Cartel Alfa trade union federation said on Thursday, March 17, that nearly 2,500 employees of TMK Artrom - one of the largest industrial pipe producers in Romania and Europe - cannot receive their salaries due to the blocking of accounts in the context of sanctions imposed on Russia.

The accounts of TMK Artrom Slatina, a manufacturer of industrial pipes for the oil industry, and TMK Resita, which produces steel for TMK Artrom Slatina, are frozen due to sanctions imposed on Russian billionaire Dimitri Pumpianski, who controls the TMK group. Because of this, the 2,350 employees of the two TMK entities in Romania did not receive their salaries in March, according to representatives of Cartel Alfa, Adevarul reported.

Cartel Alfa officials claim that TMK Artrom is no longer owned by Russian oligarch Dimitry Pumpyansky - who sold its shares on March 3 to "a group of TMK Steel managers (Cyprus)".

"The owner of Artrom is no longer Dimitry Pumpyansky or any other Russian citizen, since March 3, when he transferred the shares of a group of TMK Steel managers (Cyprus). On March 10, 2022, when Dimitry Pumpyansky was nominated on the list of Russian investors against whom the measures taken by the EU are directed, the transfer of ownership was already registered in the Cyprus Trade Register," the unionists claimed. 

andrei@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Facebook/TMK Artrom)