New Delhi: Seeking to protect workers' interest in a steel plant in his country, French President Nicolas Sarkozy on said he has met his "friend" steel tycoon L N Mittal, who promptly promised to do the best.
"I have briefed Sarkozy about the plant. It is a normal process of restructuring of the plant. Out of 600 employees, 450 are to be offered new jobs with better salary and 150 are retiring. This is for the benefit of the plant," Mittal told reporters here.
About the meeting, Sarkozy said today that "I met (Mittal) as a friend and investor and not as an opponent... in a democracy there is no prohibition on talking."
Arcelor-Mittal, the world's largest maker of the alloy, had earlier said that workers at the Gandrange plant in eastern France would be given a choice of relocating to a nearby flat steel plant run by the company.
A French minister had earlier this week said that Mittal has been asked to meet Sarkozy or the French Prime Minister to give assurance for protecting jobs at the Gandrange plant that the company proposed to close down early next year.
The steel plant has an annual production of 900,000 tons.
After the shutdown was announced, Sarkozy had said that he had asked for a review of the proposal and the government was "going to take a certain number of decisions" on the issue."
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