ArcelorMittal collapses in Spain: It continues with layoffs despite its profits

Arcelor Mittal has presented a layoff plan that will affect the work centers in Legasa (Navarra) and Agurain (Álava). This plan would mean the dismissal of 40 people.  The ELA union has demanded that the company's managers, the Government of Navarra, and the Basque Government make investments to guarantee employment.

"While the defense of Basque industry and employment is on everyone's lips, we are facing a new job destruction plan. ELA will fight for jobs and working conditions," they assure.

ELA has denounced on several occasions that for 15 years now, the multinational's management has constantly used layoff plans to destroy temporary jobs and positions.

Asier Calderón, from the LAB union, assures that  "the negotiating table will be opened and we will see where they offer relocations". "The Lesaka plant is the closest. In Legasa, we had been warning that in ten years the workforce had been reduced by half. And Lesaka is on the same path. They are concentrating production in the larger plants," he added in statements to Grupo Noticias.

It should be remembered that these layoffs come after it was revealed that ArcelorMittal caused profits of 1.339 billion dollars in 2023. This figure represents a 45.7% increase compared to 2022.

Questions about ArcelorMittal in Spain

The company renounced at the end of 2022 a government subsidy of 450 million euros charged to the Industrial Decarbonization Perte to produce green steel using renewable hydrogen. However, the Luxembourg-based steel company renounces the payment because it doesn't believe that Europe can compete with China in this field. Government sources indicate that the commitment of the 450 million aid remains, even if another company does it.

Aditya Mittal, CEO of ArcelorMittal, says that the company keeps its "full commitment to decarbonization".  "It is the right course of action, both for the company and for the planet. I remain fully convinced that we will still be able to achieve our net-zero emissions goal by 2050, although the way we achieve it might be different from what was previously announced," they add.

This week the company has been in the news because the International Institute for Law and the Environment has denounced the Principality of Asturias for allowing the multinational to "pollute more than allowed" the air of Gijón.

131 layoffs in 2022

The Luxembourg multinational that produces almost 70 million metric tons of crude steel annually and more than 50 of iron laid off 131 workers last year in Euskadi and Asturias. They did so after undertaking a layoff plan that has been signed by UGT and USO.

The ELA union denounced that the dismissal of these workers who are around 62 years old. This exit was accompanied by a halt in investments in production plants.  "It is time to get out of the spiral of job loss, to bet on rejuvenating the workforce by correctly applying the replacement contract and making investments that guarantee the future of plants that must strictly comply with environmental legislation," they state.

The Basque-Navarrese union also denounced a few months ago the alleged fraudulent use of a temporary measure like temporary layoff plans to turn them into structural ones. "ArcelorMittal has been applying plans for 14 years, an absolutely irregular fact. Furthermore, in this case, the extension lasts for a year, an absolutely excessive period. Also, the company has not justified the reasons for the plan. And it has taken advantage of the fact that the state unions signed the previous plan just 3 months ago to extend it," they assured.

ELA demanded more investments, industrial plans, and new hires. In the plants of Navarra and Euskadi, they assure, "the loss of employment is constant and practically no hires are made. Furthermore, the replacement contract is used irregularly."

11 plants in Spain

The Luxembourg steel giant ArcelorMittal has become a headache for La Moncloa. Despite the harmony exhibited in 2022 in Davos by Pedro Sánchez and its main shareholder, president, and CEO, the Indian Lakshmi Mittal.

ArcelorMittal has 11 industrial plants in Spain linked to the business lines of Flat Products, Long Products, and Downstream Solutions. To this implementation, a network of 14 Distribution Centers spread throughout the Spanish geography must be added.

In addition to these industrial activities, there are offices in Madrid. Their job is to serve various services of the subsidiary companies present in other countries in southern Europe and northern Africa.

Among its shareholders, José María Aristrain stands out, who will try to avoid jail again after being accused of pretending in Switzerland to avoid paying taxes. The steel king is estimated to have a fortune of 1.200 million euros and has been convicted of deducting expenses for hunting or breeding fighting bulls.