Cleveland-Cliffs offered $1,500 vaccine bonus, opportunity to increase to $3,000
Cleveland-Cliffs workers stand to gain a bonus of either $1,500 or $3,000 for having their COVID-19 shots, depending on the mill's total vaccination rate.
Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves said each employee who presented their vaccination card by Aug. 21 will receive $1,500.
If the plant reached a 75% vaccination rate, employees will get $3,000.
In an email to workers, Goncalves called the bonus “the most generous vaccine incentive program in the world.”
A recent article in the Northwest Indiana Times stated about 60% of Cliffs' approximately 25,000 employees have gotten vaccinated.
The article said 19 of the company's 46 workplaces had reached the 75% threshold and qualified for the $3,000 bonus.
“I am a guy who believes the American person in intelligent,” Goncalves said in the article. “I also believe a lot in peer pressure. If we're in an environment where the collective stupidity is not getting vaccinated, even someone that's vaccinated will not confess. But then I put out $1,500. I want those folks to go ahead and show their vaccination card.”
Goncalves said reaching a 70% to 75% vaccination rate would mean a safe working environment for everyone.
“The ones I'm concerned about are the kids at home or the pregnant wives or the person that's going through chemo,” he told the Times.
Jim Panei, president of United Auto Workers local 3303, which represents employees at the Butler works, applauds Goncalves for offering the bonus.
“It's something he believes in,” said Panei, who has registered his vaccination card with Cliffs human resources department. “I think a lot of it has to do with what happened to the company last year.”
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