Brazil Steelmaker Usiminas Reshuffling Staff, Not Firing En Masse -Union
May 16 2012 - 5:24PM
Dow Jones News
RIO DE JANEIRO (Dow Jones) -- Brazilian steelmaker Usinas
Siderurgicas de Minas Gerais (USIM5.BR, USZNY), or Usiminas, is
reshuffling employees in the interests of efficiency but isn't
firing en masse, a union leader representing workers at the
company's Ipatinga works said Wednesday.
Usiminas's new management has decided to move about 1,400
maintenance workers from its capital-goods subsidiary Usiminas
Mecanica, or Usimec, at Ipatinga in Minas Gerais state to the
Ipatinga steelworks, Luiz Carlos Miranda, president of the Ipatinga
Metalworkers' Union Sindipa, said in an interview.
Around 800 of the total have already been transferred and around
200 jobs will be lost as a result of the move, mainly by natural
wastage including employees entering retirement, Miranda said.
Brasil Economico newspaper reported Tuesday that Usiminas was
preparing to fire 1,300 people, of which 300 had already left the
company with the remaining 1,000 to leave the steelmaker in coming
months. Usiminas said it had no comment on the report and Sindipa
said the report was untrue.
In 2009, when Brazilian steelmakers Usiminas, Companhia
Siderurgica Nacional SA (CSNA3.BR, SID) and mining company Vale SA
(VALE, VALE5.BR) all laid off workers as steel markets slumped amid
the global economic crisis, Usiminas decided to shift 1,300
maintenance workers from Usiminas to Usimec, Miranda said.
Because this move wasn't entirely successful, according to the
unionist, Usiminas's new management has decided to move the
maintenance workers back to Usiminas's Ipatinga steelworks, where
they will basically be doing the same jobs as before. Usiminas
currently has 7,200 employees at Ipatinga and 6,500 at Usiminas
Mecanica, Miranda said.
The workforce is protected from layoffs by a accord between the
union and the company, Miranda said.
A Usiminas spokesman said he was unable to speak on labor
questions at the steel company.
Sindipa's Miranda said Usiminas's employees are reasonably
satisfied with the new management at the steelmaker, following
Latin American steelmaker Ternium SA's (TX) entry into Usiminas in
January as a controlling shareholder.
"The last four months have been better than the last four
years," he remarked.
Miranda said he understood plans may be proceeding to open
Usimec's capital so that it may be traded on the Bovespa stock
exchange as a separate company. Usimec is "doing well" because of
new orders for capital goods and equipment needed for
infrastructure work in the run up to Brazil's hosting of events
including the World Cup in 2014, the union leader said.
-By Diana Kinch, Dow Jones Newswires; 55 21 7564 4495;
diana.kinch@dowjones.com
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