It will not be a Merry Christmas for the more than 250 workers employed by the Nutrien potash mine at Vanscoy.

Nutrien is announcing that while it will re-open mines in Allan and Lanigan December 29, the Vanscoy operation will continue to be shut-down until at least the end of January.

The mines were temporarily shuttered in September because of what the company called a weaker global fertilizer market with the decision to keep Vanscoy closed while re-opening the other two mines being as a result of continued weakness in the global potash market.

The news is obviously being met with disappointment as the union representing the workers saying while there is no get time to get laid off, it is especially hard when the news comes just one week before Christmas Day.

Nutrien isn’t the only company in Saskatchewan cutting production as Mosaic has shuttered its Colonsay mine while utilizing short-term shutdowns at its K1 and K2 mines near Esterhazy while K plus S has cut production at its mine near Bethune, but that move has not resulted in any layoffs.