Protest against closure of Romania’s largest fertilizer plant in Târgu Mureș

About 300 employees of the Transylvanian fertilizer plant marched in the pouring rain in front of the Mureș County Prefecture, asking the Romanian government to save the plant that is doomed to close. “Save the jobs! Save Romanian agriculture! We want to work, not emigrate,” they said on their banners. The head of the Alternativa 2002 trade union, which unites the employees of the chemical plant, Emil Almasan, told the press that the main reason for the protest was that the Bucharest government has been claiming for a year and a half that it wants to save the plant, but no progress has been made. Meanwhile, the company has started preparing for mass layoffs, and employees are spending the last month of their forced leave, the union leader said. Almasan also drew attention to the danger that after the closure, it will be difficult to restart the plant, as it is a much more expensive procedure and it is also difficult to find specialists. That is why they would like the Romanian government and those responsible for agriculture to take action now, the union leader stressed. He said that the closure of the plant would endanger the livelihoods of 2,500 families. That is why the employees are also planning to demonstrate in Bucharest against the closure of the plant. Calin Orlando Cocis, the president of the CNSRL Fratia trade union federation in Mureș County, pointed out that, in addition to the employees, agriculture would be the other major victim of the closure of the plant, since farmers will have to obtain fertilizer from elsewhere. He hopes that the government will make a favorable decision by April 9, when they meet with the Mureș County MPs.

The Azomures management announced in mid-March that it would close the plant

According to union leaders, the company plans to lay off 865 of its 920 employees in a collective layoff. The employer can carry out the layoffs 45 days after the announcement. In recent years, Azomures’ owner, the Swiss Amropa, has suspended production several times, citing the high price of natural gas as unprofitable. Last year, the state-owned gas company Romgaz began negotiations to buy the plant. The owner justified the collective layoff by saying that Romgaz had not yet made a concrete offer. The state-owned company, however, said that it would not pay the price requested by Amropa, but that it would not rule out continuing negotiations. The price requested by Amropa was not disclosed.

MTI