Union and Corus chiefs to discuss plant future

May 15 2009 by Iain Laing, The Journal

UNION leaders are due to meet the boss of Corus today and hear the steel company’s plans for the future of its Redcar plant and the jobs of its 2,000 workers.

It follows yesterday’s ‘Steel Summit’ at Westminster, where Business Secretary Lord Mandelson and members of the All Party Parliamentary Steel Industry Group met with industry and union figures, including Corus chief executive Kirby Adams, to discuss Teesside Cast Products (TCM) and wider problems affecting the steel industry.

The meeting had been organised before last Friday’s news that 2,000 jobs at TCM, which is owned by Indian industrial giant Tata, are on the line after a consortium of buyers walked away from a deal they signed to buy 78% of its output for the next five years.

Lord Mandelson said: “We will work with the industry to take forward some of the key issues raised today. In the long term we need a new, more active industrial policy.

“New Industry, New Jobs sets out how a smarter and more strategic approach from Government – working with industry – can help us boost our capacity to commercialise new technologies, equip our workers with the skills we need and ensure that viable and innovative firms, and that includes the steel industry, can compete with the best.”

Steel industry representatives used the meeting to call for action to stimulate demand for steel, assistance with trade credit insurance, security for energy purchases and prices, and the retention of skills within the industry.

Michael J Leahy, of the Community Union which represents steelworkers, said: “We’ve put our case to the Government and to Corus that Teesside Cast Products cannot be allowed to close. Now is the time for action.

“We are meeting with Corus to discuss in more detail what can be done to save the 10,000 Teesside jobs that would disappear if steelmaking came to an end. Tata and Corus must honour their moral and social obligations to the Teesside community.”