On Tuesday, an estimated 1,000 steelworkers from the company's plants in France and Belgium attacked the company's headquarters in Luxembourg, setting off smoke bombs and smashing windows in an effort to disrupt an annual shareholder meeting.
This week, the company announced that it would idle some steelmaking facilities in South Carolina and Indiana, laying off a total of about 1,200 workers. It also shut down its plant in Cleveland, affecting 1,450 workers.
Dan Boone, the vice president of the United Steelworkers in Cleveland, said that workers there can relate to the frustrations of its colleagues protesting in Luxembourg and Chicago.
"We are disappointed, frustrated and anxiously awaiting word when we are going to start up," said Mr. Boone. "But you are not going to see those kinds of violent protest here. It does make good business not to produce, so in business sense it is sound. We do not blame management."