United Steelworkers Local 5890 said the strike will begin at 6 a.m. Friday if no deal is reached.  

Union members have been without a new contract since July 2016, when the previous deal expired. The rank-and-file voted to authorize a strike in May, saying that the company was seeking extreme concessions. 

The concessions, they said, included a three-year wage freeze, a reduction in overtime pay and the creation of a two-tier pay schedule for new hires. 

"This Russian-owned, American-managed company is extremely profitable, but their greed knows no bounds," USW Western Canada Director Stephen Hunt said in a statement in May.  

“EVRAZ is trying to squeeze out even more money by attacking the long-standing benefits of workers, including a demand to end certain pension benefits for retirees and removing a benefit for surviving spouses. It’s a sickening and shameful attack on vulnerable people." 

The union said EVRAZ told the union bargaining committee that it may begin shutting down furnaces in advance of a potential strike.