The steel industry in Greece is losing its battle for survival as the countdown has begun for the shutdown of the factories of the Manesis group’s Hellenic Halyvourgia and Halyvourgiki, owned by the Constantinos Angelopoulos group, at Aspropyrgos, Western Attica.
On Monday Hellenic Halyvourgia informed the plant’s 120 employees that it is preparing to lay off all the staff at the Aspropyrgos unit in the next few days. The steel company’s management explained to the workers that right now it is able to give them their severance pay, while in the next few days and weeks it may not be in the position to do so. The workers are expected to propose their own alternative solutions by Thursday.
Also on Monday, during a meeting at the Labor Ministry, the management of rival Halyvourgiki appeared determined to halt production at its own plant at Aspropyrgos after March 31. The ministry and the workers’ unions asked for a four-day extension before employees enter suspension status so that a ministerial committee can convene, possibly in the presence of the prime minister reports Kathimerini.