By DPA,
Bucharest : More than 3,000 ArcelorMittal steelworkers in Romania walked off their jobs Monday demanding higher pay, marking the country’s second major industrial strike in less than a month.
Management at the steel pipe plant in Galati is offering about 12 percent more pay. The Solidaritatea union, representing some 3,800 workers, is seeking nearly three times that much, the Mediafax news agency reported.
Two other unions have accepted the offer by the world’s largest steelmaker.
About 13,800 people work at the plant, which Mittal bought from the Romanian government in 2001 before the Indian-based steelmaker merged his company with Arcelor of Luxembourg.
On Friday, some 13,000 workers at Renault SA’s Dacia unit ended a nearly three-week strike after winning pay raises and a profit-sharing pledge from the automaker.
Under the deal, Renault’s Romanian workers get an extra 300 lei (130 dollars) a month retroactive to Jan 1 and another 60-lei (26-dollar) raise in September.