Steel threat talks 'encouraging'

There are 1,920 employees at the Teesside plant

Union leaders say they are encouraged by the speed of the response to a threat to mothball a Teesside steel plant which has nearly 2,000 workers.

Steelmaker Corus said it may be forced to make the move at Teesside Cast Products (TCP) in Redcar.

On Tuesday, a response group including the company and trade unions met up and pledged to try to land contracts.

Site multi-union chairman Geoff Waterfield said the early response to the announcement was "encouraging".

Corus made the announcement after the early end to a contract by a consortium of international steel slab buyers to buy just under 78% of the plant's production for 10 years.

Following its Tuesday meeting, the response group said it would look at every possible option to support Corus in its bid to find new orders for the company

Consortium talks

Mr Waterfield said: "As far as the workforce is concerned we are happy, we're grateful at the speed of the response team.

"Coming so quickly on the back of the announcement on Friday to get a number of people together so quickly is encouraging for a start point."

He said the priority was to have talks with the consortium to understand the rationale behind its decision and to try to broker a deal.

Mr Waterfield said the initial reaction from the workforce had been one of shock and now there were many questions about the future.

He said: "The pressure, the emotions that each and every one of the families on that site are feeling now are absolutely horrendous.

"People are very, very concerned what this year is going to bring for them and how they are going to cope."