MONTREAL – The United Steelworkers union (USW) is publicly asking how many more jobs must be lost, or steel plants closed, before the federal government takes stronger action to crack down on unfair trade that is harming Canada’s steel industry.
The USW has learned that the Nova Tube steel pipe mill in Montreal plans to indefinitely lay off close to 40 workers as of Nov. 13, due to the federal government’s failure to prevent the dumping of foreign steel into the Canadian market. About 100 Nova Tube workers are represented by Syndicat des Métallos/USW Local 2423.
“We expect a more aggressive approach from the government to stop steel dumping. It’s nice to get favourable rulings from the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) against dumping, but those rulings must be enforced,” said Nicolas Lapierre, the Steelworkers union’s Quebec director.
The USW is urging the Canadian government to take stronger, more effective action to prevent steel dumping from countries engaging in unfair trade practices. The union also is reiterating its long-standing calls for a genuine industrial policy for the steel sector and for requirements for use of Canadian and Quebec steel in all projects funded by the federal and provincial governments.
The Steelworkers agree with the President and CEO of Nova Steel, Nova Tube’s parent company, who also cited the urgency of greater protection for the domestic steel sector, while announcing the layoffs planned for next week.
The Steelworkers union played a key role in a ruling earlier this year by the CITT to crack down on foreign dumping of unfairly traded steel that was harming the domestic market, including Nova Tube and its workers.
Despite the tribunal’s ruling and the imposition of anti-dumping duties, unfairly traded foreign steel continues to be dumped into the Canadian market, the USW says.
“It’s workers and their families who will bear the brunt of this situation, just before the holiday season,” Alain Duhamel, USW Local 2423 president, said of the pending layoffs.
“It’s deeply unfair that the government is failing to enforce the Tribunal’s rulings intended to counter steel dumping. We believed in the process, we went to Ottawa to testify about the effects of this dumping, but we feel the government is letting us down,” Duhamel said.
The USW/Syndicat des Métallos, affiliated with the Quebec Federation of Labour, is the largest private-sector union in Quebec, representing more than 60,000 workers across all economic sectors.
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