With a dramatic increase of deaths at ArcelorMittal’s global sites, trade unions across the world stand together in solidarity to demand that the company puts workers’ lives and safety above profit. With at least 314 deaths reported between 2012 and 2023, and thousands more estimated to have suffered from accidents and injuries in the workplace, workers are at the mercy of a real health and safety crisis at the global steel and mining giant.
The accident earlier this week where a young worker at the ArcelorMittal plant João Monlevade in Brazil was electrocuted and lost an arm as a result, has served as a stark reminder of the dire need a global day of action to call attention to the health and safety situation.
Since 2012, there has been a dramatic increase in deaths at ArcelorMittal sites across the globe: 113 in the multinational company’s mines, and 201 in its steel plants, in Kazakhstan, South Africa, Brazil, Spain, France, Morocco, Ukraine, Poland, the USA and elsewhere. In 2007, in the wake of an accident that killed 41 miners in Kazakhstan, ArcelorMittal unions around the world joined with the company to form a joint global health and safety committee, with the intention of addressing safety concerns at a global level, conducting site inspections, and fixing urgent issues.
However, this committee has not met physically since the COVID-19 pandemic and there have been no site inspections. In 2021, unions expressed alarm at the growing death toll at ArcelorMittal workplaces and demanded that the company reconvened the safety group and complied with ILO safety standards, this had not happened.
Today, trade unions across the globe are taking part in a global action day. In Brazil, with general assemblies, flyer distributions and a demonstration; industrial action and meetings with shop stewards took place in France, and in Spain workers demonstrated at the plant gates calling for change. Trade unions across the globe from Argentina to Mexico, North America, South Africa and Liberia demonstrated workers’ anger at the state of health and safety in the company to say enough is enough.
Convening outside’s ArcelorMittal’s offices in London today, IndustriALL Global Union and industriAll European Trade Union demanded urgent action.
Christine Olivier, assistant general secretary of IndustriALL Global Union said:
‘’Hundreds of workers went to work at ArcelorMittal sites and never returned home to their families. What more needs to happen for management to take health and safety seriously? Occupational health issues can only be resolved properly if they include workers’ representatives, and management must work with trade unions to urgently reconvene the Joint Global Health and Safety Committee. We need to work towards zero deaths at work. Every life matters.’’
Judith Kirton-Darling, General Secretary of industriAll European Trade Union added:
‘’Workers crushed, electrocuted, burnt, asphyxiated, killed in an explosion, the horrendous list of reported deaths and injuries goes on and on. There can be no more delay, ArcelorMittal must engage with trade unions and invest in their sites and their workers now. Workers lives over profit!’