BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: Some 3,000 workers at Bosnia's largest steel maker Mittal Steel Zenica on strike in protest over low wages

Some 3,000 workers at Bosnia's largest steel maker Mittal Steel Zenica have gone on strike in a protest over low wages. Some 3,000 workers at Bosnia's largest steel maker Mittal Steel Zenica went on strike on Wednesday (August 1) in a protest over low wages. Bosnia's second-largest exporter, with an annual production capacity of 800,000 tonnes of metal, is a unit of the world's biggest steel maker Arcelor Mittal. The workers want minimum pay of 2.50 Bosnian marka (1.28 euro) per hour while management is offering 2.18 marka. "After the difficult discussion with the management, it was a logical decision that we decided to organise a warning strike, which we had from 25th until 27th last month, and we also decided to go on general strike if no results were made. So today, on August 1, we have started a general strike which will last until our demands are met," said Islam Imamovic, the trade union president. The union also wants night and overtime bonuses in line with a regional collective bargaining deal and is demanding that correspondence with management should be in the local language. The government of Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation tried to prevent the strike on Tuesday (July 31), urging a compromise. A company official said management view the strike as illegal. She said a court on Thursday (August 2) should rule on the issue and declined to comment further. The company made 540,000 tonnes of finished products and 490,000 tonnes of liquid steel in 2006 and hopes to boost output by 20 percent this year. It exports forgings, bars and rods to the countries of former Yugoslavia and the European Union.

ITN Source | August 2, 2007

Tags:. .source. .line. .former. .company. .tuesday