Sudbury's First Nickel workers expect another round of layoffs

Employees at First Nickel's Lockerby Mine in Sudbury are bracing for more cuts.

Twenty-six workers were laid off two weeks ago, and another round of cuts is expected next month.

The president of the union representing the miners, Mine Mill Local 598/Unifor, said the layoffs have to do with the dropping price of nickel.

"We're all crossing our fingers that the price of nickel goes up. Then they would reopen that mine," Anne-Marie MacInnis said.

"It would be almost like a turnkey operation. People would be brought back to work and they would be hauling ore again."

MacInnis said the mine is expected to go into care and maintenance mode by the fall, which means some workers will stay to keep the mine functional, but not extracting ore.

"Care and maintenance means that they're not going to be hauling up ore and they're not going to be doing things that need to be done," MacInnis continued.

"They're just going to have folks that must be in there by law to make sure that things run smoothy. There's no water in the mine or things such as that."