Vinton Officials: Steel Plant To Layoff Workers

EL PASO — Arcelor Mittal’s Border Steel facility in Vinton has laid off 151 employees, according to company officials.

Officials said 110 of the workers that were laid off were only temporary workers. They cited this as the reason Workforce Solutions Upper Rio Grande was not notified ahead of time.

By law, any company who lays off more than 50 full-time positions has to notify the state and the local human resources office.

“We met with officials last week and discussed the layoffs,” said village spokeswoman Jessica Garza. “We were assured that it would be short term until the economy comes back.”

Arcelor Mittal officials assured village leaders that they would try to reduce the number of layoffs by trying to move people into other positions, Garza said.

Company officials also said at last week’s meeting that they would use the gap in production to upgrade the plant with plans to re-open at a later date, according to Garza.

Vinton Mayor Madeline Praino said the company is the biggest employer andcontributor to the local tax base.She is optimistic the companywill make good on it’s pledge to rehire the workers.