The Mexican unit of the steel giant ArcelorMittal reported that the 56 days of illegal blockade by the Mining Union of its facilities has ended. The company committed to paying each worker MXN 77,000 ($4,173), to increasing salaries by 8.0 percent and, something historic in the country, paying 100 percent of lost or unpaid salaries to more than 3,000 workers, the parties reported separately.
“The most important and unprecedented agreement in the country was the achievement of the payment of 100 percent of the lost wages for the total of 55 days that the strike lasted,” reported the Mining Union of Congressman Napoleón Gómez Urrutia in a statement.
According to steel company executives, they could restart steel production in their blast furnace within nine days at the latest when the protocols for restarting operations are implemented and there is certainty that the necessary technical and occupational health and safety conditions exist.
The company commented that ArcelorMittal Mexico's economic losses are so great that profits for fiscal year 2024 were practically eliminated.
The steel company promised to cancel the legal disputes against the workers that kept the company unemployed.
ArcelorMittal México is the largest steel company in Mexico, last year reporting a production of 3.9 million tons of crude steel and a production of 4.5 million tons of iron ore.