‘There’s not a lot of work for us’: Layoffs at Evraz Steel

With the current state of the steel industry, layoffs have been coming for workers at Regina’s Evraz steel plant.

United Steel Workers 5890 Regina president Mike Day said they have about 85 workers in the tubular division right now — down about 500 from where they were at this time last year.

“We’re winding up what’s left here. There’s not a lot of work for us here in Regina,” Day said.

“It’s been a frustrating last few months for the members who have been working on the floor. You tackle that in with COVID and the obstacles we’ve had with that and the lack of work, its been a difficult last few months, that’s for sure.”

He said the layoffs began at the end of September and then stopped for a few months. That changed in December, with cuts coming every few weeks.

“There’s a lot of things to battle here and when you’ve got the leader of the (federal) NDP’s supporting the cancellation of the Keystone pipeline and the NDP’s supposed to be the party of labour and the amount of jobs (that were lost), we’re trying to get our guys working and then you get comments like that,” Day said.

The cancellation of the Keystone XL project doesn’t have a direct effect on workers at Evraz, with Day saying their portion of the project had already been completed.

But it does show the current state of the industry.

“Our line that we were hoping to get, that would have put us through the first few months for TC Energy is using offshore pipe. We could have produced that pipe in Regina and it’s going in,” Day said.

“The federal government should be standing up for Canadian steel and making sure our product is No. 1 in the ground in terms of projects here in Canada. Pipe shouldn’t be brought here when we’ve got people laid off. We’ve got 600 people here collecting (employment insurance) when they’d rather be working.

“(It’s like) ‘oil and gas sector’ is a swear word. ‘Pipelines’ are a swear word. That oil’s still going to get to the United States, that oil’s still getting to the United States without Keystone, it’s just getting shipped by rail. Pipelines are the safest route to get oil to the U.S.”

He said the world is changing when it comes to the types of energy people use but not one single source is going to power the world.

“Everyone seems to think, ‘Let’s kick the oil and gas sector to the curb and hope green energy does everything,’ that the world’s population has grown immensely and everybody’s energy consumption has grown and not one source can fuel that. Canada’s being left on the side here,” Day said.

And he disagrees with Regina’s executive committee’s motion to no longer accept sponsorship money from oil and gas companies or permit them to advertise with the city.

“I don’t think anyone’s platform ran on that. I think a lot of people in the city are voicing their concerns on social media and whatever. To lump the oil and gas sector in with cannabis sales and tobacco sales, it’s unbelievable. They’re sitting in city hall and they don’t want to take sponsorship from oil and gas but I don’t see green energy heating city hall,” Day said.

That motion still has to be approved by council. Day said he plans on talking to Mayor Sandra Masters next week about it.