A journey of resilience and solidarity at the gates of the steel giants

(The author, Anand Pathanjali, is a Value Chain Campaigner who joined SteelWatch in January 2025, based in Johannesburg, South Africa.)

Earlier in May 2025, I joined the Advocacy Tour organised by Fair Steel Coalition as a representative of SteelWatch. The tour brought together 20 activists and CSO representatives from around the world, campaigning for accountability of ArcelorMittal and Ternium, the giants of the steel industry, whose operations raise urgent humanitarian, environmental and climate concerns. This advocacy tour was organised as the second edition of the 2024 tour, when Fair Steel Coalition was originally launched.

As a newcomer to the steel decarbonisation space, the experience was eye-opening. It revealed complex nuances and interconnected issues that these various organisations confronted at the grassroots, national and global levels. 

From the start, the goal was clear — holding steel companies accountable at the highest level for their environmental and human rights impacts, especially in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Liberia, Mexico and South Africa.

The coalition’s main targets were the companies’ Annual General Meetings (AGMs) in Luxembourg. But the two-week tour also included: filing a complaint to the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) against Ternium, meeting unions, engaging banks that finance these steelmakers, and pushing EU lawmakers to act for corporate accountability.

Since the beginning of the year, planning each step — stakeholder mapping, expectation alignment — wasn’t easy. But our shared commitment moved us forward.

After months of Zoom calls, I finally met the comrades in person in Luxembourg. Here’s a photo from our first in-person meeting. The smiles here reflect the trust and camaraderie among us. This moment also served as a tribute to our comrade Samson Mokoena from Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance (VEJA), a community leader and activist who campaigned on the Just Transition commitments of ArcelorMittal South Africa. Samson was part of the advocacy tour delegation last year. This year, we honoured his presence and his legacy after his passing.

Bearing witness to Zenica

The first event of the advocacy tour was the screening of “The Sky Above Zenica” — a haunting documentary film told through the lens of Professor Samir Lemeš, a resident of Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the leader of Eko Forum Zenica. I was deeply touched by the immense courage and tenacity of Samir Lemeš, who has worked for years to expose the deadly consequences of ArcelorMittal’s coking plant in Zenica. The plant, after decades of pollution, was quietly closed and sold off on 20 June 2025 ¹ — not for justice, but because the operations were no longer profitable and the company chose not to invest USD 38 million required to upgrade the ageing facility. Without a proper investigation to establish a causal nexus, largely due to socioeconomic conditions required for an independent health study, these residents affected by the plant’s pollution are now left in limbo. 

Following the screening, Pascal Hustings from the Luxembourg Due Diligence Initiative facilitated an insightful discussion with the audience, including a representative of the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies, members of the Luxembourg-Bosnian community, environmental defenders from the communities in Mexico and Brazil, and SteelWatch. Despite very different national contexts, the defenders explored the common experiences of corporate impunity and the challenge of holding companies to account for their impacts.

The screening and the discussion that followed brought a shared sense of urgency into the room. I was more ready than ever to go into the next day, the day of the AGMs, with an urgency to act, to stand together, and to hold corporations like ArcelorMittal and Ternium accountable for their actions.

Demanding justice for missing environmental defenders from Ternium

On 6 May 2025, the day of the AGMs in Luxembourg started early, and I met with the members of Fair Steel Coalition assembling near the bus stop of the Ternium headquarters. Ternium is a leading steel producer in Latin America and the United States, with the holding company registered at a building in Luxembourg. 

Ternium has ignored the calls for dialogue to address the issues raised by the communities since Fair Steel Coalition’s presence in Luxembourg at the time of its AGM in 2024. This year was no different. Without shareholder access to the AGM, the activists approached the headquarters building to request a dialogue with the company. Among them was young Keivan searching for answers. His father, Antonio Díaz Valencia, and the community’s legal representative, Ricardo Lagunes Gasca, both vocal advocates of land and Indigenous rights of Ternium’s mine operations in the iron ore Aquila mine, have been missing since 15 January 2023. 

Keivan and the other defenders were denied entry into the building and were not allowed to present their case. This triggered a surge of anger, pain and disbelief as the group was confronted by the reality that their voices were bluntly ignored, yet again. 

On the environmental front, Ana Luisa Queiroz from Politicas Alternativas para o Cone Sul (PACS) presented the dire conditions of the Santa Cruz community in Brazil due to Ternium’s operations. Aline Marins, a community defender from Santa Cruz brought ash deposits from the grounds close to the Ternium sites that had polluted the air of her community and the lungs of her people. When I held the vials of ashes in my hand, I was profoundly sad to see that the steel we use every day has such an impact on her community and the lives of people.

Since Ternium refused to meet with the coalition over the last two years, Alejandra Gonza from Global Rights Advocacy and the Seattle University International Human Rights Clinic, along with Keivan, announced that they have filed an OECD complaint against the company.

Challenging ArcelorMittal inside, outside and in the media on the day of its AGM

The headquarters of ArcelorMittal was our next stop. The world’s third-largest steelmaker, producing iron and steel in 15 countries, was holding its AGM amid growing criticism for backtracking on decarbonisation projects in Europe and elsewhere. Fair Steel Coalition members — including SteelWatch, Eko Forum Zenica, VEJA, groundWork from South Africa, Green Advocates Liberia, and Tsikini of Mexico — held official and proxy shares to attend the AGM and raise concerns over ArcelorMittal’s backtracking on climate and environmental commitments. 

I was among the members who attended the AGM — my first to be precise. It was a tense moment despite the underlying excitement of confronting these officials face-to-face. Among only a dozen attendees at the AGM, the activists’ voices were heard loud and clear. Some of the questions raised by these organisations can also be found in the AGM minutes, on which SteelWatch has published its own reflection. 

SteelWatch released “Backtracking on Climate Action: ArcelorMittal Corporate Climate Assessment 2025” on the same day. The report was a product of our monitoring of the company’s climate performance over the past year — leading us to affirm our key message that ArcelorMittal was failing to live up to its previously claimed ‘climate leadership’. 

And that is what attendees of the AGM and passers-by of ArcelorMittal’s headquarters witnessed — a powerful dance performance symbolising the corporate backtracking and the absence of accountability. 

After the AGM, ArcelorMittal senior representatives sat down with the coalition members in a closed-door meeting. This meeting had previously been arranged, but with visible pressure mounting on the streets, the company allocated more time than previously agreed. The same senior representatives had ignored the coalition’s communications for several months — and now strongly voiced that this had to be the beginning of more meaningful engagement with communities and civil society. 

Everyone in attendance reiterated concerns about the company’s broader pattern of weak standards and lack of community engagement. ArcelorMittal made a verbal commitment to follow up and engage on specific issues.

Hope and despair from activists in Africa

The day of AGMs was action-packed, and as the days went by, our reflections in meetings and over drinks continued. I spoke to Mduduzi Tshabalala from VEJA and John Nimly Brownell from Green Advocates Liberia to get a sense of their reflections from the AGM. Mduduzi, who represents the community in Vaal, South Africa where ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) recently announced the closing of its long steel operations, seemed tense and worried. 

He said, “There is a lack of transparency and accountability from the headquarters in Luxembourg regarding what’s happening on the ground — especially the rehabilitation and the environmental concerns of its Vanderbijlpark site.” With no transition plans in place for its 3,500 workers and the communities, he fears they might be left in limbo. 

For John, who represents the communities in Nimba, Bong and Grand Bassa counties, where ArcelorMittal Liberia (AML) has its largest mining operations on the African continent, there is some contentment as he was able to raise the concerns around grievance mechanisms and fair compensation for community members. But he remains concerned about how transparent AML will be with regards to these processes, and hopes to continue the conversation with both ArcelorMittal headquarters and AML.

After this long day of protests and listening to the different activists, what clearly strikes me as lacking in both these steel companies is commitment, accountability, and transparency. I believe ArcelorMittal is heading in the right direction by re-engaging with Fair Steel Coalition, but Ternium chooses not to; it is now its liability at stake with the OECD complaint having been filed. Maybe there is hope in despair after this advocacy tour, after all.

Moving forward

I departed from Luxembourg to join the SteelWatch team and attend the global CSO steel decarbonisation gathering in Italy, where I was eager to share my experience. The advocacy tour continued with meetings in Brussels, Paris, and Amsterdam, where coalition members met with Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), and banks were urged to push for accountability from the steelmakers. 

One of the direct results was a letter from the Green Party MEPs addressed to the French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron, calling for strong support of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). Fair Steel Coalition has been part of 360 CSOs demanding stronger regulation on corporate accountability towards human rights and environmental protection. 

During this tour, the coalition not only addressed the concerns of their local communities but also made progress in advancing the broader collective message of CSOs in the Global South — a true demonstration of determination and solidarity!

As someone who took part in the tour — hearing stories, learning from one another, sharing pain, but also standing together in solidarity — I believe this is why strong, coordinated civil society coalitions like Fair Steel Coalition are essential. 

I was strongly reminded of the African proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Not just to hold steelmakers accountable, but to ensure the global voices demanding real climate justice are heard, amplified, and acted upon.

A luta continua.

End note:

1.  The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2025, subject to merger control clearance and the fulfilment of all conditions precedent. ArcelorMittal announces sale of Bosnian operations