By Diana Kinch Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES RIO DE JANEIRO (Dow Jones) -- Brazilian steelmaker Usinas Siderurgicas de Minas Gerais (USIM5.BR, USZNY), or Usiminas, is reshuffling employees in the interests of efficiency but isn't firing en masse, a union leader representing workers at the company's Ipatinga works said Wednesday. Usiminas's new management has decided to move about 1,400 maintenance workers from its capital-goods subsidiary Usiminas Mecanica, or Usimec, at Ipatinga in Minas Gerais state to the Ipatinga steelworks, Luiz Carlos Miranda, president of the Ipatinga Metalworkers' Union Sindipa, said in an interview. Around 800 of the total have already been transferred and around 200 jobs will be lost as a result of the move, mainly by natural wastage including employees entering retirement, Miranda said. Brasil Economico newspaper reported Tuesday that Usiminas was preparing to fire 1,300 people, of which 300 had already left the company with the remaining 1,000 to leave the steelmaker in coming months. Usiminas said it had no comment on the report and Sindipa said the report was untrue. In 2009, when Brazilian steelmakers Usiminas, Companhia Siderurgica Nacional SA (CSNA3.BR, SID) and mining company Vale SA (VALE, VALE5.BR) all laid off workers as steel markets slumped amid the global economic crisis, Usiminas decided to shift 1,300 maintenance workers from Usiminas to Usimec, Miranda said. Because this move wasn't entirely successful, according to the unionist, Usiminas's new management has decided to move the maintenance workers back to Usiminas's Ipatinga steelworks, where they will basically be doing the same jobs as before. Usiminas currently has 7,200 employees at Ipatinga and 6,500 at Usiminas Mecanica, Miranda said. The workforce is protected from layoffs by a accord between the union and the company, Miranda said. A Usiminas spokesman said he was unable to speak on labor questions at the steel company. Sindipa's Miranda said Usiminas's employees are reasonably satisfied with the new management at the steelmaker, following Latin American steelmaker Ternium SA's (TX) entry into Usiminas in January as a controlling shareholder. "The last four months have been better than the last four years," he remarked. Miranda said he understood plans may be proceeding to open Usimec's capital so that it may be traded on the Bovespa stock exchange as a separate company. Usimec is "doing well" because of new orders for capital goods and equipment needed for infrastructure work in the run up to Brazil's hosting of events including the World Cup in 2014, the union leader said. -By Diana Kinch, Dow Jones Newswires; 55 21 7564 4495; diana.kinch@dowjones.com
