Capitol on Wednesday.
Clay Masters | MPR News
Rep. Spencer Igo, R-Wabana Township, represents a portion of the Iron Range.
“It doesn’t actually cut regulations,” Igo told the reporters in a press conference following the committee hearing. “It actually, in some ways, puts good, safe standards into effect so miners and companies know what they have to do.”
One change relates to the state’s sulfate standard, designed to protect wild rice. State regulators have recently begun to enforce the rules on sulfate pollution. Mining companies have long argued it’s too costly to meet the state’s strict limits.
This week, the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld sulfate limits imposed by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency on a taconite mine owned by U.S. Steel. The company asked for a more-lenient standard.
Rep. Natalie Zeleznikar, R-Fredenberg Township, said without the regulatory change, there is a greater chance that the mines might be closed for longer or for good. She said the Legislature needs to send a message that the state is invested in the industry for the long-term.
“Hope, it comes from having a job. Unemployment is temporary. They’re not going to have permanent unemployment for a lifetime. They know it. I know it. We all know it,” she said. “We need to give hope. And so I commend you for having a solution, because the solution is to make mining happen.”
The version dealing only with jobless benefits is still pending and due for a hearing on Thursday.
Rep. Pete Johnson, DFL-Duluth, said it’s “bad process” to attach the two issues in a single bill because it leverages the livelihoods of workers.
Johnson said the linkage “has the potential to damage both the goals that both of the goals that it claims to achieve, that protecting workers and moving permit reform forward,” he said. “They need to stand on their own and find their own paths. And based on many of the conversations I’ve had it sounds like that’s happening, although it may be slower than some folks like.”
Johnson’s bill, without the regulation changes, is on the committee docket on Thursday, when a Democrat presides over the committee due to a political power-sharing agreement in the tied chamber.
Gov. Mark Dayton provides remarks during Sen. Tom Bakk’s annual fundraiser for Iron Range food shelves.
Tim Pugmire | MPR News 2015
It’s not the first time Iron Range mining layoffs have caused a standoff over unemployment benefits.
In 2015, then-Gov. Mark Dayton pushed unsuccessfully for a deal for an unemployment extension during a mining industry downturn. He wanted lawmakers to agree to something to approve in a special session. It never got called.
It took until the following March to get to common ground and only after the benefits got lumped in with a business tax cut.
Another unemployment extension for laid-off Cleveland Cliffs workers was approved in 2023.
MPR News correspondent Dan Kraker contributed to this story from Duluth.
