The Observer Hopes of a secure future for those British steelworkers left after last week's savage job cuts by Corus were dashed last night as it emerged that the company has ruled out future capital investment in its UK plants. The Anglo-Dutch giant announced that 6,050 jobs would go in a wholesale restructuring of its UK operations. The move was presented as a 'line in the sand', removing the need for further widescale plant closures or redundancies. However, The Observer has learnt that Corus chairman Sir Brian Moffat told unions at a meeting on Thursday that future capital investment was not on the company's agenda, and that spending would be kept to a minimum.
Unions now believe many UK plants face 'death by a thousand cuts'.
The unions say this points to further closures in Britain. Their fears focus on what remains of the integrated plant at Llanwern, the Newport works and the massive Teesside plant - and on redundancies among the 22,000 workers who will remain after 2002. The latest cuts package will end production of crude steel at Llanwern and shut down the Ebbw Vale tinplate works and rolling mill. There are further redundancies at Shotton and Bryngwyn in Wales and on Teesside. Moffat refused to rule out further job cuts when he unveiled the plan in public, and his briefing to the unions makes it appear inevitable.