Laid-off workers say Pacer Promec isn't hiring them back

Unionized Canadian workers at the Kearl oilsands mine who lost their jobs to temporary foreign workers from Croatia say the contractor has reneged on a promise to rehire them.

Last week, Pacer Promec announced it would rehire about 60 workers who are members of the Ironworkers Union.

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On Monday, the company said that it has rehired Canadian workers but not the ones who were laid off.

Vic Nilson, one of the unionized workers who was laid off, says the company betrayed them.

They said that we were all going to be reinstated and given our jobs back up there, with that company. And I've heard nothing, he said.

We got kicked to the curb here and I don't think it's right. Not at all.

The union says that the Croatian workers are still on site.

Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, called the move by Pacer Promec damage control.

"So those Canadians who lost their jobs are still out of work, he said. And I think Canadians should still be outraged by the way that the company has used a program to get rid of a bunch of highly skilled Canadian tradespeople."

A spokesman for federal employment minister Jason Kenney says the matter is still under investigation.

Pacer Promec believes it will be cleared of any wrongdoing.