ArcelorMittal steel plant workers try to break down the door of the director’s office in Gandrange, France. (Reuters)

Gandrange (France), April 4 (AFP): French workers at an ArcelorMittal steel plant in Gandrange threw furniture and files in the director’s office out of the window after the management confirmed that hundreds of jobs would be cut.

The attack, witnessed by reporters and policemen who did not intervene, came after 60 workers tried to break down doors to barge into a meeting where managers told union leaders that 575 jobs would be axed due to the plant’s partial closure.

After the workers’ council meeting at the Gandrange plant in northeastern France, members of the CGT union, who had been refused entry, fought briefly with members of another union, the CFDT. There were no injuries.

A group of CGT supporters then headed to the director’s office to tear it apart, journalists said.

ArcelorMittal’s Gandrange plant is facing a restructuring plan that would see the elimination of more than half the jobs from a workforce of 1,108 between now and 2009.

CFDT representative Edouard Martin said today that the only hope now was if President Sarkozy “keeps the promises he made to the Gandrange workers on February 4”.

Sarkozy said during a visit to the plant that the government was ready to use state funds, despite EU concerns, to invest in the factory “because our goal is to keep factories open in France”.