SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) -- More than a thousand workers at Bulgaria's largest steel maker, Kremikovtzi, rallied Tuesday outside the plant to protest delayed salary payments and demand a final decision on the fate of the factory.
Workers' unions are demanding the government look for a new majority stakeholder in Kremikovtzi to help the loss-making plant recover and guarantee it will remain open.
Indian tycoon Pramod Mittal's Global Steel Holdings currently owns 71 percent of the steel maker. It obtained the stake in 2005 after taking over the Bulgarian Finmetals Group, which had purchased the stake from the government in 1999.
Mittal, under pressure from the mill's growing debt, which at the end of 2007 amounted to euro854 million, has announced his company is looking for a new strategic investor.
The government, which still owns 25.3 percent of Kremikovtzi, has accused Global Steel Holdings of failing to invest in essential work to reduce the amount of pollution the plant emits. The factory is considered one of the main polluters near Bulgaria's capital, Sofia.
In February, a Bulgarian court fined Mittal euro120 million for failing to honor the terms of the privatization deal.
Merrill Lynch & Co., hired by Pramod Mittal to advise him on selling Kremikovzi, said earlier this month that it has contacted about 20 steel makers worldwide. It said seven of those expressed tentative interest and three entered into intensive talks.
The government has said it will agree to any investor prepared to pour money into the mill's viability plan, which includes measures to reduce emissions and prevent the company from increasing debts to state companies for electricity, gas and transport of raw materials.
Unions have also accused Mittal's company of poor management, saying workers have not been paid since January, and of exposing the plant to the risk of being shut down for failing to meet emission standards.
''We demand our salaries for February and March to be paid immediately,'' trade union leader Lyudmil Pavlov said, adding that the protests will continue until workers' demands are met.
The steel plant is the largest in the country, employing 10,000 people. Small stakeholders own the remaining 3.7 percent not held by Mittal's company and the government.
