Around 70 more employees will be cut in addition to the original 300.
MARQUETTE COUNTY -- Layoffs begin Sunday at Cliffs Marquette County mines and there are more to come.
Around 300 will be losing their job for an indefinite period of time. That announcement of the layoff came in November.
Cliffs spokesperson, Dale Hemmila, says around another 70 union mine employees will be laid off in March, under terms of the WARN Act. It requires 60 days advance notice of a layoff involving 50 or more people.
Production at the Tilden and Empire Mines will also be shut down this summer. The Empire will close for seven weeks; the Tilden will shut down for 26 days. Hemmila says this is also subject to change based on the economic slowdown.
The Tilden this year is scheduled to produce four million tons of iron ore pellets. The Empire will make 2.7 million for a total of just under seven million tons. That's about half of what the mines can produce at full capacity.
Also a side note, the last ore boat out of Marquette's Upper Harbor carrying iron ore pellets left on Saturday, the Herbert C. Jackson.
Ore boats will still be coming into Marquette, off-loading coal. The shipping season the Great Lakes comes to a close on January 15 and should reopen in late March.
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