Aid package for axed steelworkers

Steel workers are braced for bad news

The government and Welsh Assembly has announced multi-million pound aid packages to help retrain 6,000 steelworkers axed by Corus.

Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers has pledged a combined figure for both England and Wales of £135m.

Corus job cuts

LOCATIONS

Llanwern - 1,340

Shotton, Deeside - 319

Ebbw Vale - 780

Teesside - 234

Bryngwyn - 127

Strip products - 200

DIVISIONS

Head offices - 400

Construction and Industrial - 1,086

Engineering steels - 390

Tubes - 298

European Market Unit - 292

Electrical steel - 276

Special profiles - 46

Special strip - 35

Rail 27

Corporate centre - 200

A total of £66m will be made available to help the 3,000 workers in Wales - £50m from the assembly, topped up by £16m from Westminster.

Every worker will receive a lump sum of £2,500 towards retraining.

Mr Byers said the government understood the "bitterness" felt by workers, after union officials and Corus chiefs held their final meeting in London to discuss the redundancies.

In Wales, First Minister Rhodri Morgan revealed a £66m package to help nearly 3,000 Corus steelworkers.

Up to £50m will be focused on regenerating communities hit by 2,500 job losses at Llanwern, near Newport, and Ebbw Vale.

Revealing details of the package, Mr Morgan echoed union attacks on the Corus cutbacks at Llanwern, Ebbw Vale, Shotton and Gorseinon.

"Sadly, this whole episode highlights the short-term thinking of Corus management and their disregard of the communities that will be devastated by their job cuts and closures," he said.

Sir Brian Moffat: cushioning blow

The aid package includes training opportunities and support from the Employment Service.

Mr Byers said that the payment would be backdated to all steel workers axed since January 2000.

In Wales, some £5.75m is being given to education quango ELWa (Education and Learning Wales) to provide specialist training.

Suppliers hit by Corus's cutbacks will be offered £2m under the scheme to help find alternative business.

The Welsh Development Agency will also be increasing its campaigns to highlight inward investment opportunities provided by the availability of hundreds of skilled workers.

Corus had earlier rejected alternative job-saving proposals from the unions and said it would press on with the closure of the Bryngwyn and Ebbw Vale in south Wales and the slimdown of Llanwern, near Newport, and Shotton, in north Wales.

Following the showdown meeting in London, ISTC union leaders said they would be consulting the workforce on possible industrial action.

The regeneration programme follows three months of talks with the unions and the government which ended this week with steel boss Sir Brian Moffatt telling MPs that not a single job had been saved.

Announcing the aid package, Mr Morgan said: "I am totally confident that the communities involved will ultimately come out of this in a better position than they are now on the basis of new skills, new jobs and a better quality of life.

Corus - an Anglo-Dutch company formed by the merger of British Steel and Hoogovens - has said it needs to cut production to get back into profit.

The management claimed the problem was too much steel industry capacity in Europe, so any moves to keep the plants open under union ownership was not viable.

Corus announced it was cutting the jobs on 1 February - then its annual figures were published showing losses of more than £1bn.