Workers strike at Romania unit of ArcelorMittal

BUCHAREST, April 14: Guards used tear gas today on hundreds of striking workers who were trying to storm a factory owned by the ArcelorMittal Galati steel company in eastern Romania. Some 3,600 steel workers have begun a strike at the plant to demand higher wages, said trade union leader Mr Gheorghe Tiber in a statement. The company is offering a monthly increase of 100 lei ($44) for those earning the lowest salaries, and a percentage increase for those on higher salaries.The union wants each worker to have a monthly increase of at least 280 lei ($123). Earlier during the day, about 800 striking steel workers threw water, bread and stones in the factory yard before trying to storm the building. They were repelled by guards. “The all-out strike is legal. We are expecting more employees to join the protest,” Mr Tiber told state news agency Rompres.The plant employs some 13,700 workers. ArcelorMittal Galati is part of ArcelorMittal SA, the world's largest steelmaker. It bought the plant from the Romanian state in 2001.

Link

Arcelor-Mittal office ransacked

New Delhi (April 5): After reports of 80,000 job cuts in US, the tremors of a global job cut was also felt at Arcelor-Mittal when furious workers of steel giant stormed its plant in eastern France, ransacking Laxmi Mittal office and throwing his furniture and files out of the window.

This after the management confirmed hundreds of jobs would be cut at Arcelor Mittal because of its Gandrange plant, a site in the northeast of France, being restructured.

This could mean job cuts for more than half of the 1,100-strong work force between now and 2009, a major setback for the precarious economy of the Lorraine region, which once was a prosperous industrial region and the pride of France.

The steel plant is being closed partially despite French President Nicholas Sarkozy's appeal to Arcelor Mittal not to cut jobs in a region where unemployment is already high.

Arcelor Mittal is the world's largest steel company - born when Mittal steel acquired European firm Arcelor in 2006.

Recently, Mittal's brother, who runs his own steel company, has also been criticised for the alleged mistreatment of his employees.

Link