Evraz hands out pink slips to 125 mill workers
Production staff in pipe division slated to lose jobs effective Aug. 7
Evraz North America has confirmed that 125 production workers in Evraz Regina’s pipe division will be laid off, effective Aug. 7.
“Due to the substantial impact of unfairly traded imports and of delays in pipeline approvals, Evraz North America provided layoff notices to 125 employees at the Regina site on July 22,” said a company spokesman in a statement issued Tuesday.
“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.”
In March, Evraz North America applauded a Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) finding that Canadian producers have been injured due to dumped and subsidized imports of line pipe products from China.
Conrad Winkler, president and CEO of Evraz North America, said CITT’s decision allows Canadian pipe manufacturers to compete more effectively in an “exceptionally difficult oil and gas market.”
“Evraz and other steel operations continue to be impacted by the flood of unfairly traded line pipe imports.
“We are eager to compete globally on a level playing field based on actual economics and capabilities, but we cannot compete with government subsidies and dumping practices.”
The layoff notices came as a bit of surprise to Mike Day, president of United Steel Workers (USW) Local 5890.
“Our production crews were in meetings Friday morning and we got phone calls from management saying, ‘We have to move more footage (of pipe) out.’ Then all of the sudden, Friday afternoon, there’s notice of 125 layoffs.”
Day said the company hasn’t explained the reason for the layoffs, but guessed that US$40 a barrel oil and stalled pipeline projects have something to do with it. “Maybe there’s too much (pipe) on the ground.”
Day estimated that production staff levels will fall to about 350 from 500 in the tubular division after the layoffs, not including maintenance staff.
In May, Evraz issued temporary layoff notices for 90 employees at its large-diameter pipe mill in Regina and layoff notices for 49 employees at its Calgary tubular facility.
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.
Evraz North America is the largest North American producer in the rail and large diameter pipe markets.
Evraz also hold leading positions in the Western Canada oil country tubular goods, small diameter pipe and West Coast plate markets.
We look forward to bringing these employees back to work when conditions improve.