(Trinidad Guardian) The Steel Workers Union (SWUTT) is not accepting ArcelorMittal’s claims that it was incurring losses since 2009, which subsequently led to the company being forced to close its Point Lisas plant on Friday.
The union has labelled the company’s move as a “strategic” way to wash its hands of its obligations to workers.
Only on Thursday, workers celebrated having won at the Industrial Court, in a case against the company for laying them off twice between December 2015 and February this year.
Their short-lived jubilation turned to immediate sorrow, after they were informed that the company had incurred a TT$1.3 billion debt and could no longer continue to operate. Over 700 workers had suddenly lost their jobs.
According to SWUTT’s vice-president, Ramkumar Narinesingh, the company’s managing director, Robert Bellisle, indicated in a meeting on Friday that last December, the company had sent a proposal to the Government offering the plant for sale for $1.
“He did not say whether it was a TT or US dollar. It could have been a single dollar or a nominal fee, he did not elaborate.” This means that if Government purchases the company, it will automatically inherit the TT$1.3 billion debt.
Narinesingh said when the liquidators take over, the company will no longer be obligated to settle outstanding payments to people who would have won in court. Additionally, matters before the courts will be deemed null and void.
He said what this country was facing was the actions of a shrewd businessman and his executives.
Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal was once listed by Forbes as the third richest man in Britain, with a net worth of over $45 billion.
According to Narinesingh, the union believes that ArcelorMittal’s main creditor is Mittal himself. Mittal, he added, mines iron ore and sells back to ArcelorMittal. Government, he noted, has called on the company to provide a list of their creditors, which they are not obligated to do.
The union is now calling on Government to step in, “and not diplomatically,” to protect the rights of its citizens.
“Where were their austerity plans? We just cannot see that a company with knowledge that it was heading into a bleak financial situation would continue wanton expenditure as it did in the years since 2009. This man (Mittal) bought this company for $70 million and in one year paid back that loan. He was recorded as one of the richest men in England and just allowed the largest steel producing company in the world to suffer cash haemorrhages, while executives here replaced their upgraded vehicles annually.