NLMK’s Belgium plant goes on strike over 50% personnel cut

BRUSSELS, Jan 18 (PRIME) -- Workers of NLMK Clabecq, a Belgium plant of Russian steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), have gone on strike in response to plans to lay off half of personnel under a restructuring program, a labor union representative told PRIME late on Thursday.

“We announced a strike as a response to that, and it will be in force until 2.00 p.m. local time on Monday,” the representative said.

The plant employs 590 workers, of which up to 300 may be laid off.

Previously, local news daily Echo reported that the Russian managers of NLMK Clabecq said that the plant is uncompetitive given the existing structure of production. Television channel RTBF reported earlier that the plant loses 4 million euros each month.

An NLMK representative told PRIME on Thursday that the management offered a plan to focus on products with high added value, like quenched and tempered steel lists, and reduce production of commercial-quality rolled steel with thickness of more than 9 millimeters.

In Belgium, NLMK owns NLMK Clabecq with a capacity of 550,000 tonnes of rolled metal per year, and there is also a plant in La Louviere with a capacity of 1.7 million tonnes of hot-rolled metal and 600,000 tonnes of cold-rolled metal.

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