A Russian trade union leader has asked ArcelorMittal to reconsider plans to idle some of its operations in Russia’s coal-mining heartland, a move the union says could cost over 3,000 workers their jobs. ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel maker, told workers this month of its plans to idle the Pervomayskaya and Anzherskoye operations in the Siberian region of Kemerovo, the local federation of trade unions said in a statement.

ArcelorMittal declined immediate comment.

Coal miners in Russia, the world’s No. 5 producer, have gone from boom to bust in six months as the global economic downturn has slashed demand for their products. Loss-making employers have scaled back production and cut salaries. [ID:nLM394112] Preserving social stability through the financial crisis is one of the major challenges facing the Russian government as it deals with its first recession in a decade. About 800,000 Russians lost their jobs in December and January combined.

“We hope for your understanding of the complex social problems created by your activities,” Yuri Kaufman, chairman of the Federation of Trade Union Organisations in the Kuzbass, said in remarks addressed to ArcelorMittal Chairman Lakshmi Mittal.

“I appeal, along with the trade unions, to take measures to stabilise the social situation in the workers’ collectives of ArcelorMittal’s mines in the Kuzbass,” he said in the statement, published on the federation’s website, www.fpok.ru.

Kuzbass, an abbreviation of Kuznetsk basin, is the unofficial name of the western Siberian region estimated to hold 85 percent of Russia’s coking coal reserves.

The federation said ArcelorMittal had already cut the workforce at its Kuzbass operations, which also include the Beryozovskaya mine, by 10 percent since October and cut wages by 30 percent. Should it proceed with its plans, more than 2,000 workers in the town of Anzhero-Sudzhensk and another 1,200 in Beryozovsky would lose their jobs, the federation said in the statement.

ArcelorMittal paid $650 million last year to acquire the Pervomayskaya and Beryozovskaya mines from Russian steel maker Severstal plus a coal preparation plant, mining rights to another deposit and three associated service firms.

It acquired the Anzherskoye facility from owners affiliated to Severstal for an additional $70 million. At the time, ArcelorMittal said the acquisitions would boost its self-sufficiency in coking coal to 15 percent from 10 percent.

Find More Other News : Coal, Exploration, Mining Investment