MADE IN HAMILTON
20TH CENTURY
INDUSTRIAL TRAIL

SITE 14
UNION DRAWN STEEL, 1905

This company began manufacturing shafting and other steel products at its original plant pictured here at 181 Victoria Avenue South in 1905. Union Drawn Steel entered the city as a branch of a Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania company. In 1930, it became part of the giant U.S.-based Republic Steel Corporation.

The company's specialty has always been cold-drawn steel bars. In cold drawing, a steel bar is pulled through a die of similar shape but smaller size without pre-heating. This method adds strength, toughness, a smooth, bright finish and greater machinability to the bar. Union Drawn Steel has produced bars for use in car parts, nuts and bolts, agricultural equipment and other applications.

The company's Burlington Street plant was built in 1942 on property bought by the company in 1911. A group of senior managers backed by a Toronto investment firm took ownership of the company in 1985. In 1993, the company was bought by U.S. businessman Michael Pitterich and became Union Drawn Steel II.

Workers in this plant are organized as United Steelworkers of America Local 2308.