Union in move to buy steel plant

President of the union, Christopher Henry, said yesterday the buyers would be shareholders, not owners, in the plant and it would make a wider range of products than were being manufactured under the ArcelorMittal management.

Henry said world steel prices have begun to rise slightly and there are at least three potential investors who are interested in buying the plant.

Henry said when the plan is fully developed, the union intends to meet with Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to outline it. The SWUTT leader said that during a private meeting with Rowley about two months ago, the Prime Minister had asked that the union meet with him again when the plan was further advanced. Henry said Rowley had given the undertaking to support and champion the union’s efforts if he was convinced its plan was workable.

“So long as it is workable and we have a workable proposal,” Henry said, adding that he believed it was viable because it would not involve any cost to the Government and it would diversify the steel industry because the union and its potential partner(s) wanted to make about four additional products to what were being made by ArcelorMittal, “which would obviously mean more employment in the country and in the manufacturing sector.” He said they were also planning to try to break into the Caricom and Latin American markets, which ArcelorMittal never attempted since it was focused on exporting its production to Europe.

Henry added that the membership of the union is eagerly looking forward to the restart of the plant because most of them are still unemployed and never received pension or severance benefits from ArcelorMittal, compounding their financial difficulties “because no money coming in. Most of these people who are over 50 or close to 50 cannot get jobs because they are too old and most of them are over-qualified and all that — that is what we are getting out there.”

He said once a prospective employer discovered that the worker was coming from ArcelorMittal they would offer lower salaries than the norm for any job for which they were considered. “If the job paying 10,000, they are offering five.”

Henry said the union was doing all it could to assist its members, going on food drives and giving out hampers as well as collecting used schoolbooks to help those with school-aged children. He said there were also professionals providing counselling to those workers who needed it and lawyers giving legal advice free of charge. “So we’re trying to work it as best as we can.”

Meanwhile, the ArcelorMittal liquidator, attorney Christopher Kelshall, said he had managed to sell all the company properties which had been offered for sale but the liquidation was far from completed because he still had the task of selling the steel plant. He said he is currently concentrating on disposing of perishables in the plant, “anything with a shelf life.”

In addition to selling the plant, Kelshall said “I have 200 cases in the courts one way or the other and until they are resolved, the liquidation is not finished.”

Those cases relate to issues with the workers as well as commercial issues. Kelshall said there has been interest expressed in purchasing the plant, “but how much of it is genuine I won’t know for a while but yes, there is some interest and I believe there is genuine interest in it.”

He said “Mittal people” had declared at the creditors’ meeting that the company owed US$280 million while its assets were worth US$70 million. He said this meant there was a significant deficit “and I am obliged to get the best that I can for the creditors.”