The employees will be divided into six groups and each group will stay home for ten days at a time, for the next three months. They will receive 75 percent of their salaries and their bonuses for length of service, as the other rights stipulated in the collective working contract are to be annulled.
The trade union leader Gheorghe Tiber explained that the plant's management does not overrule the possibility of the three-month unemployment being followed by a mandatory ten-day leave out of the vacation corresponding to 2010, unless production recoups.
ArcelorMittal Galati predicts a maximum production of 1.5 million tons of steel for 2009. As to the 2010-2012 interval, estimates indicate an annual 3 million tons production, a massive reduction when considering the 4.4 million tons of liquid steel that were produced in 2007.
Trade union leaders are against the measures proposed by the management and asked to see the plant's financial reports. They will propose several alternative measures such as redistributing employees in other departments. If these suggestions are rejected at the March 16 meeting, they will ask to receive also meal tickets besides the other bonuses. If an agreement cannot be reached, leaders warn they will call a protest by March 20.
Since the economic crisis set in last autumn, the steel demand dropped, dragging behind it the halt of activity in steel-producing plants. The ArcelorMittal Galati management diminished production gradually, temporarily closed units, did away with subcontractors and reduced the number of employees. It also opened a voluntary leave plan at the end of last year, which is hopes to reduce the staff by 3,600 people by 2012. In addition, an activity restructuring program will be implemented addressing all sectors and aiming to reduce costs, losses and work-related accidents and to increase productivity.
ArcelorMittal is the largest steel producer in the world, employing 330,000 people in over 60 countries. In Romania, it controls the chemical plants in Hunedoara and Galati, the pipe producing units in Iasi and Roman, the harbor operator Romportmet Galati and the local arm of the construction company ArcelorMittal Construction.