Steel unions reach day of reckoning

The unions want to halt steel job losses

Unions representing steelworkers in Wales are preparing to present Corus with plans to save 3,000 jobs.

Representatives travelling to London to meet management on Tuesday will be offering to pay part of the steelworkers wages until market conditions improve.

Steel has been the backbone of Welsh towns

They hope to persuade company bosses to give the threatened plants a year-long stay of execution.

Corus revealed heavy losses of £1.15bn when it published its annual results earlier this month.

The move is being seen as a final attempt by the unions to preserve the jobs of its members and prevent plant closures.

Corus announced in February that more than 6,000 jobs were being axed across the UK.

Aid package

Wales was to be worst-hit, with the Ebbw Vale and Bryngwyn plants being shut down altogether, and the workforces at Llanwern and Shotton drastically slimmed down.

Following talks with the government, the Welsh Assembly and the European Commission, the unions are proposing an aid package worth up to £90m - most of it going towards reducing Corus's wage bill.

Some of the money would come from the public purse in the form of training grants, and the rest would be made up from union funds.

An immediate response from the company is not expected.

Ballot for members

Local managament at the plants affected have already dismissed the unions' job-saving proposals.

Unions have already discussed the possibility of balloting members on industrial action if Corus turns down the package. plan.

Up to 1,300 workers at Llanwern face losing their jobs and they have already voted to consider striking.

A committee of MPs last week criticised Corus in a report over its poor management and failing to involve the government in key talks over job cuts.

But the MPs concluded that little could have been done by the government to prevent thousands of job losses in Wales and the UK.