The turmoil at steelmaker ArcelorMittal is not going away: The maintenance team has already entered its fifth day

At ArcelorMittal, the Maintenance Team campaign is entering its fifth day. Since Thursday morning, about 300 employees have stopped working at the steel plant in the city of Ghent, due to dissatisfaction with wages for providing training. They receive support from some colleagues from other services, and there is a decline in the level of production.

The unions ABVV Metal, ACV Metea and ACLVB will meet again on Monday afternoon with the steel manufacturer's management. He previously pointed out the generous salaries that more than 5,000 ArcelorMittal employees in Ghent can count on. And a bonus agreed upon in the recent collective labor agreement for training new colleagues.

No agreement was reached between the unions and management last week. The service in question will not work on Monday either.

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The unions indicated last weekend that it was possible to reach an agreement on financial compensation “as long as the influx of new arrivals is more than average.” The precise details of this proposal are on the table today.

The proposal in question will be presented to all workers, who number more than 3,000 in the city of Ghent. If not supported, a strike notice will follow. In September last year, negotiations on a new collective labor agreement were already on the brink.

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More than 60% of steelworkers subsequently rejected a draft collective labor agreement. However, the collective labor agreement was approved, because according to the statute, the proposal could only be rejected by a two-thirds majority. More than 91 percent of the 3,162 steelworkers eligible to vote participated in the digital vote.

At the end of last year, steel plant employees in the city of Ghent also voted to strike after working from home arrangements were reduced. Nearly 2,000 employees eventually agreed to a compromise proposal, which prevented a strike notice.