There’s new hope on the horizon for Evraz employees. Both the company and its union are optimistic preliminary layoff notices won’t come to pass.
Evraz issued “precautionary” layoff notices to 400 of its 510 employees earlier this month because of challenges in rail transport. There’s been a shortage of rail cars arriving in Regina, which has created a backlog at the plant.
Evraz said it needed to move that backlog of existing product before creating new supply.
But now, Sonny Rioux, staff representative for the United Steelworkers Local 5890, says rail activity has picked up which could resolve the problem and allow employees to keep earning a paycheque.
“Depending on cars showing up in a timely manner, hopefully the issue has been resolved,” said Rioux.
The layoff notice was supposed to take effect as of January 20th, but now Evraz has extended it by one week.