MIRCEA SCÂNTEI, METAROM: "Russia's joining of the WTO would no longer justify the presence of Mechel in Romania"

Tensions at Mechel Câmpia Turzii continue. The employees of the plant will take to the streets next Friday (September 14th), unhappy that Russian investors are generating a new round of layoffs, said Mircea Scântei, the president of the Metarom Union.

He said: "More unionists of Metarom who work in the metallurgic industry, for various companies, may join the protest.

Most likely, in Câmpia Turzii all the employees will take to the street, to fight for their jobs, as well as those who have already been laid off.

In Mechel Câmpia Turzii an explosive situation appeared two weeks ago, when a minute from Moscow, held by the managing director of the company, indicated only 238 employees should remain in Câmpia Turzii and the company should become a branch of Ductil Steel Buzău".

The representatives of Mechel told the prefect of the county of Cluj, Ioan Vuşcan, that they may lay off another 800 employees, due to the company lacking orders, after it decided to lay off another 799 employees in June. Since June, about 600 employees of Mechel Câmpia Turzii were left without a job, meaning that there are only about 1050 employees left.

Apparently the Russians of Mechel want to withdraw from Romania after they were accepted by the World Trade Organization, Mircea Scântei explained, and he went on to say: "it means that from now on, Russians will be exporting metallurgic products to Europe directly, paying little or no customs taxes as at all.

So far, if they wanted to export from Russia directly, they had to pay very large customs fees. Their presence in Europe helped them to export their products without any commercial barrier".

The Russians tried to "repair the damage", after the prefect of the county of Cluj, Ioan Vuşcan, announced that Mechel may operate layoffs in Câmpia Turzii.

Mircea Scântei explained: "The representatives of Mechel told us, in a communiqué addressed to the employees, that the prefect of Cluj, Ioan Vuşcan, misunderstood the situation. Mechel claims that in fact, it is trying to find solutions. They said that the information which came from Moscow was not translated correctly.

What is certain is that this has angered the employees, who are decided to take it to the street. The protest will start in front of the company's building, and then the people will head to the center of the town. They will probably stop in front of the City Hall".

After the protest, the employees of Mechel will ask the government to participate in a meeting with the unionists and the professional association of all the companies which the Mechel group controls in Romania.

The head of Metarom also told us that all of the companies which Mechel owns in Romania are facing troubles.

According to Ioan Pascu, the president of the Wire Industry Union (Sindicatul Industria Sârmei) of Câmpia Turzii, Mechel violated several terms of the privatization contract, including the obligation to keep the number of jobs for five years after the privatization.

In spite of all this, Mechel started cutting the number of jobs as early as 2004. Furthermore, several machines were cut into pieces and sold as scrap metal or dismantled and sent to Russia, the union leader says.

Following the meeting with Liviu Pop, the delegated minister for social dialog, with the unionists of Câmpia Turzii, at the end of August, he announced that the government will review the contract for the privatization of the metallurgic plant, considering the numerous questions it raises.