The workers at Bulgaria's largest steel mill Kremikovtzi restarted today mass protests in Sofia with the demands of disbursement of salaries, of compensations for workers, which will possibly be laid-off, and of finding an investor in the factory.
According to Bulgaria's local press reports, until the end of spring Kremikovtzi plans to lay-off about 1,900 workers. The first round of job cuts is expected to take place at Kremikovtzi's cold rolling facility, which has been halted for almost a year and a half.
Moreover, according to Kremikovtzi's trade unions, half of the mill's workers have not received their salaries since November.
Meanwhile, the Economy Minister of Bulgaria Petar Dimitrov has announced that the government continues talks with Brazilian company CSN, however, the results of negotiations are not clear, as the main impediment for the investor is the price of metals and furnace coke on international markets, and the company would not make serious commitments unless it received some investment guarantee.
According to Podkrepa trade union representative Mr Luydmil Pavlov, Kremikovtzi is likely to halt operations at the end of March 2009 if no investor is found.