There is no peace for Arcelor Mittal employees, for months awaiting the outcome of the push and pull between the government and the company on the future of the former Ilva after the company decision to close its doors in January and shutting down the blast furnaces following the cancellation of the tax shield from the Salva-Imprese decree. During the umpteenth table held today at the Ministry of Economic Development, the managing director of the company, Lucia Morselli, released the employment data that everyone was waiting for and fearing. In the new industrial plan of Arcelor Mittal there would be 4.700 redundancies. 2.900 expected for 2020, the remaining 1.800 in the following years until 2023. The workforce of the former Ilva would therefore go from the current 10.789 employees to 6.098 in 2023.
The same plan also establishes an increase in production volumes from the current 4,5 million tons of steel to 6 million by 2021. In 2023, moreover blast furnace 2 will be shut down and an electric furnace started at Arco Eaf. capable of guaranteeing 1,2 million tons of "clean" steel. Finally, the plan envisages the operation of agglomeration line D only.
Shortly before the meeting, the unions had announced barricades, excluding any possible agreement on redundancies. Reaction also confirmed during the table after the presentation of the numbers: "There are no conditions to open discussions for an agreement. We must restart from the agreement of a year ago, with the employment and investment levels indicated by the 2018 plan", declared the Cisl secretary, Anna Maria Furlan on behalf of all the trade unions present.
“It is the first meeting with the government and the company after the start of the new negotiations with the Mittals – the general secretary of Fiom Francesca Re David had previously stated – for some time we have been saying that we need to know what is happening. For us, the binding agreement provides for zero redundancies. We are not available to discuss redundancies. If you think of halving production and employment, we don't agree”.
"The road is narrow and uphill. The goal is to ensure production continuity. An honest constructive discussion is needed that is developed over time, in parallel with the forecasts on the industrial plan and with everything we are trying to do", the Minister of Economic Development would have said instead at the table, Stefano Patuanelli. “It won't be easy but everyone is needed,” she added.
The Prime Minister spoke on the matter, Giuseppe Conte: "The project that was anticipated in a meeting is absolutely not goodI think it's very similar to the original one. We reject it and we will work, as during this negotiation, on the objectives that we have set ourselves with Mr. Mittal and which Mr. Mittal has personally undertaken with me to achieve, and we will succeed ”, Conte said on the sidelines of an initiative in Rome.
