Trade unions say they are satisfied with the decision of the Liège Court of Appeal on Wednesday to authorise the transfer of Liberty Steel to its subsidiary Liberty Galati, the regional secretary of the CSC Métal union, Jordan Atanasov, told Belga.
The news broke on Wednesday morning at the Liège Court of Appeal. Liberty Galati, the Romanian subsidiary of British steel giant Liberty Steel, a company specialising in metallurgy and steelmaking, is taking over all the workers at the Liège-based company.
This is good news for the unions. "This is a decision that was expected. The CSC clearly supported this offer, because it included the acquisition of all activities and workers. The appeal court has taken into account the situation of the workers," said Atanasov.
No deadline has yet been set, but the company's 582 workers are already satisfied that they will be able to return to work after several months at a standstill.
"The workers are waiting to know when they will be able to return to work. We're all aware that it will be a gradual process, but I think that this has already given the workers a certain momentum," explains the CSC trade unionist.
In the case of the takeover of Liberty Steel's assets, the court had three bids to choose from. Two of these were partial bids from steelmaker ArcelorMittal (which wanted to keep just 127 workers), the owner prior to Liberty's arrival in 2019, and from the Russian-Italian NLMK/Marcegaglia consortium (maintaining just 97 people).
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A third bid was submitted by Liberty Steel, via its Romanian subsidiary Liberty Galati, for all the assets and 582 employees.
The court originally rejected all the bids, but Liberty Galati appealed the decision at the end of May. This bid has now been accepted, to the relief of employees.
