TIRANA, Sept. 30 – Some 200 workers of the Turkish-run Kurum steel plant in the city of Elbasan, central Albania, staged protests this week after being fired by the company. The protesters say the company has not respected their contracts in their sudden dismissals while Kurum claims difficulty because of declining sales.
The fired workers, many of whom have been working with Kurum for more than a decade and even suffered serious injury, say they will escalate their protests in case no solution is provided.
Kurum is the largest employer in the city of Elbasan which suffers high unemployment rates and high pollution levels because of the plant’s operation.
Turkey’s Kurum, which is one of the country’s biggest investors, has expanded its activity in Albania in energy and port services by acquiring four small and medium sized hydropower plants and operating the container terminal in the country’s biggest port of Durres.
Established in 1999, Kurum International Albania, a subsidiary of Turkey’s Kurum Group, is the largest steel producer in Albania with 70 percent of the country’s market share, manufacturing and selling a variety of hot-rolled construction iron products to clients in Albania, the EU and the Balkans. The company is also involved in the production of liquid oxygen, lime and in boat construction and dockyard repair.
