French unions unconvinced over rescue

French unions have expressed concern over the agreement reached with the Arcelor Mittal group on the future of the steel works in Florange in the east of France. The company had planned to close with the loss of 630 jobs as part of its reduction in European steel-making capacity.

However, after the socialist government, led by François Hollande, threatened to nationalise the site if the closure plan was not withdrawn, a compromise agreement was reached.

Under this, Arcelor Mittal agreed there would not be any immediate redundancies and that it would transfer some work to the plant as part of a ¤180 million (£145 million) investment.

But the blast furnaces will remain closed, and it has been suggested that only around one-third of the investment is new money. The unions are unconvinced that the plant has been permanently saved.

Bernard Thibault, general secretary of the CGT, one of France’s two main union confederations, pointed to similar agreements with Arcelor Mittal in Belgium, which had not worked in the long term. He said he saw “enormous problems with the agreement” as, “technically one cannot leave this type of installation unused for a very long time”.

The argument over the steel works seems likely to make agreement more difficult in a range of other negotiations on changes to the labour market which are happening simultaneously.