BNamericas reported that Colombia's CUT union believes Siderúrgica del Pacífico, a subsidiary of Brazilian flat steel producer Gerdau, will resume operations before the end of 2009 but with new labor conditions in place.

Mr Álvaro José Vega president of CUT's Valle del Cauca department branch said that "We are certain that Sidelpa will reopen, but we also know that it will do so without the current collective labor agreement and conditions for new workers will be much worse."

He added that the company is trying to do away with the current labor agreement in order to restart operations using only seasonal contracts and third party labor. This will put an end to the union at the plant.

It may be noted that in June 2009, Gerdau shut down operations and started liquidating Sidelpa, citing world steel prices that had dropped by almost 40% between June 2008 and May 2009.

(Sourced from www.bnamericas.com)