How is Ilva doing? This was the question at the center of the meeting held at Mise between the trade unions and the top management of ArcelorMittal, almost five months after the signing of the agreement.
The company presented the progress of the environmental plan, its health and safety policies, improvements relating to maintenance and the general market framework within which the former Ilva group assets operate in Europe.
According to the data presented, the frequency of accidents has dropped from an average of 20% in January/October last year to 9% in the last two months of 2018, a still high percentage, but which bodes well in view of achieving than the group average in Europe which is 0,9%.
Due to the unfavorable economic situation (US duties with consequent increase in prices, increase in exports from Turkey) there was a slowdown in the speed of order acquisition of at least 30%. As envisaged in the agreement, production needs are met with the supply of sheet metal trains through the purchase of slabs which amounted to 250.000 T in the first quarter and is already 150.000 T for the second quarter. There are difficulties with the can but the Metallurgy is already at work because the expected production target does not change.
Speaking of the environmental plan, we proceed according to the roadmap and the coverage of the mining parks, the primary work requested by the union during the negotiations, will see its realization at the end of 2019, while for the fossil park we will have to wait - as established, until to 20 May 2020. At the same time, maintenance work on the segments that were below the minimum necessary standard at the start of the new company began, various construction sites are open in the production plants which also see the refurbishment of the slab heating furnaces .
Finally, with regard to the employment plan. ArcelorMittal has hired 10.287 to date against the 10.380 envisaged in the agreement. There are also 2075 workers in Cigs who have not joined the exodus plan and will be beneficiaries of the end-of-plan guarantee.
"As Fim - commented the secretary of Fim-Cisl, Marco Bentivogli - we believe the state of the art is positive from the point of view of the objectives in terms of environment and safety, we will still need to continue with the implementation of the industrial plan of which we will be able to be fully satisfied when there will be the restart of all the plants. As far as employment is concerned, we reiterate the importance of the end-of-plan guarantee for all those who have not yet received the offer from Arcelor. We have reiterated the need for the increase in production volumes to correspond to an increase in adequate workforce and that we should not resort to the use of overtime to meet industrial needs, as happened in the past".
"We will continue to ask the company for continuous updates on the progress of the works envisaged in the environmental plan so that the starting point of the ArcelorMittal era sanctioned with the agreement of 6 September 2018 continues with the primary objective of minimizing the impact of production and make it environmentally friendly”, concludes Bentivogli.
