Page 55 - ITAtube Journal 2 2022

The closure of the Vallourec Works
this December 2023.
Vilson Gegic, Chairman of the General Works Council of Vallourec
After a long fight to save their jobs, for the 2400 employees and their families at the sites, the Mannesmann/Vallourec era will come to an end on 31 December 2023.
Düsseldorf and Mülheim will lose well-paid jobs protected by collective labour agree- ments.
In heavy industry, with its tough working conditions, there has always been a balance for employees, resulting in fair pay and good working conditions.
Employer representatives, the trade union and works councils have always stood together for this.
It is difficult to say goodbye. Now it’s a matter of finding our colleagues well-paid jobs with good working conditions.
We are confident that we will succeed in this task - not least thanks to the job fairs organised by Vallourec. Nevertheless, the cohesion of the workforce as a large family
will be lost: processing steel and rolling tubes together was and remains something special!
Glück Auf Vilson Gegic
Review
restarted their factory, which had been largely destroyed during the Second World War, with spare parts salvaged from the rubble and initially worked without roofs
or glazed windows. In Mülheim and in
Rath, thousands of commercial and indus- trial apprentices, not infrequently several generations of one family, started their careers and developed into excellent skilled workers. They were and are rightly proud of this training. They have thus acquired good career opportunities to be successful in and outside the Group. For all of them, but also for the cities affected, it was a shock
to learn that the factories would close and about 2,400 employees would lose their jobs where they had done exceptional work. Many of them have already been
placed in new jobs with the support of the company. The management is endeavour- ing to ensure that the “employees, execu- tives and managers accompany the closure of many years of seamless steel pipe pro- duction ‘with their heads held high’.”
ITAtube Journal December 2023
55