Port of Churchill layoffs 'came out of nowhere,' says town's mayor

The largest employer in Churchill, Man., has started handing pink slips to workers at the local port.

Mayor MikeSpencesays about50 employees at the Port of Churchillwere handed layoff notices onMonday afternoon, and another 40 or 50 people expecting callsback are learningthat there's no work for them.

"It came out of nowhere," Spencetold CBC News. "The community, the employees are devastated by this all."

Spence said he's contactingthe provincial and federal governments to see if they can intervene.

"We're going to have to work at this and rectify this matter hoping we can reverse this," he said.

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• OmniTrax selling Port of Churchill, Hudson Bay rail line
• Manitoba First Nation seeks government support in bid for rail line, port

Workers say OmniTrax, the Denver-based company thatruns the port,issuedtwo-week layoff notices around 3:30 p.m. CTto a group of employees in the company's lunchroom.

JoeStover, one of the laid-off employees,said it's an "extremely sad day" forChurchill Manitoba's northernmost town, witha population of around 800.

Stover tweeted news of the layoffs after OmniTrax officials sat down with agroup of workers for theemergency meeting. Workers were yelling, crying and screaming at the meeting, he said.

"It's pretty heartbreaking," he said.

"The port is the biggest employer in town, and it's the biggest building in town. It dominates our skyline and is part of our life.I just got back from the Legion and there's still people in there that are crying."

A spokesperson with the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which represents Port of Churchill workers, confirmed the layoffs but said union officials would not be available to comment until Tuesday.

OmniTraxspokesman RonMargulisrefused to confirm or comment on the layoffs in Churchill.

Reached in Georgia,Margulissaid the company would be releasing more information sometime Tuesday.

'I don't even have a Plan B'

Stover said he has work for another three weeks at another job, but he doesn't know what he will do when that work dries up.

"I don't even have a Plan B,so I have to try and figure something out, I guess," he said.

Stover said the news has shocked the community.

"We definitely weren't expecting bad news," he said."We had anticipated that it might be a slower than usual season, but to have the whole thing called was pretty heartbreaking."

Elden Boon,president of the Hudson Bay Route Association an advocacy group for the Port of Churchill said news of the layoffs blindsided him, too.

He said his organization met with OmniTrax three weeks ago over concerns it had following a slow year, but company officials gave him no indication of possible layoffs.

Boon said officials have told him there would be no more grain shipments going through the port this year.

"This is the first time that it's ever shut down,other than the Second World War," he said.

OmniTrax has operated the Port of Churchill and the Hudson Bayrail line since 1997, but a slump in grain shipments has put a strain on the operation.

Spence said OmniTrax has been trying to sell the Port of Churchill and therail line for some time.

"OmniTrax has indicated that they have made it clear they no longer want to operate the port, and we'll take it at that and let's hope there's a new future for the port," he said.

"By finding the right ownership and a new ownership towards operating a port effectively with Canadian ownership, I think we can make things happen. That's the goal."