Hundreds of workers at Altos Hornos de Mexico (AHMSA) took over part of the company's facilities Tuesday to protest the lack of payment of their wages, local media reported.
According to the newspaper Milenio, 800 workers took control over a portion of the AHMSA facilities due to salary payments owed by the company; the facilities remain inactive in the production of steel due to lack of resources to buy energy (gas and electricity).
According to the newspaper El Siglo de Torreon, the takeover of the facilities includes one of the blast furnaces, currently stopped, with a capacity of 7,000 metric tons of liquid steel.
This takeover of facilities affects more than 6,000 workers at the steel facilities in Monclova, Coahuila. Considering the indirect jobs affected, there would be 65,000 people, reported Milenio.
AHMSA is in the process of selling control to US-based Argentem Creek Partners, a company that will inject $200 million of working capital to reactivate production. So far, the steelmaker has not received any funds from the new investor.