“I’ve been following this story for years, and I don’t have the words to describe the atrocity of the situation facing the employees of Liberty Steel in Dudelange. The plant is on the brink of collapse and this is the realisation of the fear we have had since the takeover in 2019.” These are the words of Robert Fornieri, LCGB deputy general secretary. The 150 employees at Dudelange have not been paid their salaries for the month of October. With November coming to an end this Saturday, there is every reason to fear that they will not be paid for this period either.
On 25 November, labour minister (CSV) and representatives of the ministry of the economy (DP) was on an economic mission in China) met with the OGBL and LCGB unions and the staff delegation to discuss the current situation, the future of Liberty Steel in Dudelange and the non-payment of wages. “The minister of labour… assured the unions and the staff delegation that his ministry would seek solutions to avoid any further deterioration,” says the ministry’s press release.
Management “insanely stubborn,” says LCGB
But two scenarios seem to be looming on the horizon: suspension of payments and bankruptcy, or transfer of the business to potential buyers. “But what company would want to take over sites in debt?” asks Stefano Araujo, central secretary of the OGBL. “If the company were to declare bankruptcy, a receiver would be appointed and a legal framework would allow employees to be paid while one or more buyers were found.”
Potential buyers for the Liberty Steel sites (Dudelange and Liège in particular) have already come forward, “But in the end the group never followed through on these offers, and we have never understood why, and now they are blackmailing us,” continues Araujo. Fornieri adds: “Liberty Steel’s management have been insanely stubborn in their refusal to sell, and their attitude is incomprehensible and inexplicable. Was it stubbornness because of pride? They did everything they could to prevent the requests of the buyers from succeeding, and yet they had no industrial project for the Dudelange site.”
In the unions’ own words, the Luxembourg site “has knowhow and products that are in great demand, and the market is there. But nobody trusts Liberty Steel to sign contracts. They’re not industrialists, they’re basically traders.” “And the plant’s local managers are in the same boat as the employees--they’ve been abandoned by the group too,” says Robert Fornieri.
Two companies interested in the Belgian site
“Last summer, Liberty Steel made a commitment to the unions and employees to put the site up for sale so that it could be taken over and operations relaunched. This commitment, presented as a glimmer of hope for the workers, has not yet been followed up… Today, the OGBL and LCGB unions are calling on the European Commission and the member states, including Luxembourg, to take urgent action. Faced with a group that is sinking one European entity after another, it is imperative to protect the employees of Dudelange and to ensure the future of the site. The commission and the member states must act to put Liberty out of business and allow other players to take over,” commented the unions in a joint press release this week.
Also on Monday 25 November, at an extraordinary works council meeting in Belgium, the unions learned that an American and an Italian company were interested in taking over Liberty Steel’s Liège sites. Time will tell whether the Dudelange site will also be involved.
This article was originally published in .