Metallurgists at ArcelorMittal yesterday picketed the Government and the Presidency

Marilena DINU,

Galaţi

After several protests organized in Galaţi yielded no results, members of the "Solidaritatea" union picketed the headquarters of the Government and the Presidency. The protests were caused by the decision of the Board of ArcelorMittal Galaţi to close the Coke-Chemical Plant (UCC) permanently, effective June 1st.

Thus, for a few hours, around 250 metallurgists of ArcellorMittal Galaţi expressed their discontent with the decision to shut down the Coke Plant. Gheorghe Tiber, the leader of the "Solidaritatea" union, feels this could cause the other production facilities to be shut down, including the steel mills and the blast furnaces. What"s more, whereas so far the discontent of the steel workers lied with the owner of ArcellorMittal, the unionists who attended yesterday"s protest in Bucharest, expressed their unhappiness with the government and president Traian Băsescu, requesting the latter get involved in solving the issues of the Galaţi plant.

"At the presidency"s headquarters we were received by State Advisor on social issues, Gabriel Pişcoci, to whom we presented a memorandum detailing our complaints. We have asked for the Coke Plant to be kept running, because shutting it down would also endanger another 8000-9000 jobs of metallurgists working in other production facilities of the Galaţi-based plant. We also asked for an investigation of all the investments that ArcellorMittal was required to make, based on the privatization contract", said Gheorghe Tiber, leader of the Solidaritatea union, who staged the protest held in Bucharest.

The 250 protesters first picketed the government for two hours, and continued by picketing the headquarters of the presidency for another two hours. The unionists bore banners with the messages " Stop the closing of the UCC", "Mittal is number one in the world, while we can"t even afford bread", "Down with the government! Down with Mittal! Down with Borş!", and chanted messages for the members of the government. Among the "stage props" used were a coffin and cross, which have already become a common occurrence during protests.

The definitive closing of the Coke Chemical Plant will affect 1,400 steel workers. The professional association of ArcelorMittal announced that the 1,400 steel workers will not be laid off. Instead, they will be given the option to choose between switching to other jobs or voluntary separations with severance pay. Thus, the workers in the coke plant who opt for voluntary separation will receive fixed compensatory amounts, ranging from 10,000 lei (for workers with less than five years of seniority) to 20,000 lei (for coke workers with more than 30 years in seniority), supplemented by an additional 8 salaries for people with more than five years seniority and as many as 24 salaries for people with 30 years seniority.

Steel workers of ArcelorMittal Galaţi will be going into technical unemployment in shifts, starting May 11th, for 10 days at a time, until July 31st. The employees of the Galaţi plant will be staying home for 10 days at a time, either in two five-day periods or one day per week, for ten weeks. During their idle time, workers will be paid 85% of their basic salary plus the seniority bonus. The only workers that will not go into technical unemployment are the 1200 employees of the Coke-Chemical plant (UCC).

Right now, the metallurgy platform of Galaţi employs less then 12,000 workers.