One of Brazil's leading steelmakers, Cia. Siderurgica Nacional SA (CSN), may fire over 3,000 employees by the end of January, a union official told press.
The company has fired 300 workers since December 16, according to Renato Soares Ramos, president of the Sul Fluminese Metalworkers' Union. The company also placed 2,000 of its 16,000 total workers worldwide on 21 days paid leave earlier this month, and brought forward the retirement date of workers at its Volta Redonda works in Southwest Brazil.
The union president said that CSN recently informed workers that another 1,200 workers may lose their jobs this month and a further 1,800 in January, all from Volta Redonda.
The Volta Redonda works currently employ 8,000, and the mill is scheduled to increase its annual crude steel capacity by 700,000 tons next year, to a total of 6.3 million tons.
The 13,000-member union (of which 3,500 are CSN workers) planned to protest at the plant's gates on Friday (the 19th) and stage another protest march in the city on Monday, December 22.