Steelmaker ArcelorMittal is considering relocating thousands of jobs from Europe to India. Around 5,600 positions across 20 European countries could be affected, mainly in IT, logistics, and maintenance.
Robert Fornieri of the Luxembourg Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (LCGB) said in conversation with RTL that he was “not surprised, but disappointed”. He criticised what he described as the company’s approach: benefiting from European public funding to protect itself from competition, only to then take decisions that would cut or relocate thousands of jobs in pursuit of higher profits. He also confirmed the scale of the planned job transfers.
As far as jobs in Luxembourg are concerned, however, it is not yet certain that redundancies will follow. According to Fornieri, social dialogue is ongoing and sector-wide steel agreements are in place, with a new one currently being negotiated.
Within that framework, relocations are considered off limits, Fornieri said. He stressed that moving jobs abroad would contradict the spirit of a tripartite agreement, in which all parties, including the state, commit to making efforts, with the government supporting reorganisations through social measures, but not accepting the relocation of jobs.
In response to the media reports regarding the potential job losses and transfers, an ArcelorMittal spokesperson stated: “It is important to clarify that the figures presented during this European Works Council concern the scope of the study and not the outcome of the study. It is absolutely not the case that thousands of jobs in Europe will be transferred to Poland and India.”
He continued by elaborating on the situation in Luxembourg, claiming the media statements regarding the number of jobs at risk are “incorrect” and the “topics such as organisation, staffing, investments and strengthening the roles and processes of the global headquarters including the use of AI, are currently being discussed within the Tripartite framework”.
