Evraz workers promote pipelines amid industry uncertainty
Evraz workers fight for their jobs as politicians bicker over tariffs, pipelines
Bill Edwards has been through much of this before.
As he approaches 35 years of continuous service at the steel mill on Regina’s northern edge, he’s seen just about every up and every down that comes around in the steel and oil industries.
He’s not entirely worried about his job at this point (if the worst was to happen he knows he’d be one of the last out the door based on his seniority), but he is concerned about the things he sees going on outside Saskatchewan’s borders and fears what could happen to the jobs of younger employees.
“It’s new territory for a lot of (the young guys) because the rhetoric has got revved up,” Edwards says. “This is a new game being played today.”
Employees at the Evraz steel mill can look in nearly any direction and see some backlash to what they do. Recently it was controversy over the eventually defeated Energy East pipeline. Then it was to the south when debate flared up on the Keystone XL pipeline (for which Evraz had already supplied much of the steel).
The biggest issue lies to the west, where the B.C. government is pushing back against Kinder Morgan’s already approved Trans Mountain pipeline expansion through that province. Evraz was contracted to build 800 kilometres of pipe for that project (75 per cent of the total needed). The company has already said there will be layoffs if the project is somehow shelved.
As that battle rages, employees can also look back to the south, where U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on non U.S. steel. Canada has a reprieve on the tariffs for now, but its exemption could end as soon as May 1 if Trump is not satisfied with the progress of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations between the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
And as all the back and forth between politicians provincially and federally takes place, the ones who will be truly affected will be people like Edwards.
“We’re the mouse; the American industry is the elephant,” he says. “When the elephant rolls over, who gets squished? And I’ve seen the effects of the elephant rolling over.”
Workers at Evraz (formerly Ipsco) want to make sure that mouse — or at least its voice — grows. No longer willing to be pipeline pawns in the political games being played, they have stepped up efforts to make their voices heard.
When Mike Day and Courtland Klein joined the executive of the United Steelworkers Local 5890 in 2012, neither was well-versed in politics. They could have told you the name of their local MPs and MLAs, but that was about it. Six years later, they can talk all day about tariffs and countervailing duties. Day, the local president, even spent time in December appearing before a Canadian International Trade Tribunal hearing on steel dumping.
Early in their tenure as union executives, they realized they could do more to promote the steel industry and pipelines, rather than let Evraz and other companies do the lobbying. Doing that, they understood, was as important to protecting jobs as was getting the right language in collective agreements.
They point to the estimated $600 million Evraz annually adds to the local economy, the 1,000plus workers employed at the mill and the $112 million in annual take-home pay for those employees that finds its way back into the community.
“You’re in a political pinball machine right now and it’s too bad,” says Klein, the local’s recording secretary. “Because at the end of it, it’s our livelihood. It’s our kids’ ballet lessons; it’s our kids’ hockey practice.”
They know the fear is out there, particularly around the Kinder Morgan line.
As B.C. keeps trying to block the twinning of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline and Alberta and Saskatchewan retaliate with laws to block oil going into B.C. and the federal government continually promises the line will go through, it’s Day and Klein who get the worried calls from members who hear rumours of layoffs.
Day tries to reassure workers and is counting on the federal government to keep its word because, “You don’t want people going to work worrying if they ’ll have a job tomorrow. You want them to get the job done and go home safe.”
Still, that fear exists and the union feels it, too. Klein points out that work has started and stopped on some of the product for Trans Mountain, leading to worries about what might — or might not — come next.
“We could be in a real ugly trough over the next two, three years,” he says. “The Enbridge (Line 3) pipe wasn’t overnight. They talked about that two or three years before we made it. What big pipeline is the National Energy Board talking about right now? There is none.”
In this city, should that not be ago, it’s going to affect some people at the lower end of the seniority list. There could be jobloss in Regina. We make the steel for it, so the steel plant is affected. The pipe, if that order should be held up ... it could cost some of the newer employees several months.
“Northern Gateway, they kiboshed. Energy East, they kiboshed. What do we make next?”
It is concerns like that which have led to the union and the company working together more closely on lobbying efforts. Brian Kristofic, director of trade and government affairs for Evraz North America, points to USW’s wide national and international presence, which can help benefit everyone involved at Regina’s plant and elsewhere.
Day throws credit right back, noting how Evraz invested in its Regina plant during the economic downturn.
Kristofic, who has been with the company since 2012, knows it has been a particularly busy time in dealing with political movement. Evraz and the union are repeatedly encouraging the federal government to push Trans Mountain through, and the company was part of negotiations that ended up in more power for border agents and the inclusion of unions in trade disputes in an effort to stop steel dumping in Canada following the U.S. tariffs.
“We’re confident Kinder Morgan will go through,” Kristofic says. “But until there’s pipe in the ground, there is some uncertainty.
“There’s lots we can’t control, especially in the U.S.” he adds. “The main thing to focus on is working safely and making the highestquality product possible.”
For Rod Williams, that is something he has always been proud to do in nearly 30 years at the plant. But he’s getting tired of what he calls “industry shamers,” those who bash new pipelines and oil production at every turn.
He argues, as many have through pipeline debates, that pipelines are the safer, more environmentally friendly option. And, he says, he’s all for conservation and people being less dependent on oil, but right now there’s a demand for it and it should be delivered in the safest way possible.
He went through three layoffs back in the 1990s of only a few months each, but he’s worried — especially if Trans Mountain fails for some reason to go through — that others could be looking at the same in short order.
“In this city, should that not be a go, it’s going to affect some people at the lower end of the seniority list,” Williams says. “There could be job loss in Regina. We make the steel for it, so the steel plant is affected. The pipe, if that order should be held up ... it could cost some of the newer employees several months.”
While there are political divisions that might hold up these projects, within the plant the worry can erase at least some of those between employees. Take, for instance, Williams, who recently lost a nomination to run federally for the Conservatives, and Edwards, a “card-carrying ” member of the federal NDP.
Talk to either of them about pipeline issues and you’ll hear a lot of the same arguments about what needs to be done in the industry and the same worry over what politicians will do to protect their jobs.
But as steelworkers make all the arguments they can to those politicians, they all know their jobs, to some extent, are in those politicians’ hands. They keep faith that things will work out and try to convince as many people as possible that pipelines are important.
“We can have economic development and environmental standards at the same time. It’s not one or the other,” says Klein.
“The food that’s been put on families’ tables in this city alone ...” adds Day.
For Williams, the reason to worry about jobs and the steel industry is simple. He doesn’t have to look past his own career and life at the steel plant.
“I had a career here,” he says. “Gave all three of my kids braces. Had a couple holidays. Helped pay my bills. And gave me a way of life. Without Ipsco/Evraz, I don’t know how it would have turned out.”