Cigar Lake uranium workers back union, rep argues

Canada’s largest mining union says it’s confident the roughly 250 nonmanagement workers at Cameco Corp.’s flagship uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan will agree to unionize before the end of the year.

United Steelworkers (USW) negotiated access to the Saskatoonbased company’s Cigar Lake mine after being approached by employees, and began giving presentations two weeks ago, said USW International staff representative Mike Pulak.

The union drive comes nine months after Cameco announced it would lay off around 40 people and implement a new two-weeksin, two-weeks-out work schedule at the remote mine as part of a broader effort to save money in a weak market.

“When times are tough, at a non-union site, the employer can change anything they want. At a union site, they have to sit down with the union and negotiate something,” Pulak said of the changes announced in January.

“At Cigar (Lake), they’re just changing stuff and employees have no say. I think that’s the big push right now, that they wish they would have unionized earlier. It would have made things a lot easier for them.”

It may be easier to unionize Cigar Lake than other workplaces due to recent amendments to the Canada Labour Code, which governs federally regulated industries, including Saskatchewan’s uranium mines and mills.

The changes, which came into effect in June, allow in some cases for a workplace to certify based on the submission of “membership evidence” — meaning 50 per cent plus one must sign union cards — without holding a representation vote.

Cameco spokesman Gord Struthers said in an email Tuesday that the company prefers not to comment publicly on labour relations at its operations.

Pulak said the union considers the company receptive and easy to work with.

Cigar Lake, about 800 kilometres north of Saskatoon, began producing yellowcake in 2014.

It is the company’s only operational site in Saskatchewan that is not unionized.

USW Local 8914 represents workers at the McArthur Rive mine and Key Lake mill.

Cameco has spent almost two years aggressively cutting costs in the face of a global uranium market that hasn’t recovered from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which sent prices spiralling downward.

The company shuttered its aging Rabbit Lake mine in April 2016 and began trimming its corporate workforce. In January, it announced 120 layoffs across its three remaining sites and the schedule changes, which it expected to introduce at Cigar Lake in July.

Saskatchewan Federation of Labour president Larry Hubich said it is not uncommon for workers to organize in the face of cuts, and that a good relationship between a union and an employer can ultimately make the entire organization healthier and more productive.

At Cigar (Lake), they’re just changing stuff and employees have no say. I think ... they wish they would have unionized earlier.