Workers occupy French steel plant

On Monday, the workers occupied the company’s site at Florange in the Moselle region close to Belgium and Germany in protest at the management’s refusal to reopen two blast furnaces which have been out of operation since the middle of last year.

The workers plan to install a tent village and occupy the site indefinitely in the protest method pioneered by the Occupy movement.

The company instituted a temporary shutdown of the factory furnaces and laid off nearly 3,000 employees last year, but the protesting workers say they will not leave until they discover the company’s long-term plans for the site.

Union leaders said they are concerned that the site, which employees about 5,000 people, will be permanently shut down.

ArcelorMittal is the world’s biggest steel maker and recently announced a net loss of 757 million euros for the final quarter of 2011, but the year as a whole was still profitable.

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