Evraz says it’s laying off 125 workers at its tubular division in Regina over delays in pipeline approvals and the impact of “unfairly traded imports.”
A company spokesman said in an emailed statement late Monday that employees got the layoff notices on Friday.
The spokesman says the company will bring back the employees when conditions improve.
In May, Evraz laid off about 90 people at its Regina operation, and 260 at its Calgary location.
Evraz makes steel plate and coil, small and large diameter pipe, and oil and gas well tubing for the energy sector at its Regina plants.
Mike Day, who represents 125 members with United Steelworkers of America Local 5890, says workers are confused because a supervisor told them at a meeting on Friday “to get more pipe out the door.”
Day said the cuts came as a shock.
“Bit of a surprise, we’d fought off things for a while but now we’re taking a hit,” Day said.
“Steel side is down roughly about 25 people.”
The group representing the steelworkers said there’s no timeline on when workers could be back to work. He said given the competition from foreign piping companies, the fight for steel production has just begun.
“It’s a long fight, it’s a big fight. Evraz itself is fighting with tariffs and what not, mostly Chinese offshore piping is getting it right now,” Day said.
“Due to the substantial impact of unfairly traded imports and of delays in pipeline approvals on our tubular business, Evraz North America provided layoff notices to 125 employees at the Regina site on July 22nd,” the Evraz spokesman said in the email.
“We look forward to bringing these employees back to work when conditions improve. We will work diligently with our partners to fight the unfairly traded imports that are affecting our business and the livelihoods of our employees.”
With files from Christa Dao.
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