Hundreds Attend the Navajo Worker Job Fair Hosted by NTEC

Published June 21, 2019

KAYENTA, Ariz. — More than 250 people attended the Navajo Worker Job Fair hosted by Navajo Transitional Energy Company (NTEC) last week on June 14. NTEC also provided lunch for attendees.

“We are really happy about the turnout for the job fair. Our goal is to help the community with job opportunities at Navajo Mine and other places with other companies,” said Clark Moseley, NTEC CEO. “This is the first time NTEC has held a job fair.”

The job fair started at 9 a.m. but nearly 100 people were lined up at 7:30 a.m.

“We started taking applications earlier than we planned because people were eager to submit resumes and get information about job vacancies,” said Cortasha Upshaw, NTEC community coordinator.

Eleven companies and schools were represented at the job fair: North American Coal Bisti Fuels, PESCO, Navajo Agricultural Products Industry, Navajo Housing Authority, San Juan College, Navajo Technical University, Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Program, Komatsu, Edward Jones, Southwest Energy and NTEC. Arizona Public Service provided open positions for posting at the job fair.

“We want to thank all the companies that came out to show potential opportunities for workers that may be looking for something new,” said Upshaw.

NTEC organized the job fair to provide potential employment opportunities for workers from Kayenta Mine and Navajo Generating Station since both operations are scheduled to close later this year. The closure means the loss of hundreds of well-paying jobs in the Kayenta and LeChee areas.

Even after the job fair concluded, people, who had taken time off from work, were still showing up.

“We may not be able to offer a job for each worker, but we are going to do what we can with the resources we have to make an attempt to help miners with positions we have to fill at Navajo Mine. We asked Bisti Fuels, our mine contractor, to help us in this endeavor,” said Moseley.

NTEC owns Navajo Mine, south of Farmington, N.M., while North American Coal Bisti Fuels performs the day-to-day operations for NTEC. NTEC and Bisti Fuels adhere to the Navajo Employment Preference Act and the Navajo Business Opportunity Act.