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FORT SASKATCHEWAN, AB—Sherritt International will temporarily lay off approximately 280 workers in Canada for roughly 90 days, including 134 members of Unifor Local 530-A at its idle nickel and cobalt refinery in Fort Saskatchewan. The layoffs hit nearly half of the company’s Canadian workforce.
“We told the federal government in May exactly where this was headed, and now it has arrived on the doorstep of workers in Fort Saskatchewan,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “These are good union jobs in a critical minerals refinery that Canada says it needs. Canadian workers should not pay the price for Washington’s sanctions.”
The refinery stopped production on June 22 after it ran out of the ore it receives from Sherritt’s Moa joint venture in Cuba. Sherritt suspended its role in the Cuban operations on May 7, after the United States expanded sanctions on Cuba. On May 20, Unifor wrote to Prime Minister Mark Carney warning that the sanctions threatened jobs at the refinery. The union called for stronger Canadian laws to block the sanctions and for Export Development Canada financing to protect Canadian industry.
“Every week this refinery sits idle, families in Fort Saskatchewan and the businesses that rely on these paycheques feel it,” said Unifor Western Regional Director Gavin McGarrigle. “Ottawa has the tools to protect this plant and these jobs. It needs to use them now, before a temporary layoff becomes something worse.”
Sherritt received a first U.S. emergency licence on Oct. 20 but says more are needed before refining can restart. The company has not set a restart date. Unifor is renewing its call for immediate federal action to protect the refinery, its workers and Canada’s critical minerals supply chain.
