The work of Ukraine's largest steel producer, ArcelorMittal, in Kryvyi Rih is under threat due to the ongoing mobilization. The executive director of the plant, Mauro Longobardo, expressed serious concern about the future of the enterprise due to the lack of personnel.
“If they continue to mobilize, we will not have enough [personnel] to work. We are talking here about the existence of the company," Mauro Longobardo, executive director of the plant, told the Financial Times newspaper.
Since the beginning of the war, 3,500 of the 18,000 factory workers have been mobilized, but after the mobilization law "probably will be even more." Every week, one of the company's employees, who were mobilized, dies at the front.
Because of this, women have to be hired en masse. ArcelorMittal placed billboards in Kryvyi Rih with the image of women in orange overalls of the plant and with slogans such as "Women really run everything here!".
Previously, at Arcelor, women worked mostly in administrative positions, but "now they are increasingly taking on more physically demanding roles." It is more difficult to hire men, since, according to the law, they are obliged to first register with the military commissariat, "which scares away many potential candidates."
Locomotive drivers, electricians and mechanics were regularly recruited from the factory to join the army. This was done centrally at first - through Arcelor's management - and then military commissars began to stand at the entrance of the plant at the beginning of the shift, "which prompted some employees to go home and stay away from the company."
Due to mass mobilization, the plant was forced to reduce production, in particular of steel used to protect energy facilities from Russian airstrikes. The reduction in production has also led to lower profits and tax revenues for the government, Longobardo added.
