May 21: Mittal Steel still balking on health and safety worldwide; Liberia neighbors group joins network
Members of Global Action on ArcelorMittal hand out literature at ArcelorMittal's annual shareholders meeting.
LUXEMBOURG -- "Last week neighbors of ArcelorMittal Steel plants and mines worldwide met in Luxembourg and released a new report detailing the company's failure to fix environmental and health and safety problems. The neighbors network, Global Action on ArcelorMittal, includes groups from Bosnia, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Ukraine, the United States, and new this year, Liberia. Also part of the network is Central and Eastern European Bankwatch Network which includes organizations from 12 countries in the region. The neighbors gave the new report to shareholders attending the company's Annual Meeting and met with ArcelorMittal board member Gonzalo Urquijo," Liz Ilg, Cleveland Program Director, Ohio Citizen Action.
May 13: ArcelorMittal workers attack headquarters
LUXEMBOURG -- "Steel workers attacked ArcelorMittal's Luxembourg headquarters Tuesday during the company's annual shareholders meeting, setting off smoke bombs and breaking through the front door to protest temporary layoffs during the economic slump. Some of the 1,000 workers from Belgium and France hurled cobblestones and steel fencing at the building, smashing windows and tearing off a steel molding from the ornate 1920s exterior. Riot police lined up to protect the head office of the world's biggest steel maker. One protester broke into the building and was immediately captured by police," Aoife White, Associated Press.
May 12: Slumping economy idles Cleveland steelmaker
Workers collect their last paychecks.
CLEVELAND -- "The global economic slowdown has temporarily shut down Cleveland's Arcelor Mittal Steel Plant. Nine hundred twelve workers were laid off Friday. Many came to the union hall Monday to pick up their last paychecks. These are veteran workers, senior-most survivors who remain on the job after decades of layoffs reduced the plant workforce. Some have worked for J&L Steel, which became Republic Steel then LTV Steel, ISG steel, Mittal Steel and eventually Arcelor Mittal. Laid-off 32 worker Curtis Ferrell said, 'They're talking about layoffs until Christmas. I've ain't never been laid off that long,'" WKYC.
CLEVELAND -- ArcelorMittal shuts plant in Flats, temporarily idling 912 steelworkers, Frank Bentayou, Cleveland Plain Dealer.
May 4: Illinois steelworkers protest plant closing in Chicago
(Kevin Robinson/Chicagoist)
CHICAGO, IL -- "Members of USW Locals 101, 1011 and 7367 held a rally in downtown Chicago Thursday afternoon at the Federal Plaza to demand that ArcelorMittal Steel either reopen their Hennepin, IL finishing plant or allow it to be sold to another company that will. Despite turning a profit of $48 million last year, the global steel giant has idled the Hennepin finishing mill, leaving 300 families downstate unemployed in a county with a 14.1 percent jobless rate. Governor Pat Quinn joined the rally as well, declaring that Illinois needs strong middle class jobs if the state is going to thrive in the economic recovery," Kevin Robinson, Chicagoist. Published May 1.
May 1: Mittal steels himself for slump
LONDON, UK -- "The company has also announced steps to reduce its debts from $26.5bn at the end of last year to $22.5bn by December. Other possibilities - not being considered but that the company has not ruled out - could include efforts to trim the company's plant network. This could be done either by outright closure - an expensive option, given the large sums needed for decommissioning highly capital-intensive steel mills, as well as for paying off workers - or finding buyers for the facilities. If Mr Mittal were to go down this route, he would probably look most seriously at closing high-cost plants in Europe and the US. For instance, plants in Liège in Belgium and Cleveland in the US are both candidates for closure or sale, should Mr Mittal decide on this course of action," Peter Marsh, Financial Times. Published April 27.
Apr 13: Local steel mill’s wait likely long
ArcelorMittal’s Cleveland plant reopening depends on counterparts’ revival, auto industry recovery
 One of the two blast furnaces at ArcelorMittal Cleveland, February 2009. Activity at the furnaces was minimal. |
CLEVELAND -- "It could be quite some time before Cleveland’s ArcelorMittal steel mill is back on line and at least a portion of its 1,400 workers are called back to work after the plant closes in May. Experts who follow the industry and the plant itself say it’s a matter of simple math. There are many other steel mills shut down around the country — and some of those will need to be reopened and reach nearly their full capacity before there’s a need to reopen the ArcelorMittal mill in Cleveland. 'In the U.S., there are 36 blast furnaces and currently nine of them are operating,' said Richard McLaughlin, senior manager and steel industry specialist for Deloitte Consulting in Pittsburgh and Cleveland," Dan Shingler, Crain's Cleveland Business.
Mar 26: Indiana father's lawsuit targets polluters, including U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal
INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- "Ron Kurth, who grew up in Gary, Ind., and worked in the steel mills, raised his family in the region near the outskirts of Chicago. He always wondered about the smoke and smog that overcast the Lake Michigan shoreline. 'It's just a horrible atmosphere,' he said. Kurth, who has a 16-year-old daughter attending school in the Lake County city of Crown Point, decided someone ought to do something about the pollution. On Wednesday, he did. He filed a lawsuit on behalf of his daughter against 11 northwest Indiana industries, including U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal, claiming the air pollution they emit from their smokestacks endangers the long-term health of Lake County children. The lawsuit seeks class action status on behalf of thousands of the county's schoolchildren," Charles Wilson, Associated Press.
Mar 19: Mittal steels himself over financing
LONDON, ENGLAND -- "One banker close to the company said: 'All the signs are that Mr Mittal and his advisers are looking at the various options they could take to raise up to several billion dollars to bring down debts more than they plan at present, should conditions in the steel industry fail to improve.' One potential option might be a rights issue that could raise between $3bn-$5bn. Another could be to sell at least one of the company’s steel plants which might raise a similar sum, although it is highly unlikely to want to sell some of its crown jewels – such as its factory in Vitoria, Brazil. Another alternative might be to sell a strategic stake in the company to an outside business, such as a Chinese state-owned steel company. ArcelorMittal on Tuesday strenuously denied it was contemplating such a step," Peter Marsh, Financial Times.
Mar 16: Ohio activists share strategy on air emissions
 Liz Ilg, Ohio Citizen Action |
Mar 6: ArcelorMittal Cleveland closes mill and finishing plant; 990 steelworkers lose jobs
 Steelworkers cross the grounds of ArcelorMittal's steel plant in the Flats in December. (Thomas Ondrey/The Plain Dealer) |
CLEVELAND -- "ArcelorMittal Cleveland said today that it was halting operations at the mill and finishing plant in Cleveland's Flats, ending jobs for about 990 steelworkers and leaving the fates of about 200 salaried employees uncertain. The plant, which employed about 1,800 members of United Steelworkers of America Local 979 as recently as last summer, now will have just 250 employees providing basic fire watch and maintaining the water treatment, boiler and environmental systems, according to a written statement from the facility's spokeswoman," Frank Bentayou, Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Feb 27: ArcelorMittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal sees hope for steel orders despite gloomy numbers
CLEVELAND
--
"Steel production probably will fall as far as it's going to by the end
of March, the head of ArcelorMittal believes.
If so, orders could begin to increase later this year at ArcelorMittal
Cleveland and plants worldwide. Since September, the industry has
suffered the most rapid downturn in demand anyone can remember. 'We
think we will reach the bottom of the cycle in first quarter 2009,'
Lakshmi Mittal, ArcelorMittal's chairman and chief executive officer,
told investors in a webcast following the recent release of the
Luxembourg-based company's fourth-quarter 2008 earnings report," Frank
Bentayou, Cleveland
Plain
Dealer.
Feb 23: Cleveland steel plant's furnaces to remain idle
CLEVELAND -- "An Ohio steel plant where hundreds of workers were recently laid off when the facility's two blast furnaces were idled won't resume producing steel for at least another three months, a company official said. ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, will shift about 100 of the plant's 300 salaried employees to plants in West Virginia and Indiana by early March, said Terry Fedor, the company's local general manager. The temporary assignments should last from three to six months. The Cleveland plant has been idle since October, when the Luxembourg-based company ordered a temporary shut down because of the slumping steel business. About 450 hourly workers have been laid off since then," Associated Press. Published February 21.
CLEVELAND -- "During the idle at the
Mittal
Steel Cleveland Works facility, neighbors and workers will be breathing
in millions of pounds fewer of pollutants like fine particles,
manganese, and sulfur dioxide. Already neighbors have noticed a lack of
rotten egg odors, night-time noises, and build up of soot at their
homes... The current break in production and pollution is an
opportunity to discuss how to establish a working relationship between
Mittal Steel managers and its neighbors. Ohio Citizen Action and
Neighbors of Mittal Steel have decided to suspend our good neighbor
campaign during the period while the mill is idled," Letter to
ArcelorMittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal, Liz Ilg, Cleveland Area Program
Director, Ohio Citizen Action.Mittal Steel news from Jul-Dec 2008, Jan-Jun 2008, Jul-Dec 2007, Jan-Jun 2007, Jul-Dec 2006, Jan-Jun 2006, Jul-Dec 2005, Jan - Jun 2005, 2004
49,718 neighbors have sent handwritten letters, postcards, slips, and petitions urging Cleveland Works management to be good neighbors as of December 16, 2008.
Of these, 37,808 have been written since Mittal Steel took over in 2005.
Pollution log
Older Mittal news
Jul-Dec 2008
Jan-Jun 2008
Jul-Dec 2007
Jan-Jun 2007
Jul-Dec 2006
Jan-Jun 2006
Jul-Dec 2005
Jan-Jun 2005
2004