Italian trade unions have started to issue a series of statements this week to warn ArcelorMittal Italiia and the Italian authorities of potential industrial action, Kallanish notes. They say that they will take such steps if the company is preparing job cuts and if the local government does not fully support the relaunch of activities at the former Ilva plant.
Unions note that they have been informed of the possibility that ArcelorMittal will plan to cut up to 5,000 jobs in Italy. They firmly opposed the potential cuts and note that an agreement was reached with the company in September 2018 to secure jobs during the relaunch of the unit.
Last week ArcelorMittal announced an unexpected change of ceo for its Italian operations. The company replaced Matthieu Jehl with Lucia Morselli. As ceo of Acciai Speciali Terni since 2014 Morselli restructured the company through significant job cuts, despite the firm opposition of trade unions at the plant.
