On May 16 labor collective of Railway Shop of PJSC ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih (shifts 3 and 4) joined the protest of Ukrzaliznytsya’s railwaymen. Main demands of the employees were announced – to increase the salary up to European level of 1000 EUR and to ensure that all rolling stock met health and safety standards.
Locomotive operators, assistant operators and shunting operators refused to drive the locomotives to the route, thus putting the operation of the whole plant at risk. These protests were neither announced nor agreed upon in advance with the management of PJSC ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih. That is why the company did not have an opportunity to adjust the production process. Such a strike is illegal.
As of now, only 14 locomotives out of 92 are in operation at the plant. Due to this fact, the whole process chain is paralyzed. The subdivisions of Mining Department, sinter shops, all blast furnaces (except for BF-6), the whole steelmaking and rolling process stages have been completely stopped.
Such unplanned disruptions in the operation of production facilities have extremely negative impact on operation of gas transportation system. There is a real danger of gas pipelines explosion because of pressure drop resulting in industrial disaster affecting not only the plant, but also the city. Currently, the specialists of the company manage to keep the situation under control.
The management of PJSC ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih had a number of meetings with the labor collective in order to discuss the demands of railwaymen. On May 16 created commission started examination of locomotives in terms of their compliance with health and safety requirements. All non-compliances, revealed during the examination, will be eliminated at site by the specialists of the company, when possible. Despite this the railwaymen do not start working; salary negotiations are ongoing.
More than 21 thousand people work at PJSC ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih. The average salary is 14 thousand UAH. It is competitive among the companies of mining and metallurgical complex of Ukraine. Since May 1 it has been increased by 20%.
Since the time of this plant takeover, ArcelorMittal Company has invested $9 billion in its development, including takeover amount; this made ArcelorMittal the biggest foreign investor in Ukraine. It was planned to invest another $1.5 billion during coming years in the production development till 2022. But, in the present conditions, implementation of investment program, social projects and further development of the plant are very doubtful.
If the situation is not resolved soon, production will be completely stopped and it will take much time and colossal resources to resume it. (AMKR/Ukrainian metal)