Nutrien staff face layoffs despite settlement at CN

Union questions reason for shutdown as company realigns its potash stores

The union representing workers at a potash mine in southeast Saskatchewan is questioning Nutrien Ltd.’s decision to temporarily shutter the facility after the stated reason for the closure — the Canadian National Railway Co. strike — was resolved.

Nutrien, the world’s largest fertilizer producer, said Monday it would temporarily idle its flagship Rocanville mine on Dec. 2, resulting in about 550 workers being handed notices, due to a strike that caused significant disruption to rail traffic.

While the Teamsters Rail Conference Canada said Tuesday it had reached a tentative agreement with the railway giant and that service would resume Wednesday, Nutrien confirmed it is still going ahead with the two-week shutdown.

United Steelworkers staff representative Darrin Kruger called that choice “terribly unfortunate,” and questioned Nutrien’s decision to cite the strike as the reason for the temporary shutdown in the first place.

“Now, just a day later, the strike has been called off and the parties have reached a tentative agreement but they aren’t able to rescind that and carry on with work? It seems rather unfortunate,” Kruger said in an interview.

“It’s only been a matter of a day. With them unable to change their decision, it’s concerning. We don’t think it’s necessary.”

Nutrien spokesman Will Tigley said the company was pleased with the strike ending, but that it was too late to avoid the brief layoffs at the mine, which is approximately 220 kilometres east of Regina. He said the two weeks are needed to get inventories balanced.

The strike has coincided with a period of weakness for the potash industry, which has been buffeted by poor weather in the American Midwest, China’s suspension of potash shipments and other drags on global fertilizer demand.

“Given our reliance on rail to get our product to market, any outage has an almost immediate impact on our business,” Tigley said.

“Despite our best efforts to manage

Now just a day later the strike has been called off and the parties have reached a tentative agreement but they aren’t able to rescind that and carry on with work? It seems rather unfortunate.

through the disruption, the strike created significant backlog in our supply chain and resulted in lost export capacity that cannot be immediately recovered.”

On Monday, Tigley said in an email that the strike affected most of Nutrien’s facilities to varying degrees.

“The end of the strike is great news for farmers and the broader Canadian economy,” he said on Tuesday.

“It is also very good news for Nutrien as it will prevent further production slowdowns and shutdowns across our network.”