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ROME, Nov. 13-- The dispute between the Italian state and multinational steel giant ArcelorMittal continues to rage. More than 8,000 jobs in one of Italy's most economically depressed regions hang in the balance. ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, was approved to take over southern Italy's Ilva steelworks in June 2017, promising to pay 1.8 billion euros (2 billion U.S. dollars) for the plant while promising to spend another 2.5 billion euros to improve the plant's environmental problems and to increase production. According to Emilio Miceli, secretary of the Filctem CGIL labor union, the deal also included a promise to maintain the plant's workforce as long as production stayed above 6 million tons of steel per year. That is well below the plant's capacity to produce 10 million tons per year, a level that makes Ilva Europe's largest steel smelter. "The problem is, Ilva never reached production levels greater than 4 million tons since ArcelorMittal took over," Miceli told Xinhua. "That is allowing them to disregard the job guarantee." According to Italian media, ArcelorMittal has cited the need to cut Ilva's workforce by as many as 5,000 workers as part of the reason it is no longer interested in operating Ilva, which could have added around 10 percent to the company's worldwide output of some 92 million tons of steel. The other reason stated by the company is the government's decision to lift legal immunity from prosecution for health and environmental damage caused by Ilva before ArcelorMittal took over. | 
