Unifor oilsands workers meet with Labour Minister

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Members of Unifor Local 707A (Suncor) met with Alberta Labour Minister Christina Gray  and Energy Minister Margret McCuag Boyd on July 7 to discuss challenges and opportunities for the province’s oil and gas sector.

In 2015 it was revealed that Suncor was attempting to shed good jobs at their Oilsands operations by purchasing automated heavy-duty trucks.

According to Fort McMurray Today, Suncor management boasted about plans to eliminate 800 full-time jobs at a conference in New York.

Unifor members outlined the dangers associated with automation and emphasized the unspoken job creation mandate associated with the government subsidies given to the sector.

The 707A delegation also raised the options for more refining of raw bitumen within Alberta. The ministers were provided with a paper published in 2014 by Unifor and the Alberta Federation of Labour about the viability increasing Alberta’s refinery capacity.

“An automated truck won’t buy a meal at a local restaurant or volunteer with a local hockey team in Fort McMurray,” AFL President Gil McGowan told Fort McMurray Today.