In late April 2003, after three months of social tension, management at the Arcelor steel group and trade unions at Cockerill Sambre, its subsidiary in Wallonia, Belgium, reached an agreement on the gradual closure of the company's blast furnaces in Liège. The agreement was not unanimously accepted by workers at Cockerill Sambre.
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In late April 2003, after three months of social tension, management at the Arcelor steel group and trade unions at Cockerill Sambre, its subsidiary in Wallonia, Belgium, reached an agreement on the gradual closure of the company's blast furnaces in Liège. The agreement was not unanimously accepted by workers at Cockerill Sambre.
On 24 April 2003, management at Arcelor and representatives of the workforce at Cockerill Sambre, the steel group’s subsidiary in Wallonia, finally found scope for agreement on a date for closing the 'hot line' at the company's Liège facility. The scenario adopted after three months of tension between the parties provides for the closure of one blast furnace on 1 July 2005 and of the 'hot phase' 'at the earliest on 1 January 2009, and at the latest on 31 December' of the same year. A study will then be carried out on the plant’s technical reliability. The outcome of this study will determine whether the second Liège blast furnace can continue to operate until 31 December 2009. A social plan that the bargaining parties have undertaken to finalise in the next few weeks should, according to Arcelor, avoid 'any redundancies'. The workforce will be reduced through early retirement arrangements.
At the end of January 2003, the Arcelor group announced a major industrial restructuring exercise spread over several years (BE0302301N). The plan will involve the closure of six blast furnaces in France, Belgium and Germany between now and 2010. The company initially intended closing the two blast furnaces in Liège, which employ 1,700 people, in June 2005 and June 2006, but recently agreed to defer doing so until the end of 2005 for the former and January 2008 for the latter, at the same time as the rest of the hot line (transformation of ore into cast iron and then into steel, and hot rolling). The Belgian trade unions had previously been opposed to any closure until 2008.
The Walloon region, which is a minority shareholder in Arcelor with 4.25% of the stock, reacted favourably to the agreement concluded with the Walloon unions, and the regional government immediately suspended legal proceedings initiated against Arcelor management.
Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe, the Minister-President of the Walloon region, thanked the parties for 'working so hard to reach a balanced consensus', while the Walloon Minister of the Economy, Serge Kubla, hailed 'the intelligence and understanding shown by the two parties in reaching this agreement', while regretting that it meant the eventual end of the hot phase in Liège. The Walloon government also welcomed the absence of redundancies despite the closure of the hot line. It called on the trade unions and management to continue talks on the other current issues, that is to say consolidation of the 'cold phase' at Liège, the stainless steel plant at Charleroi and the research and development centre.
The conclusion of the agreement did not stop some 1,300 workers at Cockerill Sambre from taking part in a demonstration organised by the European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF) in Luxembourg on 25 April. This demonstration, which took place at the same time as the general meeting of Arcelor shareholders, attracted between 3,000 and 4,000 people from Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Many workers at Cockerill Sambre took the view that the agreement concluded with Arcelor the previous day was unsatisfactory as it meant the end of the hot line in Liège. As several workers on the Luxembourg demonstration noted, 'we have gained a few years, but as far as we are concerned, it means the end of thousands of jobs in the Liège region.'
Officials of the Belgian General Federation of Labour (Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique/Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond, FGTB/ABVV) and the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens/ Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond, CSC/ACV), the signatories to the agreement concluded with Arcelor management, explained that in their view the agreement was a lesser evil for the steel industry in Liège. 'An integrated steel industry has been preserved until 2009', FGTB/ABVV stated, 'and that is more than Arcelor planned'.
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2003), Agreement reached on Arcelor closures, article.
