between 100 and 150 jobs threatened

The news was feared: ArcelorMittal, the world's second largest steel group, intends to draw a line under its main factory in Reims, called “Service Centers”. The announcement was made within the framework of an extraordinary Social and Economic Committee (CSE), which was held by videoconference, this Tuesday, November 19 in the middle of the afternoon, learned The union from a union source.

Among its 200 employees,“between 100 and 150 employees” would lose their jobaccording to announcements made this Tuesday, support functions being preserved. At the end of the day, under pouring rain and in the middle of gusts of wind, stunned union officials were talking about “130 employees” on the tile.

Largest ArcelorMittal factory in Reims

Their company is the largest of the group's four in Reims. The global steel giant, based in Luxembourg, has three others (Distribution solutions France, Construction France and ArcelorMittal Services), each with between ten and several dozen employees.

The one which is due to close is located to the north of the city, in the Port Colbert area. It has historically specialized in the processing of steel coils. Its activity is divided between “unwinding” (making steel sheets) and “slitting” (creating small coils).

The Reims factory sacrificed

In recent years, it has produced much less, having lost part of its markets, at the request of the group itself according to the unions. Benoît Jean-Leroy, CFDT delegate (the site's first union), while confirming the closure project, denounced, this Tuesday, a strategy sacrificing the City of Coronations.

“Activity is down in Reims, because the group has withdrawn profitable markets from Reims to transfer them elsewhere”he accuses. The Reims factory would have seen its activity divided almost in half in two years, going from a volume of 260,000 tonnes processed in 2021 to a volume of 140,000 tonnes in 2023.

The first scenario only anticipated 31 job cuts…

The outcome is all the more painful as the first scenario envisaged by ArcelorMittal did not foresee a dry closure. Last May, the group was in fact considering a collective contractual termination plan, involving 65 employees across the eight Service Centers in France: 31 positions were eliminated in Reims, and a few in each of the other sites.

Negotiations to reach a conventional break, however, collapsed at the beginning of the summer. Four months later, the new scenario presented turns out to be much more severe for Reims, as well as for Denain: the northern city also sees its production site condemned, although with fewer employees affected (around thirty).

A strategy focused on the United States

The staff representatives are all the more bitter that “the ArcelorMittal group is doing very well”according to Benoît Jean-Leroy. “He is making money, but he is completely reviewing his strategy, turning towards the United States, to the detriment of Europe”declares the CFDT manager (read elsewhere).

For its part, the company's management confirmed, at the end of the day, the existence of a “project to reorganize the company and adapt its production capacities”. A project that “includes possible shutdown” sites in Reims and Denain.

Behind the word « possible »however, staff representatives see little hope, convinced that the decision has been made. In fact, the group already mentions, in its response to The unionof the “negotiations” future “on social measures to limit the impact on employment”.

Regarding the reasons that led to this “reorganization”management mentions “a difficult economic context” et “a sharp drop in activity (of Service Centers), among its Industry and Automotive customers, which has accelerated in recent months. »

Management and social partners must meet in a few days, « until November »to begin negotiations.