France, Alternative Libertaire AL #229 - Florange: Back on a scheduled closing (fr)

When the first of the two blast furnaces in Florange is shut down in August 2011, everyone 
knows that the second monitor and that, therefore, it is the hot sector is threatened. 
Workers have in mind the abrupt closure of the steelworks in Gandhinagar and 595 job cuts, 
two years earlier. But in reality, the Mittal strategy is running longer. Press, political 
or trade union, everyone has his nickname to describe Lakshmi Mittal "carnacier", "shark", 
"financial ogre", "scheming". In fact, it is a capitalist. A boss who does his job with 
the legal and financial weapons deployed What states. Strategy? Purchase of steel plants 
and mines bankrupt on five continents and seen as savior and key player in the production 
of steel in the world.

The Mittal system

Since its first business in Indonesia, it has established itself in Trinidad and Tobago, 
Mexico, Canada, Kazakhstan, South Africa, the United States, Algeria ... and Europe. To 
ensure its investments, he serves on the supervisory boards of large groups such as EADS, 
ICICI Banks and Goldman Sachs. He buys, restructures, increases productivity, pressurizes 
the employee-es, dismisses with a vengeance, and closes if the performance is not double 
digits. But this is not all, as France, Belgium and European Union grant him special tax 
credits [ 1 ].

The dressing

But in return, Mittal offers nothing. When commits to investment in the cold chain in 
Florange, they correspond to the minimum necessary for the operation of infrastructure 
anything for renovations or research. So when it comes to recovery or nationalization, 
Mittal may be rubbing their hands from his ivory tower London: while governments tear, he 
knows that he certainly does not sell to the competition. It is simply not his project. 
Since 2008, he has continued to invest, causing severe damage to infrastructure [ 2 ]. If 
this had not been the case, would Florange still one of the most profitable sites in Europe.

This strategy where finance has taken over the industry, the employee-es the bear the 
brunt. And after? Partial unemployment, redeployment, early retirement? Away from the 
media and government, those Florange as Liege continue to fight. Mittal is no longer 
relevant. He bends all those who impeded his path. At his hearing in Parliament on April 
17, he would have denounced production costs too high and too low working time, while 
requiring a labor code more flexible. To believe that it did not fall in deaf ears, since 
a month later, the Senate voted the National Interprofessional Agreement [ 3 ]. A nice 
gift to all Varin, Ghosn and others, is that still in doubt at the cost of thousands of jobs.

Marie-Au (AL Paris North East)

[ 1 ] With the credit CO2 emissions established by the European Union in 2005, Arcelor 
Mittal has capitalized the equivalent of 64 million euros that can keep or sell. The 
notional interest in Belgium also offer him a tax deduction of nearly 1.6 billion euros. 
In France, when Mittal said to engage in research on steel "green" LIS, it really only 
invest 13 million euros of the 32 required, the rest being financed by the State as tax 
credit for research.

[ 2 ] Faure Report on the future of Florange, given to Arnaud Montebourg. July 2012.

[ 3 ] See " Labor Law: Ani: an easily identifiable enemy " in Alternative libertarian 
No. 228, May 2013.