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Corus workers’ show of steely determination

Jul 19 2009 by Coreena Ford, Sunday Sun

A DEFIANT community came together yesterday with one simple message for industry bosses . . . Save Our Steel.

Armed with placards and banners, 5000 steelworkers and their families marched through Redcar on Teesside over the looming closure of the town’s Corus plant.

The steelmaker’s Indian owners are threatening to close the plant because a consortium of customers has pulled out of a 10-year deal.

Unions say the closure will result in the loss of 2000 jobs at the plant, as well as another 1000 jobs elsewhere and bosses are now desperately trying to persuade the consortium to honour its contract.

The Save Our Steel March – organised by unions Unite, SIMA, Community, GMB and UCATT – saw young children and their parents waving banners, flags and placards emblazoned with the “Save Our Steel” campaign slogan.

Marchers included workers from the local port, and Teesside’s chemical industry, as well as steelworkers and their families.

Some banners took issue with the Government for bailing out the banks.

One read: “Mr Brown you have helped the banks, your MPs helped themselves to public money, now help us to Save Our Steel.”

It was announced in May that the Redcar Teesside Cast Products plant was to be mothballed, after a contract by four international slab buyers ended prematurely.

Redcar MP and Solicitor General Vera Baird – who joined marchers yesterday – jetted to Italy days later to present a petition, signed by 240 business people, to steel specialists Marcegaglia, which pulled out of a deal with Corus.

Ms Baird also wrote to Corus’ chief executive officer Kirby Adams as part of the efforts to re-open talks with the Italian steel boss.

Electrician Bob Stainthorpe – deputy chairman of the multi-union committee at the plant – spoke at the rally, which he said sent a “powerful message” to the Government.

The 58-year-old from Eston, Middlesbrough, said: “It just shows the public support we have.

“People came from all over the country to be here, and it tells us that we are not alone . . . it would be an absolute tragedy if nothing was done to save us.”

Talks to resolve the problems have been hindered by a slump in demand for steel.

Prices for slab steel, which Redcar specialises in, have fallen from over $1000 (£612) per tonne last year to under $300 (£183) this month.

Teesside Cast Products (TCP) staff are more than two-thirds of the way through a three-month consultation period with a view to wholesale redundancies if a solution to the business’ difficulties is not found.

Meanwhile, 428 redundancies announced by Corus at four Tees Valley sites includes 150 cuts at the Teesside Beam Mill at Lackenby.

Derek Simpson, Unite joint general secretary, said: “This march demonstrates that 150 years of iron and steelmaking in Teesside matters. “The loss of the Corus plant will rip the heart out of this local community.

“The thousands of workers at Corus must be supported in order to maintain a viable world-class industry in the future.”

Ian Miller, 33, was one of the Corus workers taking part in the march.

He said: “It’s important the plant doesn’t close. Gordon Brown needs to take notice because it would be devastating for the area.

Fellow worker Calum Anderson, 28, added: “Things are bad enough already.

“Everyone here knows the significance of our jobs, we’ll all be in a right mess if it happens. Yet another great British industry is dying off.”

Local MPs called on the Government to bring forward major projects which need steel to boost Corus’s order book while negotiations to find a buyer continued.

Meanwhile, community leaders warned that job losses would “dramatically” increase the number of children living in poverty on Teesside.

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