REGINA — The closure of a Saskatchewan fleet last week left a number of people unemployed and a former boss to some of them has taken up their cause.

Saskatchewan Trucking Association (STA) past-president Denis Prud’homme has been putting in a lot of personal effort to find jobs for former employees of SynLogistics.

SynLogistics voluntarily went in to formal bankruptcy proceedings, which left about 100 workers without jobs or paycheques. Workers arriving at the carrier on Nov. 5 were told the carrier had gone out of business and it has been reported some employees had not been paid for two to three weeks, while some owner-ops had been waiting two months for payment.

SynLogistics was formed a little more than a year ago when Schneider’s Trucking purchased Prudhomme Trucks. New owner Don Schneider merged the dry van and flatdeck operations to create SynLogistics.

Prud’homme himself retired from fleet ownership after the sale of his carrier and has spent the past year representing the STA as the association’s president. Although Prud’homme was never involved with the SynLogistics venture, after learning of the company’s bankruptcy has stepped in to help find jobs for the displaced workers.

“I just wanted to see them treated right,” he explained. “Nobody was stepping up from their former employer. I know many of these people. They’re decent and hard working; they’re now on the street with no paycheques.”

Prud’homme was a longtime supporter of the immigrant worker program and many of the unemployed drivers have to get their work permits modified to allow them to join other companies.