ArcelorMittal Poland understands the anxiety of both the trade unions and the employees of Krakow plant. We are aware that the planned temporary idling of blast furnace and steel shop at this unit is for them a source of many concerns. We respect our employees’ rights to express their opinions, views and emotions, that is why we approached today’s rally with great understanding. Our CEO & BoD chairman, Mr Geert Verbeeck has himself collected the petition from our social partners.
Once again, we would like to underline that:
- the planned idling of primary part in Kraków is an outcome of difficulties which steel industry is dealing with in Europe,
- the idling will be temporary - we hope that market conditions will improve in the following months and the balance between demand and supply will be restored along with the level playing field,
- from the start we have been reassuring that due to this idling, none of our employees will lose their job and that we will do everything within our powers to provide them with employment - that is why we have, a.o. stopped external recruitment processes,
- since the beginning of May we have been working on a time-consuming and thorough analysis of available work places and professional profiles of our employees that will allow to “match” candidates to appropriate job posts. The analysis is almost completed and will be consulted with the trade unions shortly.
We are worried with false statements of trade union leaders about the alleged lack of information on the reasons for this decision. Representatives of ArcelorMittal Poland, including BoD members, have met with the social partners on numerous occasions. They have explained the context in which the Polish and European steel industry operates and presented steps aimed at working out solutions for the time of idling of the primary operations in Kraków.
We would also like to inform that at the end of June, the trade union organizations received a draft of an agreement concerning actions aimed at minimizing the effects of the temporary idling. We have asked them to send their comments by July 12th. With regret we have to say that only one, out of 15 trade union organizations have sent in their comments. We expect that the trade union organizations will take a stand as quickly as possible as for the content of this document, because hundreds of employees of our Kraków plant are awaiting its final version.
