GRANITE CITY, Ill. (AP) — Residents and business owners in a small Illinois town outside St. Louis are celebrating after U.S. Steel Corp. announced it’s reinstating 500 jobs for the reopening of a steel processing facility.
The Chicago Tribune reports that U.S. Steel announced Wednesday it will restart a blast furnace next month in Granite City. The town was hit hard in 2015 when the company said it would idle its Granite City plant and cut 2,000 jobs.
Residents say that the number of jobs returning may seem small but the move is a positive step forward. Mayor Ed Hagnauer calls the jobs a “morale builder.”
The announcement came just a day before President Donald Trump’s action to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum from all foreign countries with the exception of Mexico and Canada.
