New coalition of groups against ArcelorMittal

A newly-formed coalition of environmental and community groups - Global Action on ArcelorMittal - has launched a report showing how local residents and workers around the world pay the price of ArcelorMittal's success. Friends of the Earth is supporting the groups.

The report - 'In the wake of ArcelorMittal - the global steel giant's local impacts' - was launched at a press conference in Luxembourg to coincide with the company's annual shareholder meeting. It contains nine case studies detailing ArcelorMittal's legacy of pollution, environmental damage, health impacts and poor worker safety.

In the report the coalition demands that:

* ArcelorMittal implements environmental and health action plans in consultation with residents adjacent to the plants and plant workers in a democratic manner;

* Governments should not give ArcelorMittal perverse tax breaks or allow it to dispossess people from their land; and

* Public financial institutions should not support polluting industry such as ArcelorMittal, which has extensive resources of its own.

Members of Global Action on ArcelorMittal will present this set of demands to their governments, the international financial institutions and ArcelorMittal, and step up their efforts to hold the company accountable at the local level.

'In the wake of ArcelorMittal - the global steel giant's local impacts' report