The LCGB trade union has announced that, following the acquisition by the ArcelorMittal group of the ILVA steelmaker, the future of the Luxembourg production site in Dudelange is threatened.

The LCGB has alleged that the steel giant wants to sell the Dudelange site under the pretext of the market study carried out by the European Commission.

The LCGB strongly opposes this sale of the galvanising site while questioning seriously the choice of sites for sale made by ArcelorMittal.

In view of other ongoing events on certain other sites in Luxembourg, the LCGB appealed to the Minister of the Economy and the Minister of Labour to urgently request the holding of a tripartite steel industry to follow this record scrupulously.

The LCGB recalled that, when signing the last tripartite agreement, it had already expressed its deep concern about the future of Luxembourg sites; these concerns appear to be well-founded. The LCGB has also asked, together with colleagues from the Belgian trade union CSC, for an urgent meeting with Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission.

The LCGB is also in close consultation with the European trade union bodies in order to safeguard the lives and interests of the employees concerned.​

Earlier in the day, Luxembourg's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Economy, Etienne Schneider, together with the mayor of the City of Dudelange, Dan Biancalana, intervened with the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and the European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Verstager, to denounce the Commission's position which obliges ArcelorMittal to sell several factories in Europe, including the Dudelange site.

In their joint letter dated 16 April 2018, Minister Schneider and Dan Biancalana criticised this approach of the Commission which prevents the preservation of a competitive industrial base in Europe, which is nevertheless necessary for economic growth and job creation. It is recalled that such an industrial base requires the presence in the EU of world market leaders such as ArcelorMittal.

Minister Schneider and the Mayor of Dudelange recalled that the requirements of the Commission in the framework of the ArcelorMittal-Ilva transaction could even harm social dialogue in Luxembourg: "In relation to the efforts provided by Luxembourg under the social model to support industrial enterprises during the 2008 financial and economic crisis, it is difficult to explain to the social partners, in particular to the unions and employees concerned, why it is necessary for the Dudelange to leave the ArelorMittal group to give it to an unknown buyer and thus reserve for it an uncertain future."

In another letter, Minister Schneider invited the president of the CSV parliamentary group, Claude Wiseler, to support his approach and to also intervene with the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, in the common interest of preserving the site of ArcelorMittal in Dudelange in the bosom of the group: "Any sales procedure can only lead this site to a period of uncertainty harmful to the preservation of a traditional industrial base in Luxembourg."​