NEW GLASGOW – Maritime Steel workers don’t understand why the government will invest in one industry in Pictou County, but are turning down a much lower loan to their employer.
Sid Bettes, president of the GMP Union Local 332, which represents about 30 Maritime Steel workers, sent a letter to Premier Darrell Dexter over the weekend asking him to give the workers the answer they feel they deserve.
“The workers are majorly down in the dumps,” Betts said. “They’re quite anxious to get back to work.”
Only four of the men represented by the union are currently working at the plant, with a few others called in when needed. The workers had believed that after the plant was sold last August, they’d be called back to work shortly, but that didn’t happen.
“Now we’re disappointed and concerned,” Betts said. “There are a lot of unhappy campers that are very concerned about their future.”
Maritime Steel owner Abbas Jafarnia has told the workers that if he received the $1 million provincial loan, he’d be able to hire back 100 workers.
However, the province decline the loan earlier this month and last week Percy Paris, minister of Economic and Rural Development, told reporters he was skeptical Jafarnia could find customers and said that making an investment in the company was too big a risk for taxpayers.
Betts doesn’t believe that’s a fair assessment, however, and questioned the province’s investment in neighbouring industry DSME Trenton, which saw about $60 million of provincial funds funnelled into the sale of the old TrentonWorks plant through the Industrial Expansion Fund, as well as a $6 million loan for working capital and a $3.7 million forgivable loan for the purchase of the land and buildings, provided that DSME reaches its employment goals over a six-year period.
He also points to $50 million in provincial funds being spent to keep the pulp mill on the south shore afloat, despite a lack of orders, and $5 million for the Port Hawkesbury mill to be kept in mothballs for a possible future sale.
“We aren’t stating that these were bad investments, on the contrary, they were worth the risk,” Betts wrote in his letter to the premier. “Saying that, a $1 million loan to Maritime Steel Limited for operating capital with employment of 70 to 100 jobs and the ability to obtain future orders is a very low risk, compared to the above samples.”
It’s that comparison that’s left workers extremely frustrated, he said.
“I think the investment the province made in other ventures is good, but in comparison $1 million for Maritime Steel they deem too risky. It doesn’t make sense to me,” he said. “I’m hoping someone can explain it to us, the workers. We’d like to know the story. To say it’s too risky is not good enough.”
As of Monday evening, Betts had not received a response to the letter he e-mailed Dexter over the weekend, but he’s hoping that the premier will give him a response.
“We’re just trying to save our jobs,” he said. “As a working man who has worked at Maritime Steel, I believe I have a right as a taxpaying citizen to know why they’ve refused a loan to Abbas Jafarnia.”
The other "buyer" withdrew their bid.