70 workers at CN's Autoport in Eastern Passage to be laid off, says union
The laid-off employees work in rail and operations departments
Seventy workers at the Autoport facility in Eastern Passage, N.S., are expected to be laid off next week, says Unifor, the union representing the workers.
The Autoport is a vehicle processing and transshipment facility operated by CN Rail. Nearly 185,000 vehicles per year make their way through the Autoport, says the Port of Halifax's website.
The cross-country CN workers strike is causing a slowdown at the Autoport because trains can't reach the facility. Numerous shipments of goods and commodities have been disrupted by the strike.
The 70 employees work in rail and operations, and will lose their jobs on Thursday, Nov. 28.
Earlier this week, all 250 Unifor members at the Autoport received layoff notices, the union said in an email to CBC News. After meeting with Unifor this week, CN rescinded the earlier layoff notices and reissued layoffs to 70 workers.
The workers who keep their jobs will load and offload cars arriving by ship.
The layoffs are subject to change pending the resolution of the CN workers strike, said Unifor.
CN declined comment about the Autoport layoffs and instead referred CBC to a news release from Tuesday that made no mention of the layoffs, but later on Saturday offered a one-line statement.
"We are disappointed that the TCRC (teamsters) has initiated strike action. This has been affecting all of our operations, including at Autoport," the statement said.
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