Bosnia Mittal workers land deal, call off their strike
SARAJEVO (Reuters) – Some 3,300 workers at Bosnia’s largest steel-maker, Mittal Steel Zenica, called off a general strike yesterday after the regional government intervened with the company’s management to increase the minimum pay. As part of the deal, the government gave the management of Zenica – a unit of top steel-maker Arcelor Mittal – an extra year to fulfill contractual obligations that could have jeopardized its ownership of the Bosnian plant. Trade union officials said minimum net pay would be hiked to 2.25 marka ($1.5) per hour from 2 marka. «We accepted the offer and called off the strike,» union President Islam Imamovic told Reuters. «But we see it rather as a compromise than as a victory.» The workers originally sought 2.50 marka per hour but the management offered 2.18 marka. The government of Bosnia’s Muslim-Croat federation, which sold the plant to Mittal in 2004, finally intervened in the row. The government asked management to raise its offer after approving a new deadline for Mittal to honor the terms of its purchase contract. When it bought the plant, Mittal pledged a $130 million investment over a three-year period and said it would re-start integral production by the end of 2007, aiming for an output of 2 million tons. It has so far failed to achieve these goals, making 540,000 tons of finished steel products and 490,000 tons of liquid steel in 2006. The government set the end of 2008 as the new deadline. Bosnia’s second-biggest exporter, the plant sells forgings, bars and rods to the countries of the former Yugoslavia and the European Union.
