ACB Sestao will stop production on November 15, with no return date

The Bizkaia Compact Steelworks (ACB) in Sestao, of the ArcelorMittal group, will stop its production from November 15, until early 2022, as EITB has learned.

Both the company and the workers’ committee announced a few days ago that such a closure would take place, without the date having been set so far. Finally, production will be suspended on November 15, until further notice.

The company has argued that the suspension of production is due to the rise in the electricity price. Argument that contradicts the one offered by ArcelorMittal Sestao’s own management The last friday, since, according to a statement at the time, the stop is due to “a series of planned engineering works “, which are part of “an improvement plan” that will allow the plant’s annual production capacity to be expanded to 1.6 million tons in 2023, as well as reducing the level of CO2 emissions to 500 kg per ton of steel produced.

Representatives of the UGT, CC.OO., LAB and ELA, members of the committee, affirmed on Friday that the stoppage is due to the union’s rejection of “organizational modifications” proposed by the company. They accused the management of the ACB “blackmailing the social part, putting as a condition to resume production in Sestao, the acceptance of the organizational changes proposed unilaterally, as well as the revision of some points of the Agreement that cover the changes intended organizational “.

The closure will mean the dismissal of more than a hundred temporary workers.

The workers denounce that “although the current energy situation has had a direct impact on the transformation costs that hinder the competitiveness of our products”, the company “currently has considerable margins in its profits”; for which he criticizes that the company “once again unloads its interest games on its workers and the public coffers.”