ArcelorMittal confirmed, on Monday, November 25, the closure of its service centers in Reims and Denain, which employ 136 people, the unions announced after a social and economic committee (CSE).
According to the unions, 112 people work at the Reims (Marne) plant and 24 in Denain (North). This represents almost a quarter of the staff in France of the Service Centers of ArcelorMittal, a subsidiary specialized in the wholesale trade of metals and minerals.
“Production is scheduled to stop in June”the inter-union organization (CGT, FO, CFDT, CFE-CGC) specifies in a press release. “For certain support functions, departures are planned from April”and 19 reclassifications will be offered at other ArcelorMittal service centers, it continues. “Eight positions that are currently occupied by temporary staff will also be offered” within a site in Haute-Saône and “20 offers have been listed” for reclassifications within other group entities.
ArcelorMittal announced last week that the Reims and Denain sites were experiencing a “Sharp drop in activity” in industry and automobile, “which has accelerated in recent months”.
Concern in Dunkirk
A hundred employees mobilized on Monday at noon in front of the Reims headquarters, before the CSE meeting, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent confirmed. Employees dressed in work clothes lit a pallet fire, while an ArcelorMittal locomotive, with its horn locked, was placed across the street, disrupting traffic.
Benoît Jean-Leroy, CFDT delegate in Reims, denounces ArcelorMittal’s desire to “leave Europe in favor of the United States, India and Brazil”.
The inter-union asks the employees of the eight French plants of ArcelorMittal service centers to mobilize on Tuesday. In Denain, they are joined by around fifty members of the CGT of ArcelorMittal Dunkerque, where concern is increasing following the announcements made in recent days by the group and the Government.
The group uses “3,200 direct permanent contracts, between 8,000 and 9,000 including indirect ones”according to Gaëtan Lecocq, general secretary of the CGT at ArcelorMittal Dunkirk.
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ArcelorMittal on Monday called on the European Union to protect the competitiveness of European steel, putting into play its decarbonization projects on the continent, which involve several billion euros of investments. This includes in particular Dunkirk, where ArcelorMittal has decided “postpone your investment in the decarbonization of the site”according to the delegate minister responsible for Industry, Marc Ferracci.
