IndustriALL calls on ArcelorMittal to outline plans for European operations

Europe's biggest trade union is calling on the world's biggest steelmaker to deliver a plan on the future of its European operations.

Europe’s biggest trade union is calling on the world’s biggest steelmaker to deliver a plan on the future of its European operations.

IndustriALL will “be calling on Europe’s leading steelmaker to produce a genuine industrial project geared to the future, [to] maintain production plants and develop jobs and skills”, it said. 

ArcelorMittal “continues to give every indication of an industrial management turned towards a future in which all the signals are red!”, IndustriALL said. 

“The weakening of the industrial base of Europe’s leading steelmaker is resulting in a major retreat by the group on the European market compared to its competitors,” IndustriALL added. 

ArcelorMittal runs the risk of not being able to respond when demand for steel recovers in Europe, the union said. 

The trade union told Metal Bulletin sister publication Steel First, on Tuesday March 12, that its European solidarity Action Day will take place on April 4. 
 
The aim of the action day is to ensure that “steel, which is a strategic industry for Europe and a driver as regards technological innovation for many downstream sectors, remains the core of an integrated and independent European industrial policy”, IndustriALL said in a statement on March 22. 

“European workers and their trade unions have, therefore, decided to organise a number of events and maintain [pressure] on ArcelorMittal until June, when the European Commission’s Action Plan for the steel industry is due to be published,” IndustriALL said.

ArcelorMittal declined to comment on the statements made by IndustriALL and the union’s plans for a European action day.

Alexandra Chapman 
achapman@steelfirst.com
Twitter: @AChapman_SF