2023-12-15 10:12:17
The address of ArcelorMittal transferred to the unions in the European labor committee of the multinational that the company is negotiating with all the EU governments in whose countries it has steel plant decarbonization projects the conditions of energy prices and that these conversations are slowing down investments to replace blast furnaces with direct reduction iron ore (DRI) furnaces with hydrogen, some union sources assured. Others even said that the company spoke of a “temporary stoppage.”
A spokesperson for the company, consulted by La Nueva España, from the Ibérica Prensa Group, stated that there is “no stoppage or suspension.” “We continue working with the Government to ensure an energy cost scenario that makes the investment viable”, as is being done “with all Governments”. “The decarbonization project is still alive,” he added. Of the 1,000 million investment announced by ArcelorMittal in July 2021 for the partial decarbonization of the Gijón factory, the company has approved the hybrid electric furnace project that will replace the Gijón steelworks and has already contracted its engineering. The final approval of the DRI is pending, which is the largest investment and for which the Spanish Government approved public aid for an amount of 450 million on April 5 with prior authorization from the European Commission.
While waiting for the company to definitively commit the entire plan of decarbonization (which will imply a cut of 1,000 jobs, 20% of the workforce in Asturias), the unions have managed to get the company to redirect its immediate personnel reduction plan (initially planned for 440 workers born in 1962 and 1963, for the most part in the Principality), to the specific needs linked to the replacement of the Gijón steelworks with the hybrid electric furnace and only to the departure of personnel born in 1962, according to the commitment assumed in the VIII Framework Agreement, signed on May 8. As a consequence of this rethinking, this first phase of the cut would affect between 178 and 200 workers.
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However, and despite some rapprochement, there is still no agreement. CCOO continues to demand the contract-relay formula (which would guarantee as many hires as departures, which would entail maintenance of employment) while UGT demands 100 temporary hires. The company offered to hire at least 30 people on an indefinite basis (it could reach 50), which would leave the labor adjustment in this first phase between 148 and 170 people in net terms, which coincides with the estimated workforce reduction in the future oven hybrid.
Of the two formulas of Employment Reduction File (ERE) considered by the company to release these personnel, Arcelor is now leaning towards the termination ERE with prior aid with a guarantee of 80% of the ordinary gross salary of the last year worked compared to the initial offer of 70%. A large part of the departures would be immediate and the rest would cause withdrawal before March 31. The unions consider the offer insufficient. Yesterday the talks in Etxebarri were suspended after two days of meeting.
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