The United Steelworkers will fight a plan by the Iron Ore Company of Canada to require drug testing for some new employees at its mine in Labrador West.

The company will begin to phase in the new policy next month. It said drug tests would be mandatory for people hired to work in what the mine calls "safety sensitive positions."

The union believes the new rule amounts to an invasion of privacy and a form of management intimidation, said United Steelworkers Local 5795 president George Kean on Wednesday.

"We had calls from some of our members indicating that team leaders had told them that they want them to go for drug testing today," Kean told CBC News. "When we called back their superintendent … the supervisor said he was just kidding around.

"We see that as just intimidation."

IOC said there is no plan to screen current employees, but the drug testing will be ordered if the company suspects an employee is abusing drugs.

Company spokesperson Michel Filion said earlier this week that the new policy aims to create a safer work environment at IOC. He said employees have brought concerns to management about some co-workers abusing drugs on the job.

The local president of MADD, Mother's Against Drunk Driving, Josephine Gaulton-Rowe, believes the decision to test employees for the presence of drugs is a good idea.

"I don't see why people have a problem with this," she said. "If they have nothing to hide, why do they have a problem with it? Some of the issues we have now didn't exist 30 or 40 years ago, and we all know it's a problem. Impaired operation of vehicles is a big problem."