Arcelor and unions continue negotiating to try to seal an agreement that avoids the rupture

by time news

2023-05-09 04:15:00

The management of the steel company ArcelorMittal and the unions continued at around midnight yesterday in Etxebarri (Vizcaya) the meeting on the national framework agreement, in an attempt, after more than seven hours of negotiationto avoid the rupture and make the agreement possible.

Although the meeting was called urgently on Sunday by the company to find out the response of the labor representation to the last offer made by the company on Wednesday, the two parties faced the new appointment as an “in extremis” attempt to avoid the break after thirteen months of fruitless talks.

Yesterday’s meeting began at the same time that the second two-hour strike called by the committees of the Asturian plants ended and which, according to union sources, again paralyzed production except in the facilities (blast furnace B, sinter, Avilés steel mill and coke batteries) that had assigned minimum services. The negotiation also hovered over the call for a new strike for tomorrow if the understanding did not materialize beforehand.

Yesterday’s meeting occurred after the deadline, once the company and committees promised on April 21 that the appointment last Wednesday was the last chance. On that day, and although there were advances recognized by all the interlocutors as had not been produced in the last thirteen months, understanding was not possible either. The unions judged the management proposal “insufficient”.

The main advance was the commitment of the multinational to guarantee purchasing power with a salary increase equivalent to the real CPI for each of the four years of validity (2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025), as well as a non-consolidable variable amount of 0.75% for 2023, 2024 and 2025 subject to objectives that would have to be defined in the agreement, among other improvements. The main stumbling block is the union demand that the announced investments in decarbonization be committed and that the departure, with program contracts, of workers born up to 1962 be guaranteed.

notes

  • Salary. The company committed on Wednesday to guarantee purchasing power with a salary offer that equalizes inflation in the years of validity of the eighth framework agreement: 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. In addition, it proposed a non-consolidable variable amount of 0.75% for the years 2023, 2024 and 2025.
  • disagreement. The last joint platform elaborated by the UGT, CC OO and USO demanded the real CPI in 2023 and the CPI plus 0.25 points for 2023 and 2024 and the CPI plus 0.5 points for 2025. In turn, the unions demanded the formula of the contract-relay for the departure of workers born up to 1962.
  • Investments. Another major stumbling block is the union demand that the company already commit the investment of 1,000 million euros in the partial decarbonization of the head of Gijón, for which the Government has already approved (prior authorization from the EU) public aid to lost fund of 450 million.

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