Contractor Killed Operating Pot Hauler at Burns Harbor

A 28-year-old Merrillville man, Jonathan L. Stepp, who had six children, died on the night of August 13 while operating a pot hauler at Cleveland-Cliffs' Burns Harbor Works in Porter County. Stepp worked for Phoenix Services, the slag-handling contractor Cleveland-Cliffs uses at the plant, which SunCoke Energy acquired for $325 million in 2025. Cleveland-Cliffs called the death an isolated incident, and Indiana OSHA has opened an investigation that can take up to six months to complete. Two unions, IUOE Local 150 and USW Local 9231, disclosed the death publicly; Stepp was a second-generation Operating Engineer whose father died on the job in 2022. SunCoke's own 2025 safety scorecard ties 10 percent of executive incentive pay to a Total Recordable Incident Rate of 0.55, a number that explicitly excludes Phoenix Global's workforce, the same workforce Stepp belonged to. The timing also removes any leverage from the numbers: USW's master contract talks with Cleveland-Cliffs are suspended until October 28 with capital spending and maintenance commitments still unresolved, and the Indiana OSHA findings likely will not land until after that contract is settled. Stepp is the fifth worker killed in roughly a year across major U.S. Steel and Cleveland-Cliffs operations.