French workers smash ArcelorMittal office over job cuts

05 April 2008

Mumbai: Workers at an ArcelorMittal steel plant in Gandrange, in north-eastern France, smashed the office of its director and threw out furniture and files after management confirmed that hundreds of jobs would be cut.

The attack came after 60 workers had been refused entry at the works council meeting at the Gandrange plant, at which managers told union leaders that 575 jobs would go due to the plant's partial closure.

The workers tried to break down doors to get into the meeting. Reporters who witnessed the scene said police did not intervene,

Members of the CGT union, who had been refused entry, also fought briefly with members of another union, the CFDT. No one was wounded, sources said.

Under the restructuring plan, the Gandrange plant would halve its workforce of 1,108 between now and 2009.

Workers' representatives plan to ask President Nicolas Sarkozy to ''keep the promises he made to the workers of Gandrange on February 4."